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Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4066
Location: Utah | It seems that there are lyrics, chord progressions, or bits and pieces of melody/riffs. They just don't all go together into one complete song.
Right now I have an entire song of lyrics, but not a single idea on melody or basic chords. Another song has a complete backing track totally recorded, but not a single word for lyrics. There are several scraps of paper floating around with ideas and lyrics.
Anybody else have this problem, or have a solution? |
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Joined:
September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | Topic: Do you have partially written songs?
Yes... and I have a little less than two weeks to get it done.
Here is a suggestion from a guy who is totally un-qualified to to make one.
You got the words. Try singing them. Maybe that will bring a melody to mind. Then the chords will fall right in line.
Yeah... sure... just like that... easy as pie. :rolleyes: |
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Joined:
December 2006
Posts: 6995
Location: Jet City | I'm no good with lyrics. Gave up trying years ago. Give me a basic melody and I can arrange a good piece of music to go with it.
As for bits and pieces, there are thousands of those. |
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Joined:
May 2005
Posts: 486
Location: North Carolina | You bet. I've got one I started work on in 1972. It's coming along nicely, thanks, and I do perform it from time to time. But it's just not quite . . . done. It needs something but I'm not sure what. Stay tuned.
BTW, as someone already stated, I too have difficulty with lyrics. I pretty much don't care what the song says as long as the music is good. If I were into lyrics, I'd be a poet. If I wanted to convey a message, I'd work for Western Union. |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | You just keep working on them. Some never get finished but others come along and take their place. Or you'll wind up using bits of them in other songs. You just gotta keep going forward.
That's my advice after doing it for 2 years and about 40 tunes. And there are still about 6 that are in pieces. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15676
Location: SoCal | Guy Clark said, in an interview, that he had two parts to different songs that he just couldn't finish in the original forms, but when he combined them, he ended up with Heartbroke, a huge seller for Ricky Skaggs in 1982.
The hardest part of song writing, at least that I have discovered, is finding the time to sit down and get started. I never seem to find the time..... |
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Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | It's mostly all bits and pieces for a while. But I have to make a real effort, or have a compelling reason to complete something or so it seems. Beal has got a real high ratio. Maybe because they have to get finished by Wednesday night. But for me, if they''re good they eventually get finished. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | I've got about a half-dozen in various forms on my desk, and several dozen that came/went forgotten over the years . . .
Beal;
I fwd'd those three mp3's of yours to Jeanette.
She liked em, & didn't realized it was you till "Girlfriends" . . . "that's BEAL!!!" she said.
You now reside on her iPod. |
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Joined:
November 2005
Posts: 4832
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Several hundred sets of lyrics in one file box and a medium sized box of shirtpocket sized notepads.
and three melodies that I have used for every song I've ever written!
and one cool little intro bit that doesn't seem to fit with anything. |
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Joined:
September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Do you have partially written songs?
"There once was a Lass from Nantucket..." |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | having the Wednesday night deadline every week sure helps make you finish them. When I'm away they don't seem to get done as fast, 1 or 2 a summer rather than 1 a week. |
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Joined:
November 2007
Posts: 152
Location: Maple Shade, NJ. | It's alittle easier for us as we have 5 musicians to work on the songs, each of us toss ideas around,think of stories for lyrics, or chord progressions to use. works out pretty good.
Someday I would like to have 1 full set of original music to play at our gigs.
If you click on our myspace site below we did a live recording of our latest effort. called "Make it last"
Let me know what ya think. |
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Joined:
January 2007
Posts: 672
Location: New South Wales, Australia | All my sogs are partially written. The first verse always comes real quick and then........nothing. Consequently I have half a rainforest of scraps of paper with lyrics and ideas all over them.
Someone once told me to just write something no matter how bad it was, just as an exercise in finishing a song. I tried this a couple of times and the results were really bad. But when a lyric comes into my head I have to write it down even if it seems an exercise in futility. |
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Joined:
November 2005
Posts: 4832
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Oz, then try to figure out what the song is about. Make sure it is about that, and have the insight of what the song is about come at the end of the song.
It will sound wise and insightful.
Rather than "I hate my job so here's this song about it." as a first line....make that the last line and describe the job first.
JMO, YMMV
"There is no such thing as writing, there is only re-writing."
One of my profs in the 70's. |
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Do you have partially written songs?