Songwriter Forum > The Writing Process

A revelation (for me, at least!)

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Jamie:
This morning whilst lying in bed I had a revelation.....steady ;). I am reading a book called Beyond and Before by Paul Heggarty and Martin Helliwell (University professors). It's a very geeky academic book about the Prog rock genre. It's roots, history, inspirations etc, so not for the casual reader. BUT, in reading this very thought provoking book it made me think about how I write and record my songs,AND I had the aforementioned revelation!
From the beginning, which is only a few years ago, I had the notion of writing songs and recording them myself, without really knowing what that entailed, even though I've been a musician and in bands over the years. I started writing songs and it followed what I guess to be a relatively well worn road. I get ideas for chord structures, riffs, and lyrics, which by a process of assimilation/trial and error, mystical input, I pull together a 'song'. I play this song on the instrument I've written it on and play it till I am satisfied with the structure, etc. As I said before I had no knowledge of the recording process before I wrote my first songs, and so the imperative was to find an 'easy' way to record them with what might be termed an arrangement using different instruments to create what would normally be called a 'song'. And this would allow me to listen to my fully fledged songs and marvel at my artistry and musical talent.....So, to cut a long story short it was about capturing the song and creating what I now would call a demo of a song. How little I knew.
Again, to cut a long story short over the last  couple of years I've improved my general song writing capabilities  (at least compared to earlier) and to some degree my production/recording processes and knowledge.Until recently (weeks) when I wrote a song I would basically record the entire part for let's say this was a piano song from the beginning to the end knowing in my head what I wanted the song structure to be, what the instruments would be and roughly what each part would play in the arrangement. So often I'd get to the end with all the parts and it would be a reasonable interpretation of what I'd set out to create.BUT, if there was something I was unhappy about, eg the length of the song, or a piece of the song it was too time consuming to go back and recreate from the start every instrument and vocal part after spending a lot of time getting those parts 'right'.Now I'm guessing a lot of people will be rolling their eyes by now, but it's my experience and if it helps anyone then it's worth holding myself up for public ridicule (again lol).
A few weeks ago I was putting together a rather complex jazz/rock piece and it was impossible to do a one take recording of the parts, mainly due to my musical inability, so I recorded individual parts and edited them together......eureka! That allowed me to structure and restructure the song easily at any time without the anguish of re recording every element. I have since used this process for every recent song, and hence, IMHO, my songs have become punchier, tighter and more coherent.
BUT, here's the real revelation....I have written a song for the first time where I didn't know any parts, chords, structures, lyrics at the beginning.....nothing, and I'm really pleased with it (It'll be on the forum when my next time slot comes up). It started with me noodling on my guitar and Liked it but it wasn't a basis for a song, so I recorded said noodle, then tried to add harmonic and melodic intensity to it against a tempo I was happy with.In a band this would be termed a improvisation, but as a solo writer I have never had this option. Again, to cut (a not so)long story short I recorded it all in short sections on different tracks, including the vocal and this allowed me to finish a song I'd never even heard in my head......FFS! The opportunities to amend, structure, create and record using this has (I think) possibly revolutionised my potential to write and record new songs in a way I'd not even thought of. So, as in many things in my life despite the lack of a conscious decision I have arrived at a revelatory part of my musical path.
As I said, the book wasn't the inspiration for me realising that by accident I'd found a new and better way of working and potentially artistically more open, but the fact I was educating myself in an academic way to think about process, relationships, emotions, artistry etc has made me realise I now have a huge opportunity to radically change my whole writing and recording process which until today I hadn't realised .. I am sure I will still try to write songs in a 'traditional' way but there are new unrealised options and opportunities to expand my writing, recording and musical dexterity.
So, there we have it......it's taken me years to realise what I'm sure many if not all of you already know......I am often reminded by @Boydie that education in eg reading musical notation, listening to different genres, learning other admired peoples songs, etc are all giving you the opportunity to expand your horizons, and in my case not in a linear way as the book had nothing to do with writing and recoding, but still in a parallel way made me think in an innovative way about my own way of working.

Anyway hope it's of use to someone.........

Cheers

Jamie

Boydie:
@Jamie that is a great story

It just goes to show that regardless of knowledge of theory or not - the key is to do whatever gives you that creative “spark” and to take whatever approach you want to without feeling like you are cheating - whether that is recording a complex part in stages or tuning a vocal - it is the end result that counts

cowparsleyman:
@Jamie - a lovely post, this won’t be the last of these revalations...

Neil C:
@jamie, looking forward to the 'cut and shut' now song. I agree its kind of freeing to not have to write the whole thing sometimes and allow the tech to help both write and recording.
:-)
Neil

PaulAds:
Great post, Jamie.

Just the ability to cut and paste sections has been invaluable to me when working on arrangements.

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