The Songwriting process

[kidsmoke]

a buddy of mine and I have been working on duet sets for an open mic that I put on every month. Mostly covers, but he has written a couple of things, and it's a great process to go through. He put the pressure on me to write something.

I have a chord progression I'd come up with a while back, and would loop it and solo over it, and I've come up with some decent riffs, I've played it with friends while messing around, and they come up with good stuff too, so the progression lends itself to that pretty well.

I rolled it out, and my buddy quickly came up with a "bridge" progression, which works well. So now it's able to be structured as a song. I'm excited to have come up with something that doesn't immediately sound like some other song.

now, lyrics. I am completely blank of how to begin to put something together. I typically can write well, but have never written a song. The music definitely has a mood to it (pretty upbeat) and I can think of topics, but the structure isn't coming.

This is what I'm wondering....do you find that solo's often follow the melody of lyrics...and so that lead melody that I like should act as template of sorts for the lyric "structure"? What do you use when trying to put lyrics to music, or vice versa?

[guitargrizz]

Well the good thing is that you already have the music. It's much easier (in my opinion, may be different for others) to write lyrics to music instead of writing music to lyrics.

What I would do is sit there in your element, so to say, and listen to the music you wrote. Literally go into your own little world. I started off doing it this way, and I do it this way to this day (however many years later). What does the music make you think of? after a few minutes of doing this, you'll have your topic or first line to start writing your lyrics, and this will hopefully and most likely inspire you to come up with other lyrics that fit the mood you just created. Once I've done this, I get my guitar, I get my pencil and paper with the one line I just thought up on it, and I start playing the music on my guitar. Try to sing that first line you came up with to the music your playing on the guitar. Play and sing at the same time. If you're not use to this, it may be tough at first, but just like anything else, it just takes practice. Don't get frustrated. Keep practicing. Once you get it down, lyrics will come to you. You'll establish the rhythm and melody of the song you wrote, and you'll know just how many lyrics to write to fit the music.

Lyrics are the toughest part of music for a lot of people to write. It's all poetry and creativity, man. Explore life, keep an open mind towards everything, and let the music create the lyrics. It's all about having your emotions inspiring you to get them out onto paper.

Hopefully I helped a little bit.

[kidsmoke]

thanks for the feedback, grizz.

That's kinda the approach I've been taking. I looped the acoustic progression, then added the lead over it with my 35 on the neck, kinda jazzy, nice attack, and I just have it playing over and over and over while I putz around, thinking about topics. my kids, my girl, the 104 yr old neighbor I help care for...the dogs, politics, Brady's inability to win a big game in January.... Hoping some facet of one of those things will give me fodder. Trying to steer clear of well worn paths....