Travis Dickerson Recording Studio Forum

I love music... I listen to alot of it, in all genres. I can\'t seem to get enough. And I can\'t help but wonder if I could write music as well.

I play guitar and have a basic understanding of music theory, but I have no idea where to even start when it comes to actually writing music/melody. I\'ve surfed the web many times and so far no site offers anything even slightly helpful. "Listen to other songs. Learn scales." What?! I\'ve done that.  Not helping.

How do you write music? Is there a good method I can use to get started? I hope other musicians read this, music is very mysterious to me.

Solar,

I can only read Tab and chords...

Tabulated Music goes like this,
---------3-4--------------11-------
-------2-----5---------10----------
-----1---------6-----9-------------
---0-------------7-8---------------

thee above was no chord it was what it could with what was closesed to me at the time (namely Ukulele).

google Guitar Tab and bands name and see what you find.

Chords are still tricky for Me, I HIGHLY SUGGEST THE BOOK
Guitar Chord Bible by Phil Capone Chartwell Books INC,this is the best thing I have seen, so far.

Enjoy

Chris DiCico

I... I know how to read tab very well. I\'ve been playing guitar for a long while and I\'m pretty good. What I was asking was how do you write music? You know, compose a song? Is there a trick, a method? Just a way to start would help me out.

Ah Feet!

well Western songs are written in 4/4 or 4 beats for every rhythm.

being a former drummer (another life) it was was 1-2-3-4...

so onward  to greater things.

if I missed your question once again and your asking about the strike, accent, clef, Andante? or Fugue? then I really cant help you.

Chris DiCicco

dude, there is No one way of making tracks, its like a finger print.. no one does it the same..

i am an expert on lucid dreaming so when i awake from my dreams my tracks are basicaly written for me....

either that or my home made computer software programe makes music for me whilst i spend more time on gardening or having a jolly time with the women

personally i start off with a chord or a bassline and go from there in a perticular key then change things about a bit, THEN WRITE THE DRUM tracks in as well, but now i basically just type in heximorphal universal code and it does it all for me..

all at 1 time i can be doing 6 diffrent things spontainously..

then there is pre production

and post pre production yah dah ya dah

Just mess around until you find a neat riff to build off of, then see what key its in, add in some chords, and do whatever with it, I guess. Start with writing blues songs because they\'re easy to do. ex. uh, how bout I IV V, using like G, C, and D 7th or 9th chords. I\'ll assume you know the old 12 Bar. So like four bars G, two C, two G, 1 D- 1 C, 2 G, repeat. then add in some licks here and there. and BAM you are done.

I\'m messing around with Salsa and Afro Cuban (Son Montunos) and New Wave Riffs for Rhythmic Patterns and other things, I mainly rely on the sound first then I find the rhythm.

sorta Backwards I know but it works.

I am still leaning the other way slowly, orchestration is a fine way to go if you (Me) are (Now) one.

Thee others have it, WAY BETTER then I...

Look at the two posts above.

I don\'t know who matt is?, but My dealings with Moss have ben great, till I overloaded Him with My Crazy Musical Output (fzzz)...

Chris DiCicco

I am matt. I registered like a week ago.

QuoteI don\'t know who matt is?, but My dealings with Moss have ben great, till I overloaded Him with My Crazy Musical Output (fzzz)...

nah its nothing to do with that, its just im EXTREMELY busy these days

Just fiddle with simple riffs and then build on it. Also, when i am trying to work out a song, i often find myself writing another song through mistakes.

I know nothing about writing music - so this is kinda out of place but...  I once watched a show in which Elton John said all words have a melody.  Someone in the audience gave him a copy of the play Peer Gynt.  He opened it to a random page and wrote a melody to the words while everyone watch in amazement.  I couldn't find that particular clip, but this one is just as good and funny as well.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAmtiXP3Thw

o.k.

here goes what I learned last week in my Bass Lessons...

enjoy!

5 String Bass
----------4-----------------------------------
---------------4------------------------0----
-------2-----------2-----------0----2-------
----------------------------2----------------- (repeat)
-----------------------------------------------

anyone know what this is? I may have written it wrong but its the riff for Pink Floyd\'s Money.

hope this helps somewhat, I also learned the A major scale but I contracted a mindfart with that one... pthfp

Chris DiCicco

Dude, google it, i m sure there is a lot of info about how to write songs, here is a link i found: http://www.musicbizacademy.com/articles/songwritingtechniques.htm

Also listen to yur fav artists and disect the songs, should give you a clue how they do that.

Good luck and plz post us your songs when you wrote them.

Take care buddy.

It helps if your using a metronome or drum track
Come up w/ a chord progression or use or modify an existing progression then noodle around till you come up with a riff or melody.  It helps if you have something to record yourself with.  Even if it\'s just a tape recorder from yer boombox.  
 I improvise 99% of the time.  Some of my best ideas would be gone if the recorder wasn\'t going.  Play with different people to bounce ideas off of.  Play different instruments so when you go back to your main instrument it will be fresh.  Even doing something non musical like painting will help yer music.
  You can also turn down the volume on a movie and play along with the way the scenes move for ideas.  Most movies move the same way a song might.  Kids can be great inspiration as well as old folks.  
  Study music history blues, jazz, and music from across the pond.
  Put yerself in a musical situation out of your norm.
 If none of this works, DO NOT resort to hard drugs!

My way of writing a song is either  start off with a song title or I play around with some chord progression, until I hit something I like.
Recently I found this inspiring site of songwriting techniques  http://songwriting-techniques.blogspot.com.
Especially I love those uplifting stories about songwriters.