Munta's Step By Step Songwriting..., Thought I'd Share Options

[muntahunta]

This lesson would have been a video lesson and posted in the "aspiring instructors" bit of the forum if I had a better digital camera.

I have decided to write this songwriting lesson to share my methods of songwriting with all the good people here at GMC.
I am going to be using acoustic guitar to write this song and it's most likely to end up as a soft acoustic song. Nothing Fancy

First thing is, for this lesson I wont be using any advanced theory (probably no basic either).
Also, I will be starting with no ideas, no thoughts on a subject for the song and no name. Im starting from scratch.

The first step that I go for is the music. Alot of people start writing lyrics or think of a song title to inspire them first (and im not saying theres anything wrong with that), but I prefer to write the music first as I think it's easier to write lyrics that match the music.

So, on we go...

Im going to start by writing a basic structure for the song, I WILL change the structure later, but this way I have a guide of what parts of the song I need to write.

Heres my template structure for now...

Intro
Verse
Chorus
Riff
Verse
Chorus
Chorus
Outro

Now I am going to write each part of the song a chord structure.
I'm not going to be using any sus4's or whatever else chords there are... Its going to start out as basic chords (Am, E, D, etc) then evolve...

To write a part, just play some chords with a rythm thats in time, we can always change the rythm later if we want.

 1.mp3 ( 219.59K ) Number of downloads: 611


in my first try, I liked the Em that I played but wasn't too keen on the rest.
This time im going to double the amount of time I played the Em and play a different chord after it.

 2.mp3 ( 344.49K ) Number of downloads: 523


In the second try, I really liked the D and C that I played following the Em. the F on the otherhand was a bad choice... back to the drawing board.

 3.mp3 ( 344.49K ) Number of downloads: 458


I liked the G at the end, however theres still something missing to finish it off, i'm going to play around more until I find something I really like.

 4.mp3 ( 344.49K ) Number of downloads: 474


Ok, i've managed to get a nice set of chords... Em, D, C, G, A.
I think that part sounds good as a verse, however maybe picking it might sound better as I want the verse to be quieter than the chorus.

 5.mp3 ( 344.49K ) Number of downloads: 500


For the above I just played around with different picking patterns till i got something that sounded ok.

Now I need to repeat the process to write a new chord progression for the riff/chorus/intro/outro.

...

After playing around for a while I have decided that I am going to keep that chord progression all the way through all of the parts in the structure... however, doing that makes the verse and chorus sound indifferent so I am going to insert a prechorus which will build up to the chorus.

The song structure now stands like this...
(the numbers are the names of the recordings I have uploaded throughout the post.)

Intro
Verse - 5
Pre-chorus
Chorus - 4
Riff
Verse - 5
Pre-chorus
Chorus - 4
Chorus - 4
Outro

The prechorus will need to be "heavier" than the verse... I am going to use the process I used for writing a chord progression to do the same for the prechorus.

 6.mp3 ( 344.49K ) Number of downloads: 471


Ok, i'm not too sure what I just recorded will fit into the prechorus so I am going to play the verse then the prechorus then the chorus.

 7.mp3 ( 969.39K ) Number of downloads: 481


I think that works... It adds an eerie feel to the song. notice how the rythm of the chorus changed now that I have added a pre-chorus.

ok, heres where the structure stands at the moment.

Intro
Verse - 5
Pre-chorus - 6
Chorus - 4
Riff
Verse - 5
Pre-chorus - 6
Chorus - 4
Chorus - 4
Outro

We need an intro (which will probably be used as the riff too).
Lets keep it over the same rythm we used for the verse (the picking)
I'm just going to use the process we've used throughout the post... just play and see what sounds good to your ears!
This time i'm not going to post all the riffs i come up with, im just going to post what I ended up liking.

 8.mp3 ( 969.39K ) Number of downloads: 482


I'm happy with what i've come up with for the intro. I will probably play that twice through before going into the verse.

