{songwriting} how do you do it?

Campestral · 16th May 2009, 11:36pm

how do you escape from the cliche? i was listening to springsteen and it seems so easy but then i realised it's not so much everything being right it's more everything sounding right but i keep mixing them two up

i need to post this cause i want to hear from other songwriters, how do you get past the cliche ever when a song can sound ok it must be hard to drag yourself away from it and make something original that reflects what you're saying

check out this idaho for what i mean, it's a simple progression with the bass doing the melody but i can't escape from the cliche! i would love to be able to throw some crazy chords in there like coltrane but that brings me back to my point, when you write music do you start off with a cliche and try to develop it or do you start with an original idea and try to work that into what you know? or is it even daft askinig an artist how you go about your work?

hey i wish i was a poet like bruce cause this song would sound alright it's up to you, isn't life a cliche heh we're all the same ok shoosh just chill out and listen man

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...songID=7607554

Campestral · 16th May 2009, 11:58pm

ok the universe needs a balance lol

YouTube - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano...

Campestral · 17th May 2009, 12:14am

wow

YouTube - Steve Vai On His Audition for Frank...

**djtoast** · 17th May 2009, 12:16am

i dunno anything about songwriting, i just came into the thread to compliment you on the fancy brackets in your thread title. no mere utilitarian square bracket action for you, no sir.

Campestral · 17th May 2009, 12:19am

it's nature does it. where the fuck is posh when you need him? wait a minute you're a dj! who is your favourite songwriter?

YouTube - children of bodom - she is beautiful

**djtoast** · 17th May 2009, 12:56am

robert smith of the cure. incredible dude.

Campestral · 17th May 2009, 12:58am

post his best song

**djtoast** · 17th May 2009, 1:14am

this'd probably be a contender:

Quote:

"Disintegration"

oh i miss the kiss of treachery the shameless
kiss of vanity the soft and the black and the
velvety up tight against the side of me and
mouth and eyes and heart all bleed and run in
thickening streams of greed as bit by bit it
starts the need to just let go my party piece

oh i miss the kiss of treachery the aching kiss
before i feed the stench of a love for a younger
meat and the sound that it makes when it cuts
in deep the holding up on bended knees the
addiction of duplicities as bit by bit it starts
the need to just let go my party piece

but i never said i would stay to the end so i
leave you with babies and hoping for frequency
screaming like this in the hope of the secrecy
screaming me over and over and over i leave
you with photographs pictures of trickery
stains on the carpet and stains on the scenery
songs about happiness murmured in dreams
when we both us knew how the ending would
be...

so it's all come back round to breaking apart
again breking apart like i'm made up of glass
again making it up behind my back again
holding my breath for the fear of sleep again
holding it up behind my head again cut in deep
to the heart of the bone again round and round
and round and it's coming apart again over and
over and over

now that i know that i'm breaking to pieces i'll
pull out my heart and i'll feed it to anyone
crying for sympathy crocodile cry for the love
of the crowd and the three cheers from
everyone dropping through sky through the
glass of the roof through the roof of your mouth
through the mouth of your eye through the eye
of the needle it's easier for me to get closer to
heaven than ever feel whole again

i never said i would stay to the end i knew i
would leave you with babies and everything
screaming like this in the hole of sincerity
screaming me over and over and over i leave
you with photographs pictues of trickery
stains on the carpet and stains on the memory
songs about
happiness murmured in dreams when we both
of us knew how the end always is...

how the end always is...

Campestral · 17th May 2009, 1:21am

hah that's why i love the cure 'cause they use the bass as a melody

**djtoast** · 17th May 2009, 1:24am

yeah, not like new order, but the basslines are very very melodic.

here's another one i love - his playfullness with language is charming in a kinda naive way

Quote:

High

When I see you sky as a kite
As high as I might
I can't get that high
The how you move
The way you burst the clouds
It makes me want to try

When I see you sticky as lips
As licky as trips
I can't lick that far
But when you pout
The way you shout out loud
It makes me want to start
And when I see you happy as a girl
That swims in a world of magic show
It makes me bite my fingers through
To think I could've let you go

And when I see you
Take the same sweet steps
You used to take
I say I'll keep on holding you
My arms so tight
I'll never let you slip away

And when I see you kitten as a cat
Yeah as smitten as that
I can't get that small
Tthe way you fur
The how you purr
It makes me want to paw you all
And when I see you happy as a girl
That lives in a world of make-believe
It makes me pull my hair all out
To think I could've let you leave

And when I see you
Take the same sweet steps
You used to take
I know I'll keep on holding you
In arms so tight
They'll never let you go

Dec · 17th May 2009, 4:08am

Beat, Bass, Chords, Melody, Structure

The rest is easy.

CHUCK LIDELOL · 17th May 2009, 4:11am

Usually when I'm struggling to maintain an erection my best lyrics come to me.

**djtoast** · 17th May 2009, 10:31am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dec

Beat, Bass, Chords, Melody, Structure

The rest is easy.

really? i would think many people go

{... ... ... structure ... ... ... ...}
[melody], [bass/chords], [beat]

at least in their heads, whacking it onto a sequencer or onto paper putting the beat down first gives you a framework to put the rest in but i don't think i'd be able to grow the other elements out of a beat as opposed to finding a beat that suited the rest, having already gotten some melody fragments and a way to harmonize 'em.

Joe Spinebuster · 17th May 2009, 10:47am

Write a riff, show it to the guitarist, then say to my drummer, "HERE, AH THINK YE SHOULD JIST GO, LIKE, DUN DA DUN DUN DUN DUN DA DUGGA DA DUN, KNOW WHIT AH MEAN?". Melodies are for poofs. I am my generation's Dylan.

**djtoast** · 17th May 2009, 11:45am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Spinebuster

Melodies are for poofs.

i guess it varies; with lyrics that are "WWWWWWOOOOAAAAAGGGHHHHHH, WWOOOUUUUUUUUGGHHHHHHHH, WRRRROAAAAAAGGGHHHHHH" the melody takes a back seat for sure.

unless you're lumidee riffs, chords and melody tend to imply each other so there's maybe not so much difference which you start with i suppose.