Songwriter Forum > The Writing Process

Increasing my output

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LeoVK:
Once I have a song that I am happy with...a chord progression, some melodies, reasonable lyrics etc...then I will work away on it happily and have lots of ideas for arrangements and so on.

However, it's coming up with these starting points that I am having trouble with. I still only have a handful of fully fledged songs. I have a folder on my PC which is jam packed with bits n bobs of ideas for riffs that I have never really been able to find a home for...normally because I have brushed them aside for being "not good enough".

More often than not, when I sit down with my guitar, I will start playing a few progressions for a while that I think sound alright...but then I get this voice in my head that says "Nah, this is a bit too simple" or "I've heard this somewhere before", which then results in me getting in a strop, putting the guitar down and having a coffee and a cigarette instead.

I want to know if there is anyone else that feels like this sometimes and, if so, how do you overcome it? If I start to get a bad feeling about a song or chord pattern,  should I stick with it, add to it and see if it turns into something worth hearing, or should I be feeling really good about it from the outset for it to ever turn into a decent song? Perhaps I am expecting too much from my songs at an early stage?

Not sure whether I have articulated this very well, as it is late and I'm a bit tired. Let me know if that doesn't make a whole lot of sense!

The Corsair:
I always have a massive amount of unfinished lyrics and snippets of ideas sitting on my iPod. Every so often I'll magically fill out an idea and finish one of these songs. After a while (about 3 months) I do delete the unfinished ideas simply because by then the inspiration is generally too far away to be tapped back into.
Basically, the snippets you have can probably be worked into something bigger, either as a feature or a tiny part. Just wait a bit and keep trying them out. Also, it doesn't matter if sonething is 'too simple' because most of the people who hear your music won't know whether it's simple or not but they will know if it sounds good.

Ramshackles:
I will generally come up with hundreds of ideas before producing a song. Many of these will come and go in the space of minutes, others will sit unfinished for ages, others which I think are finished will just be forgotten. I doesnt annoy me, its just part of the process. Have you tried going through your ideas and trying to stick them together? A few of the songs I write are really 2 or 3 song fragments that have been adjusted to fit together

tone:
You have to learn to let go and trust the process. Each of us has a different creative pace, and yours may be slower than someone else's. But then your songs might be better, too.

Having ideas you don't like or can't use is an essential part of the writing process.  It's unrealistic to expect every idea to turn into a great song, and throwing away the not-so-good ideas helps to make room for the stuff you really want to work on.

With regard to an idea being too simple, I'd say don't be too quick to judge. Some of the best songs I know are incredibly simple when you strip them back to their bare bones.

Good luck on your writing journey :)

The Corsair:
That's a fair point tone, though it can be equally good to build the other way. I've had the odd experience with starting a whole song from an acoustic riff or chord progression and building up from there, figuring out the vocals and how everything fits in. It basically creates a song that can be heavily built-up but sounds down to basics. panic at the disco's Pretty Odd is a great example of an album done this way.
I think in LeoVK's case, this method of creating music could be incredibly powerful as he has a very techno sound in his music which often makes it difficult to get down to basics from a fully worked out song.

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