Forum Closed
The forum is now to new posts. All the historical content is still available to browse.
if you are looking for musicians to play with, please view the Bands Seeking Musicians list, or use the Musicians Directory
You can use our pages on social media to connect:
musicians...a question
| Message Board > Music Chitchat - General ( Indie, Jazz, World, Electronic etc.) > musicians...a question |
| MajorMajorMajorMajor User Info... | what kinds of things inspire the lyrics you write and the music you construct? Lately, I've been finding myself stuck, running over the same old grounds I've been over before. do you think it's alright to force yourself to change your sound? or should it just come natural? - Tue, 14 Aug 2007 9:06pm | ||
| Aidan Logins User Info... | LSD. - Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:08pm | ||
| MajorMajorMajorMajor User Info... | word. - Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:32pm | ||
| Tyler User Info... | try new things. write songs about dishwashing, literature from the 40s, beating the second castle in zelda 2, sweet and sour pork. not all songs have to be about love, friendship, social views, politics, women, partying, etc. if your lyrics are getting too cheesy or direct, try to make them a bit more vague. try playing a new instrument. think of something creative and different. get stoked on something new and try to do something that will make other people feel the same way. - Wed, 15 Aug 2007 6:57am Edited: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 6:58am | ||
| DTjackson User Info... | Well, you definitely want to vary yourself. It may come down to creating stories and characters. Instead of commenting on what is happening now, create something that hasn't happened. - Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:30pm | ||
| darcy User Info... | I usually write about what I feel. Haha, that might not very clear, but "It's so vauge it works!". Obviously we all feel things, and we usually feel very strongly about things, so why not put it down on paper. For me, when I make a song, I usually write it out as poetry or lyrical poetry first, then change it if I can find a track that would work. as my life experience would have it, I usually draw from two main pools. My work and life as a socialist-activist: songs relating to social structures, events, and people, and my life as an improviser: songs from this pool tend to be entirely driven on story or character, and can be pretty long. - Wed, 15 Aug 2007 1:58pm | ||
| Aidan Logins User Info... | "literature from the 40s" yes! Get inspired by other mediums of art, from other people. My big one is nature, because I live right by the ocean out past Sooke. One time I wrote what I saw into a song: 4 otters rose up about 10 feet apart, forming a square. And 6 little baby otters popped out from the middle. The biggest otter dove down and came up with a huge salmon in it's mouth. Then, from the sky, a big eagle swooped down and stole the salmon out of the mouth of the otter, and came and ate it in a tree right in front of my window. Take some time out and discover the wilderness. - Wed, 15 Aug 2007 6:53pm | ||
| Gare User Info... | I found it shocking how helpful forcing myself to write every day was. I made it about 6months and since thrown out most of it.... but it helped me way more then I let myself think. - Fri, 17 Aug 2007 5:32pm | ||
| Kayamar User Info... | I just start sritting random words when I get stuck. Pick the ones that sound the best, and throw them in the song someplace where it sounds good. Then I just fill in the blanks in between them. If there is no music going along with it though I usually just keep on tossing in random words untill full lines start to appear. - Sun, 14 Oct 2007 11:52pm | ||
| mica User Info... | online thesaurus and rhyme dictionary helps a lot too. i find that when i write, about eighty percent turns out to be shite...but that other twenty percent makes it worth it for me. a mini recorder is sure handy too; good lyrics seem to pop up at the least opportune times! - Mon, 29 Oct 2007 2:27pm | ||
| mark User Info... | Get out and see things, meet new people, do things, you will find the inspiration will come. I took almost a year off of writing anything until I got sick and my balls swelled up, so I wrote a song about it, about working a 9 - 5 job, about people around me, and the stuff is "rap"(I'm not a rapper). It opened up an unexpected can of worms. This is from a guy who has sung in pop rock bands my whole life. Don't let yourself be labelled by one thing, one sound, one look, one anything, let it come naturally. http://www.reverbnation.com/krazmofo - Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:45am | ||
| sealioni User Info... | pick up the paper and write about something you read. Look on the news. Sit in a coffee shop and write about what people might be talking about. A cartoonist I used to read in NYC decades ago did every strip based on real life overhead conversations. - Sun, 11 Nov 2007 12:01am Edited: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 12:03am | ||
