Songwriter Forum > The Writing Process
My Writing Process
jacksimmons:
This idea is massively inspired by Darren1664's thread - entitled A New Song - My Writing Process - which can be found a little further down the board. All credit for this goes to him. Like him, I've decided to document every part of my writing process from initial conception to final home mix. The resulting song will end up on the album I am currently working on and in my live sets - hopefully!
I hope to shed some light on my process because 1) it sounds like a generally cool, fun way to write a song, 2) it will help me better understand how I construct a song and improve my future song writing and 3) it may help other burgeoning songwriters that are stuck or don't know how to start.
When I first started writing songs, hearing what other people were churning out was incredibly daunting. I will be posting here absolutely every step that goes in to writing and recording one of my songs in order to shed some light on the whole thing. I hope this helps some people with their own writing.
All comments and feedback greatly appreciated.
*****
So first things first, a basic concept. These three recordings were made on my iPhone a few days ago, the first with nonsense lyrics and the second with a set of temporary lyrics. These will be used as a starting point to construct the entire song around. Between the first and second recordings, the melody at the end of the verse has changed.
https://soundcloud.com/blues101/basic-concept
Lyrics:
Pulled in to a lay-by for a cry
Saw you on the back of the Sunday Times
Everybody's looking for a good time
But you do it on my nose
Darren1664:
Hey Jack
Fab that you're giving this a go. It will be really interesting to hear your process and hopefully pick up some tips :)
I found it difficult to do and somewhat gave up in the end. I think that having to try and track all the changes became cumbersome for me. I tend to pick up my guitar willy nilly and progress ideas in a haphazard kind of way which, of course, doesn't work so well when I have to remember to hit record on my phone :P. I also found that there is one part of writing a song that I couldn't quite capture and that is what I will call here the simmer phase. Some songs just come out and write themselves. Others seem to need to time to simmer and after a while I come back and find a new direction. My song/thread is currently in this phase. I actually listened to an earlier version of it which I much preferred to its current form so will go back to that I think.
Anyway...
I listened to yours and I am instantly impressed by the difference between the initial idea and the second take. You took a simple-ish idea and with your strong vocal just made it really interesting, you have a great vocal. I'm really drawn in and interested by this so will be keeping tabs.
Thanks for starting this mate
All the best
Darren
PaulAds:
Great idea, fellas!
I’ll be watching with interest, as something similar has been going through my mind lately...
Martinswede:
Cool!
I like the concept. After reading Darren1664 posts I got more understanding of how I write.
Recording and getting the melodies pinned down seems like a good idea for me to embrace. I easily forget.
Good luck!
Martin
jacksimmons:
I have decided to give this another go, since my last attempt fizzled out and I ended up abandoning the song. This is a song I got the idea for last year and luckily I've recorded every step so far. Some of the audio I'm gonna share is...not intended for public consumption, but I think that is the spirit of this thread. Hopefully you guys find this useful or interesting, or maybe amusing haha. I think of it as like a How's It Made for one of my songs.
Georgie Wants to Be A Pop Star.
Initial Idea.
As with almost all of my songs, I start with a single lyric that I like, and it's from a conversation between my and my boyfriend. I am prone to fasting and bad dieting - going days or weeks eating very little - and he says it's not healthy. I agree and say: "It's not about living long, it's about looking good." That becomes the first line of the song.
One.
I find a key I like and write the melody for the first line. This time it happens to be the first line of the first verse that I had, but more often than not it is a chorus that comes to me first. Here, the tempo, melody, structure and genre are undecided and will be informed by my experimenting around the initial hook. As can be expected, this results in lots of unused melodies, bad chords etc. Below are the first initial few recordings. By 1.46 on clip one I have settled on a tempo and verse structure that is close to how the song ends up but is still very rough.
By the end of the clips, I have stumbled on the main melody for the verse and chorus, I just don't know it yet through all the other stuff. I also have a title character - Georgie.
Two.
I write the chorus melody with the name 'Georgie' in it, probably because I am reading Stephen King's It at the time and the main character's brother is called Georgie. I have decided the song is about me: I want to be a pop star, but I use the name Georgie because a) it isn't as on the nose as using my actual name and b) it sounds nicer and fits nicer with the chorus melody. With that in mind, I write the first set of lyrics:
It's not about living long it's about looking good
It's not about taking drugs it's about skipping food
And hanging out in Salzburg with a sad look on your face
Watching all the wheels go by
Georgie's crying 'cause he wants to be a pop star
Georgie's crying 'cause he wants to find it in his heart
To be a lover 'cause he needs to be a lover
Georgie wants to be a pop star now
Georgie wants to be a pop star now
I have also written a set of chords to serve as a musical break, and an ending with la's I am imagining a big crowd or choir singing to fade out. I now have the basic structure of the verses, the choruses, the middle 8 and the ending, with all the chords and some lyrics. To get to this stage has taken roughly a week. This is quite indicative. If an idea is any good it usually takes about 3-7 days to get here.
Three.
With the melody firmly in place I can complete the lyrics. This can take a long time for me because it is something I chip away at gradually, though sometimes they come quickly. With this particular song I am in no rush to record it. I have just begun work on my 80s album and know it doesn't belong there. With that in mind, it's a few months down the line before I eventually complete the lyrics.
It's not about living long it's about looking good
It's not about taking drugs it's about skipping food
And hanging out in Salzburg with a sad look on your face
Watching all the wheels go by
Georgie's crying 'cause he wants to be a pop star
Georgie's crying 'cause he wants to find it in his heart
To be a lover 'cause he needs to be a lover
Georgie wants to be a pop star now
And on the hottest day in June he looks for somewhere to go
They won the footie and took to the streets in their Volkswagon Carrados
He just stared at his continental and thought about Abbey Road
How the tape reels went round
Georgie's crying 'cause he wants to be a pop star
Georgie's crying 'cause he wants to find it in his heart
To be a lover 'cause he needs to be a lover
Georgie wants to be a pop star now
Georgie wants to be a pop star now
La la la la la la la
La la la la la la la
La la la la la la la x2
I have changed the odd chord here and there and moved the last line of the chorus to the second chorus only.
The song is finished! I do a quick version for myself on my iPhone so I don't forget it, but I don't usually do this. It goes on the back burner for a year or so. Today I have started recording the track for my next album, where I think it belongs. Updates to follow!
Some notes on lyrics: The airport in the first verse was supposed to be Schipol where I have actually been, on a work trip to Belgium as described in the second verse. Schipol sounds horrible sung, so I changed it to Salzburg. I'll always lose the facts to accommodate the song. The line "to be a lover 'cause he needs to be a lover" in the chorus was most probably inspired by It, too - in the recent film someone gets 'loser' scrawled on their cast and they modify it to read lover. Nothing else to it, really.
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