Writing Originals Poll - Guitars101

El_jalepeno · 03-07-2006, 06:41 AM

I thought this would be a good poll to help others out on how people approach wiriting originals. :thumb

**Mondy** · 03-07-2006, 06:42 AM

Well, you know what thought did, don't you ?

No ?

Well, it started a poll thread, and thought it had added the poll, but it turned out it hadn't !!!

El_jalepeno · 03-07-2006, 06:45 AM

Weird... I didn't even submit the thread until the poll was done, but you already responded! Well, the poll is there now so please share your thoughts!

**Figs** · 03-07-2006, 06:46 AM

Most often a guitar riff first, but sometimes lyrics first. I'm not sure which may or may not work better.....

**Mondy** · 03-07-2006, 06:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by El_jalepeno

Weird... I didn't even submit the thread until the poll was done, but you already responded! Well, the poll is there now so please share your thoughts!

Bollox ! I look a reet tit now !

**Mondy** · 03-07-2006, 06:52 AM

I can't vote on this one, as I have never been able to write an original. Well, not a decent one anyway.

I "wrote" one original. I basically wrote it around a riff and had the lyrics ready to go already.

The lyrics were written around a lyric idea that popped into my head:

"Cuz you're the one who caused me the pain...
...and it's coming back to haunt me again"

It was called, "Now You're Gone", and I posted it in the Originals at one time, but it ain't there anymore.

The only other one I have ever written was when I woke up with lyrics in my head.

I was really young and just wrote them down. I then went round to my brother's house and he forced me to sing them straight away to a chord progression he already had. He whopped a one take solo onto it (one of his best, he now confesses) and that was that.

Strange, cuz even though it was simple, short, and sweet, we all found ourselves suddenly singing it every now and then.

If I remember rightly, the lyrics were:

"Even though you're living, so far away...
I'm still thinking of you, every day...

I never meant to hurt you so...
I never should have let you go...

But now, that I've done it...
I can't hurt you anymore..."

So as you can well see, I am not qualified to participate in this poll, cuz I suck bad !!!

**Avalon** · 03-07-2006, 07:00 AM

Personally i start with a riff (its not always on guitar), i make a test drum pattern, add some bass (and what ever else im thinking) then have a jam on it, i find i get more idea's like that.
Also jamming on various drum patterns can be good for coming up with idea's sometimes too.

**ironman1919** · 03-07-2006, 07:04 AM

Guitar riff first but sometimes a lyric idea and a small part of the vocal melody will inspire the guitar part.

wxs3 · 03-07-2006, 07:10 AM

I always start with a riff. I actually wrote Autumn in reverse, the jam at the end was written first, then the actual song Autumn and a third part that is on the cd called Prelude. I didn't include Prelude as I felt that it would have made the entry too long and may bore some folks.

Rythameen · 03-07-2006, 08:09 AM

Okay, I've never actually finished one, but every time I start one, it begins with a riff.

Goport · 03-07-2006, 08:18 AM

kind of a generic vote for the guitar riff. Most of mine start from just an idea of a tune and I scratch it out on guitar, but it is not so much a riff as basic chords. I find the more basic I keep the guitar track the easier it is to write a melody line for guitar and also make the bass an vocals define it. That said I also like to write on the keyboard too (my new toy

) but I am still very much a beginner on this.

Lyrics come once the mood and feel of the track becomes stuck in my head. I would like to say I have a clear image in my head of where the lyric is going but I normally start off ad libbing a few phrases until I get one that feels comfortable and start writing a verse or two. then I look at what I have written and I am pretty brutal. Mostly all of my lyrics go through 30 or more rewrites. somewhere around the first 6-10 I start storyboarding the track in terms of what the song is about and from then on I just keep on fine tuning the words. To me the lyrics are the most important thing I guess.

Flet · 03-07-2006, 09:16 AM

In truth, half of the time it's with a riff, the other half of the time it's something in my head.

AxemanRGM · 03-07-2006, 10:58 AM

Most of the time it's with a guitar riff. Sometimes I challeng myself to write something with certain notes or chords. I have to force myself to get out of "A" & "E." Sometimes these riffs can be inspired by an existing riff - maybe it's a mistake I made while playing another tune & that gets me started. Sometimes I just hear stuff in my head - in that case I usually hear the entire ensemble - even a vocal line (occassionally).

I have a song called "Last Call For Rock-N-Roll" where I challenged myself to write using the same notes as the intro to "No More Mr. Nice Guy" - I've always loved that riff & that little succession of notes & wanted to write my own version of it. Those same notes are also used in the Bevis & Butthead theme. I'll post that song here sometime soon & see what y'all think.

snabald · 03-07-2006, 11:12 AM

Usually, I hear the song in my head first. Then I play around with my guitar until I figure it out. Many times I will hear the solos and bass tracks, drums everything. I will then sequence the bass and drum parts, and then sometimes record a live base guitar (that is just like the sequenced one) I have a hard time playing the bass parts if the guitar isn't already there.

I can think of only one song I have written that started out as a riff...

ozzyman527 · 03-07-2006, 11:13 AM

Guitar riff, my drummer is a very good drummer, he is something special, when I play a riff, he plays drums for it, and somehow just knows what I want and what to do where, so it makes it a lot easier, and makes the song better.