Making your own Music

[Peachfuzz]

I know Smogon has a lot of musical talent and fans of music. So I ask of you who have been in bands or even compose traditional music yourself, how is it that you make up your own music? Where do your ideas come from? Do you get inspired by anything, and try to come up with something new, whether it's a simple chord progression or a full piece?

I picked up the bass guitar when my friends, who had some prior experience in guitar mostly, decided to form a band for fun. I was taught classical/flamenco guitar from a teacher for about 2 years before I picked up the bass. The right hand techniques of rest/free strokes, different strummming patterns/techniques of flamenco guitar, and having some training listening to the bass of the pieces I played allowed me to feel pretty natural with the bass. We have four complete songs after almost a year, but we weren't too serious about it at first (we were doing covers just for fun). And a band name is a motherfucker to come up with...

When I come up with my own bass lines, I do several things:
- use the guitarist's chord progressions, and use those roots to form the foundation, and then I add my own little twists and embellishments using the scale of that root. I try my best to define the overall mood of the song.
- sometimes using other bass lines as foundations, and making it my own. The legendary bassline of the song "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen used a Chic song (I'm pretty sure) as inspiration (they sound very similar). It's not stealing at all!
- listening to drummers. Drummers should listen to bassists too. Rhythm instruments always work together and play off of each other. I usually use the bass drum in order to keep time, and add my own little feel to it. Doing so creates sex between the rhythm instruments. I like to slap on the bass beats and pop on the snare hits.
- channeling your energy into the instrument, with complete disregard if it's technically good or not. I have no idea how to do this, although it's mostly a "how should it feel/how do you feel thing." Beatles didn't know their theory at all, and yet they were musical geniuses. A prime example of this.

Any other ways? Sometimes I come upon writer's like blocks when it comes to making shit up. So how do you, musicians of Smogon, come up with your own music?

 

[Hyra]

I think you have pretty much everything you could want down for writing bass lines. The only real advice I could give to you is don't hold back and experiment a lot. No matter how much you do, the bass will always blend into the song as long as you stay in the key, just because the human ear focuses on higher pitches. I think bass has the most freedom with what to write, simply because unless you are cranked up way above everything else you won't overpower them.

It also wouldn't hurt to learn how to improvise. I know that when I go to write a melody line (on sax) I ask the guitarists for the chords and key and then improvise over that set of changes until I find something the band likes. From my limited experience with this, I've found that playing in the root scale gives you more of a bluesy or jazzy sound while playing on the third of the scale gives you a more rock like sound. Just make sure you can remember what you are playing.

Finally, if I may, I'd like to ask how you guys come up with lyrics. This is pretty much my band's roadblock. We can sit down and get the all the instrumental stuff for a song down within a few hours, but can't think of any lyrics or end up writing lyrics that we can't find a way to match to the song.

 

[Kid Icarus]

Before, I'd think writing songs wasn't that hard, but years later when I'd actually try, it's a lot more difficult than it seems.

I can never decide between writing lyrics, or music first, or both. I usually try and write poems, and create songs that go around them, instead of trying to take a shot at both the music and lyrics at the same time.
As for the music itself, I usually just try and play around, but sometimes I find myself playing things similar to other stuff I've heard. I guess it's not bad to take in other influences and try and combine them into a new song, but it's just so hard to be original with these centuries of music behind us.

 

[Blln]

To be honest the way I wrote all my best songs is just by modeling them off of other bands' songs that really spoke to me. That doesn't mean copying, it doesn't mean using the same chords and changing the words, what it means is to try to take what that song is doing for you, and make another song that does the same thing but incorporates elements of yourself, if you can understand what i mean. So in your case, I would write out a list of your concrete influences, bands that you would LOVE your band/song to even come CLOSE to matching, and then work on channeling those influences into your own creativity.

and to be clear i am not recommending stealing other bands songs or original ideas, there is a big difference between being influenced by something and copyright infringement.

 

[Peachfuzz]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Just to make sure I don't want this thread to be a "Help me make up original music!" help thread, but just a good discussion on how you come up with things, what you play and your role in the band and how it affects your creativity, and any musical tips.

Finally, if I may, I'd like to ask how you guys come up with lyrics. This is pretty much my band's roadblock. We can sit down and get the all the instrumental stuff for a song down within a few hours, but can't think of any lyrics or end up writing lyrics that we can't find a way to match to the song.

I love your advice on the third of the scale and the improvisation thing. I will definitely try that.

For writing lyrics, I was assigned that role in the band a couple times. We do something like you. We would come up with the instruments first (maybe not the entire song) and write lyrics to match it. Some tips/things I do:
- just brainstorm what you want to write about. I personally use lyrics to get stuff off my chest. It's usually about criticisms about people in general/douchebags (Arctic Monkeys is where I get a strong influence from, with a touch of Radiohead). So you really have to zero in on a topic, and base your lyrics around that. Listen to some of your favorite bands and see what they write about. And rhyming dictionaries are very helpful, just don't let them take away from the meaning of the song when you're trying really hard just to make something rhyme.
- for the singer, try to make the tone and pitch try to flow well with the guitars or bass or whatever else you may use. Songs just sound really catchy when the vocals are following the actual music.
- really listen to the music you guys came up with and think about what it makes you think of. For example a simple chord progression my friend came up with made me think of the ocean, and I just went from there. The song evolved into something about drowning in the ocean as a metaphor for everyone in the world trying to step on each other and beat each other just to get to the top, leaving you confused and lost at sea *shrug*.

Kid Icarus, some people say you should write the lyrics first and then base the music around that so your not trying so hard to fit words in where they don't belong. My band comes up with the instrument parts first and then write lyrics (see above). The poems thing being translated into songs, to me at least, doesn't really seem to work, because the poem is usually written to stand alone, whereas a song is made to be held up by everything.

If anyone has made up a song where the lyrics came first and then the music around it, advice will be deeply appreciated.

 

[Hipmonlee]

When you write lyrics first often things sound unnatural. This is just something I have noticed when I listen to songs sometimes you can hear them and go "yeah, this dude wrote the lyrics first". I think the Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest by Bob Dylan is the best example of a song that has that sound to me. (I believe Bob Dylan wrote the lyrics first, though I am not certain, it does have the right feel to it).

The problem I think is just that people arent careful enough about setting the words. It is important to make sure the emphasis you would have when speaking the lines fits with how you sing it. But also it has to make sense..

A good example of this is in Ben Folds Five - Kate he says "She plays wipeout on THE drums" as though she was playing on the only set of drums in the world. Part of the reason some singers are hard to understand is because the words arent set naturally. Emphasis actually plays a big part in recognising sentences.. Shins - Australia is a good example of this. He isnt really mumbling, but for example "but look here UNtil then" when it should be "but look here unTIL then" if someone said UNtil to you in any sentence you would struggle to understand what they are saying to you..

Usually when you write the music first, people tend to set the lyrics better intuitively. But the problem there is it is much harder to make them say what you wanted them to say.

Personally I try to have a very holistic approach to songwriting, so the different parts develop together, sometimes lyrics are written first and sometimes the music. And sometimes they actually do come to me together.

But I cant emphasise strongly enough the importance of wordsetting. It is the different between very average and amazing in songwriting.

Have a nice day.