Well, I´ve looked for some pages of topics, but did no see any related to composition hehe

So here is my problem, I´ve made a riff, a good riff in my opinion but I just can´t get further! Or sometimes it happens that I have a nice melody, but can´t make, let´s say, the rythm guitar or any other arrangement, it´s very difficult for me to finish a song, because all I have is parts of them, and this ALWAYS happens... So, If anyone have some advice about this, your help will be no rewarded but really appreciated!

PD: Sorry about my english hehe

Have you tried writing it down on paper or in something like Guitar Pro or Power tab?

Have you tried writing it down on paper or in something like Guitar Pro or Power tab?

Yeah, but you know, Guitar pro does not have the feelin of an instrument, I kind of prefer to have something concrete in mind before putting it on Guitar pro, I don´t now why hehe. but maybe I´ll try to do that again..

Either way Guitar Pro is a great composition tool and a great way to keep your work organized. I've written every one of my pieces in Guitar Pro, and the recordings always sound exactly how I want them to.

Just repeat the riff 119 times in the style of Napalm Death and you have a whole song. Or just repeat it twice and you have a song in the style of early Napalm Death.

And a bit of blast beat behind that played riff? hahaha

No no, some variety doesn´t hurt anyone

[swervedriver]

It's hard to give advice about this. Usually my ideas start with a riff/chord progression and basic drums to go with it. What I've taught myself to do is immediately write it down, either on paper or in Guitar Pro as Alucard suggested. If it's crap, I'll hate it when I hear it again a week later. For the few that stick I don't really know how I expand those ideas. For some it just comes to me, others require a long time of crafting and trying different things.

What you could try is take your riff and find the underlying chord progression that belongs to it and make that your chorus. Then build a simple song structure such as verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus. Don't worry about bass lines just yet, at first simply make it follow the riff/chords (think of variations and subtleties later). From there perhaps write a cool intro and outro, perhaps throw in a few extra notes or beats before a chorus as a bridge, maybe write an intermezzo to go before the solo. Go back through your collection of riffs and see if something might match, possibly altering one riff or writing a transition; you may have already written the answer to the question where your song should go next.

There's no set way to write a song so it's difficult to tell what to do. What I just outlined is simply one option you could try: riff idea - basic song structure - expand on that and fill in details. But hey, for all I know the best songs are written by standing on your head 3 hours a day.

Thanks swervedriver, yeah I think I´m gonna start with something basic, the verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus kind of song, just to get into it and get a little more experience, and write every single f*cking riff.....I keep forgetting them xD

I agree with swervedriver's last bit. I've been playing for ages, but I've never written a song. I just bullshit all the time...

I know I have at least a dozen songs worth of grade A me, it's all a matter of knowing what you want to accomplish and going for it. You've got to work hard at it, and if it doesn't come naturally then you work even harder. You have to want it.

What happens to me all the time (I mainly compose stuff with Guitar Pro) is that I come up with the most amazing epic technical mindblowing epic intro, and perhaps one part of the song, and then my mind doesn't come up with anything else for the song and I'll have to leave it at that. What I started to do is that ill write anything random with after that and hope that something cool that I can use will pop up. I actually advanced in one song with that technique but I even that got never finished.

EDIT: also I started to go to theory class and I noticed that after that composing became way smoother, and I've been through only the most basic stuff yet.

I always found recording your compositions in cubase works really good. You can just work further whenever you feel inspired. Writing songs take a long time.

I always found recording your compositions in cubase works really good. You can just work further whenever you feel inspired. Writing songs take a long time.

yeah I got adobe audition, and it´s easy to record, fun and useful to have you´re sounds whenever you want them