getting stuck with songs.

[Noopilk]

I always find it easy to write the first 0:30-1:00 of my songs, and I really like some of the stuff I've written, but after that, I get completely stuck, and, even with the help of scales, I can't seem to write more riffs etc. Any ideas or tips?

Thnx

[SineRider]

It happens to everyone. The best thing to do is to either move onto something else, and then listen to it later when you are more inspired.

[Noopilk]

I've got maybe 17 songs, all 0:30 to 1:00, and no matter how long I've waited, I haven't been able to go back and finish them... I guess sooner or later I'll become inspired.

[SineRider]

At 8/19/09 04:56 PM, Noopilk wrote: I've got maybe 17 songs, all 0:30 to 1:00, and no matter how long I've waited, I haven't been able to go back and finish them... I guess sooner or later I'll become inspired.

I have hundreds of files I've havn't done anything with. Don't worry, it is normal

[Back-From-Purgatory]

I do that all the time, and it shows by what I have uploaded, I have a lot of "teaser" or "Sample" clips, that rarely, to never, get updated to full songs.

Like said above, sometimes all it takes is time off from that particular song, or a sudden jolt of inspiration.
One thing that you should also take into consideration is the composition of that first bit of the song, as I found out with my song "Journee", you can sort of trap yourself with how you compose what would usually transition into the rest of the song.

I personally find if you throw a climax into the early parts of a song, it is VERY difficult to build upon it, as the song already feels like it should be dying down, which is why the song mentioned above has somewhat of an identity crisis and swings from mood to mood, is because I couldn't find a way to build on the intro.

All in all, give it time, some people take hours to finish a song, others take years. When you start writing a song you're serious about, don't expect it to be done right away, let it sit for a couple days then go back to it and try again.

[ProudAardvark]

At 8/19/09 04:50 PM, Noopilk wrote: I always find it easy to write the first 0:30-1:00 of my songs, and I really like some of the stuff I've written, but after that, I get completely stuck, and, even with the help of scales, I can't seem to write more riffs etc. Any ideas or tips?

Thnx

Happens to everyone. I sometimes record myself improvising and then play it back and see if anything sticks.

[itsfoxhall]

try to mix a few of you're songs together? sometimes that works, or im guessing as a guitarist, have a hot shower, come back feeling sexy and tahdah magic fingers.

it's better than doing warm ups xD

[Noopilk]

OK, thanks for all the advice etc. guys. Might try out that improvising idea, I like the sound of it. One last question. How do you guys think up to new riffs that sound good with the earlier ones? Do you just play around with a certain scale 'till you find something? Thanks again

[vanguard182]

randomly put crap in to the piano roll and see what happens. as long as you stay within the scale you can usually get something that sounds pretty good, and different than what you expected. it's a nice feeling to surprise yourself. not going to lie, most music i make is an accident. i guess you don't have to randomly put crap in a piano roll but my point is just dick around, sometimes some pretty cool stuff can come out of it

[LightKeeper]

If you find a scale you like that usually helps with the writing of future songs. One of my dominant scales is D minor and D Harmonic minor. That's not to say I don't write in other scales, but having a more dominant scale gets my ear used to writing with specific notes. It may or may not help you when trying to continue on from a dead zone in creativity.

[roensb]

At 8/19/09 05:58 PM, Noopilk wrote: Might try out that improvising idea, I like the sound of it.

this is what i do for all my songs. i lay down some background music and then improvise over the top of it. you can either do it by ear (if you poses that skill) or just try to remember the scales used in the background. my newest song which you can get to by the link in my sig (im not advertising) has all the main instruments completely improvised on the spot by ear. i find this the easiest way to finish a song even if you only improvise as a transition or something

[jrayteam6]

Sometimes when I get frustrated with a project I'll just close it, open a new one and build drum tracks. Drums are always easy to build, and obviously deal only with rythm and cut out the difficult aspects (melody, progression, harmony) that comes naturally when your inspired. So if I have 20-30 drum projects which are named by BPM/Style, I can just load an appropriote one up when i do get inspired and get going immeadiatly.

I just sorta find that it feeds a desire to create, but I dont sit and sweat over a project or end up with 30 unused patterns per project that never seem to fit/get worked in.

I guess when all else fails, set some stuff up for later success

[iceblueglow]

what i do is simply rebuild another track melody and change little by little till ya have an original sound. only did that twice or something but it works.

also i start tracks mostly beginning with the bassline and build further on that.

[moonhitler]

My song Moonshine I only managed to get about 40 seconds done, and couldn't get any further. A few months later, I'd thought of a little tune I liked, and so put it in. After a bit of twiddling, I got it to fit in, and I somehow managed to complete the song, so I submitted it.

[DeatHTaX]

~What I generally do is work on about 5-6 songs at a time. When I'm working on one and I think of something that can work in another song, I immediately switch over to it and do it. A lot of it is just playing around, too. I usually hear my songs about 500-600 times as I progress through the work. Soon you start to understand your own melody without even having to think about it, and eventually you just know what you want to do.~

~...or smoke pot....LOTS and LOTS of pot.~

~DT~

[B0UNC3]

Fun facts lulz

Project files from 2009: 16 028 files
Total discography from 2004 - 09: ~80 tracks

Happens to everyone. But it'd hurt even more if you complete the actual song but get stuck on the actual mixing part (like my stats above shows I keep doing....sometimes.....)

[moonhitler]

At 8/24/09 08:19 PM, DeatHTaX wrote: blah blah blah

I agree with you there.

(Although, maybe not the last bit...)

[la-yinn]

At 8/25/09 07:33 AM, moonhitler wrote:

At 8/24/09 08:19 PM, DeatHTaX wrote: blah blah blah

I agree with you there.

(Although, maybe not the last bit...)

The last bit is the most true.