Songwriter Forum > The Writing Process

Does a musical instrument influence the way you write a song?

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PeteS:
I start all mine with an acoustic, but how I use it depends on how I see the lyrics and what sort of song they inspire in me.

I usually get an idea down with the acoustic and then work out how I want it to sound.  Shocks Neil (lyricist) when he first hears an acoustic demo and it comes back as a synth fest  ;D

I can't really play piano, although i can hit a few chords and pick out a melody line but on the odd occasion i've tried starting there it's been a disaster!

So to answer the question, I don't think it influences my final sound but I am a guitarist first and foremost so everything has a guitar influence anyway.

Dazzathedrummer:
I have noticed over the years that whenever I ask a guitarist to 'send me some of your ideas', most of the time, I hear very straight 4/4 strumming chord patterns using fairly standard chord sequences and 'V-C-V-C-solo-Br-C-C' structures.

When I ask the same from keyboard players they tend to be a lot more 'far-out' with syncopation, modulation, time signature changes etc etc.

It can be quite fun to find somewhere in the middle!

ASecretMeaning:
I'm a guitarist first, and play keyboard to a basic level.  So in trying to find a sequence it tends to be much more varied using my guitar.  If I start on the keyboard it tends to be based around C.  As someone else said, on keyboard it tends to be a syncopated pattern.

I play in a covers band, and when I first started writing songs I was always thinking about what could be played by the band - this restricted what I could do. Now that I have no intention that it will be played by my band I am free to use as many tracks or virtual instruments as I need to make it sound how I want.

I can tell you that with almost any record you hear on the radio from any band there is more going on than the band could actually do live without additional musicians.

cowparsleyman:
@ASecretMeaning - very interesting to read, many years ago i went through a phase of recording covers, which was a complete waste of time, my wife said i like your songs much better, i know how those other people’s songs go why do faff about with theirs when you could do better with your songs, so i did and I’m so pleased i took her advice.

The logic is infallible, even if everything goes perfectly, you’d only end up with an exact copy of what’s already there...

5 guys named Lars:
I'm sure it does have an effect. I think that learning to play a new instrument can lead to happy accidents which can spark an idea or feeling. Think this is true of trying a new guitar or synth too.

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