[Hooded Singer]

 

[Gill]

Well the more time you put in song writing the more chance that you will eventually find a melody you like. But I try not to force it as I believe the best melodies actually do come from inspirations or sudden realisation as cliché as it sounds. So keep it balanced 

[delb0y]

Yep, you've got to sit down and work it. That's the way of the professional. Not saying that's the way I do it... But with any art form the hard work comes before the inspiration.

[adamfarr]

I think there's a technique to spotting song concepts in life - non-writers pass them by or forget them - writers think oooh, "there's a rosemary tree next to a barbecue" (or one guy in a suit on a plane full of tourists or whatever) and have a way of not letting it slip. So inspiration also needs practice for the ideas to flow... (To actually answer the question, inspiration strikes me quite easily. The sifting and developing parts are where the discipline comes in)...

[Darren1664]

I do set aside time to write but I never get much done without inspiration. I find that inspiration cannot be forced but it can help to set aside some time to look at, read over, analyse your songs (and other peoples).

I think through songwriting experience you can develop a style and learn to know what words etc work for you melodically and lyrically. This can mean that when inspiration strikes you can become much more efficient at taking that inspiration and turning it into something you're happy with.

I find quite often I write out of emotion and when the emotion has passed I can't seem to get back where I was. Life being life I will inevitably find myself feeling the same way in the future - I just have to hope I have my guitar in hand when it does.

[Jenna]

I started this by picking up the guitar after having put it down for a number of years. My goal was to learn how to write my own music, so I started an object writing group. I pick a word of the day and write free association for about ten minutes starting with that one word.

Seeing some of what came out of those writing sessions, my guitar teacher encouraged me to start writing lyrics so that's what I did. Now the lyrics come easier than the music. I don't have the 'feel' of music like I did in my youth. The words come easier. And when I revise them, reorganize them, put them to a meter, rhyme structure, tell the story, and keep rereading it, melodies start to emerge. I can sing those to my instructor and he can pick out the chord progressions. We've not gotten farther than that up to now, but I hope to take this all the way and finish some songs.

There's one song I hear in my head down to the vocal harmonies, thundering drum rolls, and flute flourishes, but I have no way of making it real.

[CaliaMoko]

There's one song I hear in my head down to the vocal harmonies, thundering drum rolls, and flute flourishes, but I have no way of making it real.

Do you have a way to record? I have Audacity and Reaper both on one of my computers, and I'll sometimes record the lead vocal line and go back and record harmony lines. Then maybe you could find someone to help you add your thundering drums rolls and flute flourishes. ?? 

Maybe something like that would work to get you started on it?

Vicki

[Jenna]

I have Mixcraft, and I can get the vocal down. It's the embellishments in the background that will escape me. Boohoo. Mixcraft does have a number of alternate instruments, but I'm very new to it and haven't yet grasped how it all works. In the time it takes me to figure it out, all memory of them will fade. Still, they're a far cry from the real instrument, as much as they've improved things.

[CaliaMoko]

I suggest getting your vocals down (can you strum a guitar enough to accompany yourself?). In my case, I might generate a click track, lay a guide track with guitar and vocal, then lay a guitar track by itself, then turn off or delete the guide track and click track. Then lay a new lead vocal, and then the harmony vocals, one at a time.

Then I would export it (without the guide track or click track) to an mp3 file and post it on the "Works in Progress" board explaining what I have and what I wish I could do with it. Some would even suggest posting it on the "Finished Songs" board, because you would have finished writing it and gotten it as far as you can by yourself. And more people read the "Finished Songs" board.

Then maybe someone would say something like, "I can hear just what you're talking about! Do you mind if I try to add some percussion and flute?" Maybe that would happen. It could. It wouldn't be the first time. This is a very friendly forum community, and members are often interested in helping.

Just some thoughts, in case you're interested in trying something like that.

Vicki

[Jenna]

Okay. I would be willing to give that a go. Great suggestion. I need to move myself to learn this software anyway. I had gotten everything set up to do this type of thing, then got wrapped up in a college program to train for another line of work. Now in the middle of the job search, I find myself picking this up again to occupy my time. I have just one question: What is a guide track vs. click track?

[CaliaMoko]

A click track is just a track that your DAW should be able to generate for you. In Audacity, I go to the "generate" tab (or whatever it's called) and select "click track". Then I get a menu that gives me options, like speed, number of beats per measure, how many measures (I just guess at that one, making sure I put plenty so I don't run out before the song is over). I think in Mixcraft you could turn on the metronome? Or maybe create a drum loop (that might sound better than the metronome??).

I don't know if it's an official term, but what I meant by a guide track was to play guitar and sing the song all the way through. You end up with a track that has both the guitar and the vocal on it together, and you can use that as a guide to lay a guitar track by itself. If you want to add harmony vocals, it's better to have guitar and vocal separate, so you can adjust all the tracks individually once you have them done.

Does that make sense? And if you want to keep getting deeper into the production, you can keep adding the other tracks you want, experimenting to get them to sound the way you want. I have not been especially successful with this plan, but I have gotten so I can get my vocals recorded to a guitar track. It's a start.

I'm not certain I explained that in an understandable way. Feel free to ask more questions!

Vicki

[Jenna]

You explained it very well. I can picture what you're saying perfectly fine. Mixcraft automatically has a pop-up screen to create a click track whenever you open it. Then to create the song, you lay down the other tracks individually. It has 10 available instrument tracks and 10 available vocal tracks (at least that's what I think they're for, but go by another name).

What I need to get is a midi keyboard. If I had one of those, I could easily use it to access all of the optional instruments. The computer keyboard access to the instruments is a bit of a pain to use. Unfortunately, that bit has to wait for a new job first. It's coming, though. I can't imagine having to peck out each individual note and beat through that mechanism. Oy.

[CaliaMoko]

There might be another way to get your instrumental tracks, if you can import existing midi files. I use both NoteWorthy Composer (about $50) and Encore (more expensive than NoteWorthy) to generate midi files. As I noted, NoteWorthy is less costly PLUS it is easier to get a clean midi file with NoteWorthy.

You need at least a rudimentary of understanding of how to read music to input the notes, but if you have that, you might be able to use NOteWorthy, or something like it, until you can buy a midi keyboard. You would input the music, export your midi file, and import into Mixcraft. It'll sound a little mechanical, probably, since there's no variations like you get when you play "live", but it would be a start.

Vicki

[Jenna]

I've seen you mention Noteworthy. I have MuseScore. Does it function the same way? I do know how to read music.

[CaliaMoko]

I'm not familiar with MuseScore, but I looked it up and it seems to indicate one can export midi files from it. So it should work. Get your track or tracks into MuseScore, then export each track as a midi file. Might require some experimentation. But I think it's likely it would work.