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#173781 by BrunoN
Tue Sep 02, 2008 12:59 pm
O hai,

I want to ask you about your methods when you decide to make some music.? Do you take your guitar (or another instrument) and fiddle about till you find some cool riff and just add things around it, or maybe have music in your head (or on paper) before even touching the strings? Or maybe it's best to start with planning rhythm section? When you start creating some tune do you already have plan of whole song, like "here's the intro, like da da da dadadada, then than heavy asswhomping breakdown followed by slow, mellow part, oh yeah, I always wanted to do such thing, then again dadada etc" or just going ahead with recording and let the things happen by themselves?

I'm asking because most of my output from playing with musicial software and guitar ends up in "scratchbook" folder on my disk in form of loose ideas without further expansion, somehow process of actually finishing stuff is very painful for me. After assembling some riffs and half assed solo I'm wondering where I am and have no idea what to do next - at some point I'm stuck with adding another parts only to delete them few moments later. It of course means I don't have a tiny bit of talent (not to mention knowledge), but maybe if I could set some direction to my doings I'd finish some stuff easier. Of course I aim at simple things since I suck at guitar, but still, there's lots of cool music which is technically very simple yet sound cool.
#173785 by AlucardXIX
Tue Sep 02, 2008 3:52 pm
Honestly, I just pick my guitar up and mess around until I play something that catches my ear, open up Guitar Pro and start writing it in there. The whole time I'm figuring out the time signature, tempo and possible drum beat I may use with it.

I think programs like Power Tab and Guitar Pro are great for musicians because you can play things back, delete things, add things. I've composed many songs strictly in GP and never recorded them(because I either dont like them now or just forgot about them)

The best thing about GP is that you can experiment so well and hear what a finished product could sound like, then tweak it to your liking.

Basically what I'm saying is if you dont have Guitar Pro 5, get it.
#173939 by Migstopheles
Sun Sep 07, 2008 4:09 pm
I just improvise stuff until I come up with something I like. Which isn't often :lol:
#173955 by BrunoN
Mon Sep 08, 2008 6:18 am
Migstopheles wrote:I just improvise stuff until I come up with something I like. Which isn't often :lol:


Yeah, that's the reason I fill darkest corners of my hard disk with unfinished stuff. I usually like something for the first 15 minutes of fiddling with it, then start to hate it :)
#173962 by Migstopheles
Mon Sep 08, 2008 10:14 am
Yup, same here. And if I write a riff that I absolutely adore, I invariably forget it by the time I've gotten round to recording it.

I wonder how much amazing music has been lost because of that :(
#173978 by soundsofentropy
Mon Sep 08, 2008 5:53 pm
I used to be a composition student, but I changed my major, and so have been writing a lot more for guitar (compared to more classical ensembles). Anyway, this is what I do for both types of writing:

When I compose, I usually have a few ideas bouncing around in my head before I really get started. I let them bounce around for a long time (at least a week or two) before I start getting them out. When they do come out, I embellish and improvise what I've got (which has progressed a lot by then). Then I usually lay out how all the ideas will fit together (if they do), and work on everything in between and outside the big parts of the piece. Finishing touches take the longest--all the little things that come together to make music unique and a great experience.

Not everything ends up in the songs, though. There a lot of scraps. I just save them for shows (as "improv." spots).
#173979 by Josiah Tobin
Mon Sep 08, 2008 6:21 pm
I'll either start with a riff and just record final takes as I write (easier for me; I record bit by bit. I don't care if it's 'cheap' because I play it all when it's time to do it live :P), or start with a cool percussion track built up from a fuckton of layers of whatever little noises and samples I have lying around. The latter method is also used for my more industrial/dark ambient/concrete stuff, except there's no live instrument recording. Just keep building it.

~Josiah
#174029 by BrunoN
Wed Sep 10, 2008 12:53 am
Looks like I have to stick to fiddling with riffs and try to not get too annoyed by my own work :). I think the part that bugs me the most is making drum tracks, it's right pain in the ass. BTW, I like the unit "fuckton", sounds huge :)
#174130 by AlucardXIX
Fri Sep 12, 2008 4:03 am
BrunoN wrote:Looks like I have to stick to fiddling with riffs and try to not get too annoyed by my own work :). I think the part that bugs me the most is making drum tracks, it's right pain in the ass. BTW, I like the unit "fuckton", sounds huge :)

Drums are easy in Guitar Pro!

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