akrish

Yesterday, I had my first encounter with songwriting and it has given me some new appreciation for the music I listen to. On one hand it wasn’t that difficult for us (I was working with a friend) to come up with some guitar and drum riffs or even some vocal lines, but it was pretty tough combining the different parts so that the end result actually sounds good. It got me thinking about some professional bands (or even some of the composers for orchestra) and how they do a really good job of arranging their different so that each line compliments the others.

My friend (let’s call him Jason) and I have had this dream of starting a band since around our junior year of high school. We even had a couple of practices our senior year and played a couple of Beatles songs for that year’s Homecoming, but we’ve never really tried to write anything before, so it was exciting to finally give it a shot and actually come up with something.

I don’t know much about how other people write songs (except for what I’ve read in some forums) but we started out by coming up with an instrumental part and then trying to add a vocal part to it. Ultimately this didn’t work out, because it turned out to be a lot harder for us to shape lyrics and melody around the instrumental parts. We did come up with some cool riffs that we may end up using later, but we couldn’t find a way to meld our ides into a coherent song. Finally, we scrapped this approach and decided to start afresh.

This time, we focused on the vocals first, coming up with some pretty sweet lyrics and melody for a verse and chorus. Writing lyrics was tough, but Jason thought of a catchy melody that we just hummed while thinking of guitar and drum parts. I came up with a simple chord progression to play under the melody and after some tweaking, it started to sound ok. Jason incorporated a drum part and everything came together into a pretty mediocre song (honestly…). It wasn’t fantastic, but it was definitely a step in the right direction, and for just a couple hours of work, I’d say we did a pretty good job.

Anyway, somethings that I learnt from the yesterday are: keep it simple, go with whatever works, and be patient. I realized that the reason we couldn’t line up vocals with instrumental parts in our first attempt was because our instrumental parts were way to complicated. I know it isn’t fun to play boring riffs, but it makes songwriting a heck of a lot easier.

Go with whatever works means that if you can come up with lyrics, write lyrics. If you’re creative on the guitar, write guitar licks. But keep in mind that at some point you’re going to need to do the harder stuff and that the end result is a layered song in which all the parts need to be good. Nobody listens to songs that have insanely cool guitar work if the vocals suck. If you want to write good songs, the way everything comes together is all that matters, but at the same time, when you’re starting out keep track of everything you come up with, and do the things that are easiest for you.

Finally, be patient. Not that I have any experience to be saying this, but good things take time. I’m pretty sure pro musicians can’t write a good song in an hour. I was really surprised with how much Jason and I did yesterday, and I’m sure we’ll have practices where we make no progress, but if we keep at it, eventually we’ll come up with something good. Along these lines, remember that it should be fun. If I’m stressed out, it’s a lot harder for me to be creative.

Again, I have barely any experience with this stuff, and this is just what I picked up from a couple hours of playing yesterday. If you disagree, feel free to let me know.