| omnivious User Info... | Write about something and/or someone you: love / hate / don't understand / couldn't live without. Write about the best and worst experiences of your life. Write about something or someone you think is absurd or fantastic. Write about something or someone profound or that affected you profoundly Set your favourite poem (by another writer) to your own music. Observe other artists and/or craftspersons at work and write down your thoughts. Write about Joy (what are you most passionate about? what gave or gives you the most happiness). Write about sadness (what experience hurt you most). Write about something you know could be better if it were done the way you suggest. Write about something you regard as perfect. Write about something you think is very wrong. Lennon and McCartney used to make up nonsense songs, often with meaningless lyrics which they replaced once they served their initial purpose of establishing rhythm and melody. It sure seems to have worked well for them. Browse a dictionary and try to use your newly acquired words. Open books at random and compile any phrases that immediately hold your attention - later, use your compilation of quotes as resource material for lyrics. Consider word association, where you spend 10 minutes writing down words you like and the other words they bring to mind. Later, mix and match, cut and paste and edit. Cut up and mix and match words from all your previous songs (or favourites by other artists) and rearrange them to form new ideas. Write about being frustrated not knowing what to write. Consider composing an instrumental (no lyrics) piece. Take a break from wondering about writing and go outside for a long walk in beautiful, natural surroundings or engage in some vigorous physical work or recreation. Tell someone important to you that you love them and really appreciate all they do for you and the others in their life. Read and perform the exercises in Julia Cameron's book, "The Artists Way." Read books about overcoming writer's block. - Thu, 6 Dec 2007 2:30am Edited: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 2:38am | ||
| ROSS B AY User Info... | booze. - Thu, 6 Dec 2007 4:33am | ||
| _Griphin_ User Info... | Good Answer!!! - Fri, 7 Dec 2007 12:00am Edited: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 12:00am | ||
| Sati User Info... | Its good to see someone mention the artist's way. Its a zillion years old but its impressive how much excellent info it contains. I don't just recommend it for "artists" but for anyone with any kind of creative blocks. booze is also good. - Fri, 7 Dec 2007 12:10am Edited: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 12:11am | ||
| K.C. User Info... | Do what Dylan did: write about someone you hate. they're called "finger-pointin' songs". It's never hard to come up with a lot of words. - Wed, 19 Dec 2007 8:02pm | ||
| Andrew User Info... | "Do what Dylan did: write about someone you hate. they're called "finger-pointin' songs". It's never hard to come up with a lot of words. " lol - Wed, 19 Dec 2007 8:46pm | ||
| Andrew User Info... | this thread's pretty white. - Wed, 19 Dec 2007 8:47pm | ||
| DTjackson User Info... | How many bitches you have. How many people you've shot. What area code you are from. The weight of your necklace. Write a lot of songs about your death...then fake your death and release a lot of music. Then people will hear it and go "Holy shit, he knew...". Oh yeah, and how the west coast is totally more hella gangsta [or something] than Newfoundland and Labradour. - Thu, 20 Dec 2007 1:39am | ||
| Andrew User Info... | that's more like it . - Thu, 20 Dec 2007 4:25pm | ||
| Pierce User Info... | I am fucking blown away that someone called it by it's proper name, Newfoundland and Labrador, fuck. - Sat, 29 Dec 2007 8:33pm | ||
| dirtstyle_trainee User Info... | I find that when I write things I end up working phrases that have significance when you look at them as a whole or examine the individual meanings of the words, but when you look at an individual phrase it is not immediately clear what I was talking about. It almost seems like I was saying a whole lot about nothing, because the meaning is so deeply engrained in the entire piece that it doesnt burst from the surface at a single glance of a word. it's like an incomplete sentence. I find typically those lines are what catch people, and sometimes I have been asked, what did this passage mean, what was your intention by wording it like that? People will get their own vision and ideas from your words, so by making your music as expressive as possible you allow individuals to interpret your music in their own way. rather than your typical repititious, say the same thing 8 times because I couldnt write anything else thought provoking. when I hear an instrumental piece I dont want to hear the same chord progression more than twice in a song and the same goes for vocals; I dont want to hear the guy sing I'm lonely for two minutes of a 3 minute song. A friend of mine argues that everything has been said a hundred times over and in a way he is right, so maybe instead of thinking what should I write about, think: what has no one written about? - Tue, 5 Feb 2008 10:33am | ||
|
|||
Not logged in
Log In / Register (optional)
Featured Events
Featured Historical Events
Featured Article
Newest Profiles
Haute Curations
We sell original giclee canvas art prints to businesses
Victoria BC
Open / Operational
Arts On View Society
The Arts On View Society continues to operate Hermann's Jazz...
753 View Street Victoria BC
Open / Operational