I'm going to have the Intro, Riff and Outro all the same... heres the structure.

Intro - 8
Verse - 5
Pre-chorus - 6
Chorus - 4
Riff - 8
Verse - 5
Pre-chorus - 6
Chorus - 4
Chorus - 4
Outro - 8

after playing all the parts together, by the time it gets to the last chorus it's a little repetative so i'm going to add something near the end... maybe a breakdown, solo or bridge.
I think adding a breakdown and solo between the last 2 chorus' then adding another chorus before the end would be a good idea.

Intro - 8
Verse - 5
Pre-chorus - 6
Chorus - 4
Riff - 8
Verse - 5
Pre-chorus - 6
Chorus - 4
Breakdown/Solo
Chorus - 4
Chorus - 4
Outro - 8

now we need to write a breakdown... you know what to do .

heres mine...

 9.mp3 ( 969.39K ) Number of downloads: 483


I think that going into the chorus riff for the solo would be awesome.

Intro - 8
Verse - 5
Pre-chorus - 6
Chorus - 4
Riff - 8
Verse - 5
Pre-chorus - 6
Chorus - 4
Breakdown/Solo - 9/4
Chorus - 4
Chorus - 4
Outro - 8

now what I do is record the entire song with just the rythm (and little bits of lead like the intro/riff bitt)

That will be done soon, for now i'm off for some food.

------------------------CONTINUED-----------------------

ok, this is the recording of all the rythm parts. its 7 mins long! (dont worry about the quality, its all just a draft for the moment and hasnt been mixed at all yet.)... kinda reminds me of the quieter stuff iced earth do (i died for you, watching over me, when the eagle cries, etc)
notice how i've changed the picking part a little to fit into the song better. i've also added a few hammer-on's/pull-off's here and there. if you follow the structure below you'll notice the parts changing.

Intro - 8
Verse - 5
Pre-chorus - 6
Chorus - 4
Riff - 8
Verse - 5
Pre-chorus - 6
Chorus - 4
Breakdown/Solo - 9/4
Chorus - 4
(i've removed a chorus here due to it being so long)
Outro - 8

 rythm_finished.mp3 ( 6.27MB ) Number of downloads: 446


i know alot of it sounds the same, but thats what the next part is for.
we get to note down which parts were singing over, put a solo in, and add lead parts to make parts sound alot more different.

The first thing that needs changing is the solo/chorus part of the song. it need "beefing up".
theres a few ways i know of doing this... adding harmonized guitar riffs in the background, adding a solo over the last chorus, add some more picking riffs, etc... just beef it up in general.
time to go try it.

 solochorus.mp3 ( 1.55MB ) Number of downloads: 482


above is the solo/chorus part... ive improvised a solo on acoustic but i plan to do a totally different one with an electric guitar later on.
as you can now hear, the riff in the background gets harmonized by a new guitar every 8 bars. the first 8 in the solo has just the rythm, then the riff comes in, then when the chorus kicks in its being harmonized, then halfway through the chorus an octave of the riff kicks in... thus giving the effect of building up.

its starting to look like a song now. all that needs doing is to make the bridge that little bit heavier by adding another guitar... then were on to writing the solo/lyrics/vocal melody.

heres my attempt at beefing up the bridge... its basically just palm muted guitar (works well with heavier songs, just thought i'd throw it in here as an example... still sounds ok )

 breakdown.mp3 ( 334.29K ) Number of downloads: 429


sounds a bit heavier yes?

ok, heres the full song so far WITH an improvised electric guitar solo... i think the solo sounds pretty cool.

 fulltrack_with_solo.mp3 ( 6.27MB ) Number of downloads: 597


now all thats left is the vocals/lyrics... which I find the hardest part so it may take a while for me to get some ideas... basically what im going to do is sing along with the music to get the melody and just adlib till I find something that I really like.

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This post has been edited by muntahunta: Mar 11 2008, 04:31 PM