Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Writing Originals

#1

Here’s a quick question for @Dragonslayer and all you guys who have written originals.

So I am essentially a musical robot; a musical copy-machine if you will. A lot of people might think I’m a typical creative musician, especially since I play by ear, but I actually just synthetically copy whatever I hear and rearrange it in semi-creative ways.

Of course, ever since I started playing guitar 5 years ago, I have been trying to write songs. I mean, that’s just what you’re supposed to do as an amateur acoustic guitarist; you write some originals. But over 5 years of trying to write instrumentals (or lyrics for that matter) I have come up with nothing… and I actually mean nothing. Not “nothing good”, not “nothing I’m happy with”, I mean literally nothing.

I can come up with random chord progressions, sure, but no kind of melody or cohesiveness at all. I can just start playing around with chords and licks on four different instruments, but I always end up subconsciously playing some song or melody I’ve heard before, I guess because I’ve so immersed myself in pure listening and tried to absorb everything I can. This resulted in good competence for improvising solos on the fly, but leaves me with no abstract creativity for melodies, etc.

So you who come up with your own melodies and lyrics, do you use a process, or do things just pop into your head?

Actually, it could be that every good song has already been written, because surely there’s a limit.

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#2

It’s happened different ways for me.

The one thing that holds true in my writing is that I was working toward it and keeping it in mind.
I had a legal pad full of ideas, possible titles & jotted down lyric bits that I would look through every once in a while.

One song was written right when I awoke form a vivid dream at 3am…it was all there and I couldn’t write fast enough to get it all down before it faded, but I did get a whole song out of it.

Another: My friend made a statement while we were hanging out and I answered that I would write that down because it was a great song title & idea…about 6 years later I wrote the song…Once I put together a few lines and it came to me that they would fit with the chord progression of an old Don Stover tune the rest came fairly quickly.

One I wrote for a friend before I figured out chords or melody.

One I had the chorus & melody written for ~10 yrs before I added verses &a chord progression. When the verses came it was all within a couple days of the chords. This one I sweated out & attacked as a project for a band I was in to play.

The few instrumentals I’ve created grew mostly from a lick or practice routine of some sort…the tune was meant to force learning that idea (or several newer ones) better.

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#3

Hey Michael, since there is none responded except for @Fiddle_wood, I think you’re above a level from most of us no matter how copy-creative you think your efforts were! I tend to think within a genre of music, you can only be so much creative or improvise. Rearrange, mix & match is how you use your imagination while also adding something entirely new in the mix. When you go out a genre of music, maybe you have more to explore.

Here is a song sung by a world class drummer kid. The song is in a different language, I can’t understand it except in bits and pieces as the root of this language is my mother tongue. Check it out. It’s a completely different type of music and it seems to be a hit but it appears to be lot of things are taken out from elsewhere. But together it is a new and unique piece.

What the song talks about is, With anointing and authority, a new generation will rise up! Kingdoms and nations will be under this. etc. I couldn’t understand further.

#4

I went through a period where I had to learn a few songs every week. It wasn’t bluegrass, but I think the things I noticed apply to most music. One of the things that I noticed was that there are really only a few chord progressions that get used a bunch. YMMV, but for me, a good starting point for writing is to see what kind of chord progression matches the feel of the song I have in mind. I can start with a melody and find chords as well, but recognizing these common progressions even helps when going that way. Here’s a few common progressions that come to mind (and I’ll add an example in G for each):
1 4 5 (G C D) or finish with the 1: 1 4 5 1
1 4 1 5 (G C G D)
1 5 6 4 (G D Em C)
1 6 2 5 (G Em Am D)
1 4 6 4 (G C Em C)

The above is not authoritative and not complete. Typically, I will find a good idea from a “typical” progression. But you can also get away from the norm with those as a starting point. Just going through those above while writing them (and playing to confirm), it sparked a progression that I am sure is not original, but it sounds kind of neat to me for a slower song:
6 2 5 1/3 4 2 5 (Em Am D G/B C Am D)
Now I can push it around a bit… I am not crazy about the last 2 chords… try F#dim7 for the next to last? Maybe something is there, but where to go after that? I also use lots of different voicings and alternatives. Instead of starting Em Am, what about Em2 Am7?

Just some rambling thoughts on how things sometimes work for me. Good luck, we’re all counting on you!

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#5

Thanks guys… see I can come up with unique chord structures no problem; it’s cohesive melody that leaves me scratching my head. Actually, when I read a song-like poem I can whip up a tune to it in a few minutes, and occasionally vice versa, but I never am able to come up with one without having the other first.

I’ve written plenty of sequences of chords that I could play rolling banjo backup to, but rolling backup doesn’t make a song. I actually really never think about melody itself that much when I play songs, though I can play solos over the target notes.

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#6

I don’t think that is unusual. Elton John (and many other musicians) get lyrics form someone else and then put it to music. Some folks get a tune first and then come up with lyrics. My suggestion for you is if you want to write, just force yourself to do it. If it’s not good, you can fix what you don’t like (or start over). If you realize it is a copy of someone else’s song (I once wrote a song called “Thank heaven for unanswered prayers” :open_mouth: ), discard it and you won’t write that one again. I think you will only get better by doing it.

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#7

Thanks, really that’s what I’m trying to do. I try to force myself every day and I get nothing… I don’t even get junk! I mean, if I could get junk I could work with it and improve it, like I do with solos. It’s essentially trying to break muscle memory- I’ve ground so many songs deep in my mind and I always end up playing them after one measure.

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#8

Bit late, but I honestly don’t have any good input. I can write tunes fairly reliably, but I can barely improv over an existing tune. I find it easier to play something right if I get to decide what’s right and what isn’t lol. If you ever figure out the secret let me in on it, cuz I want to know what it is!

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