I'm just curious how many of you guys do the brunt of your band's songwriting and how you find it.

I am the primary lyric writer in my band...i love writing/poetry and i'm pretty good at it i suppose...so it works good. It feels good to be able to really contribute to the making of the songs. (and no i am not the frontman, just sing a bit)

Occasionally i can come up with a little tune but usually i give the words to my keyboardist and he comes up with the melody...although we've done a bit of the reverse where the tune comes before the words.

Here is your chance to brag people!!

In my last two bands I wrote maybe half of our material. Every now and then I hit the keyboard and dust off the sheet music to take another stab at it.

My hats off to you on writting lyrics. I try and I try but it all reads like a 4th grade book report written by a child with downs.

Manage to record anything recently?

I am the main songwriter in our band and write the backbones of the songs plus some lyrics.

I must say that it is a very satisfying experience to have a piece you´ve worked on in you apartment late at nights come to life with a band in rehearsal and at shows. The lyricwriting is perhaps what I´ve been most insecure about but in return it has been very revarding I think.

Plus next weekend we´re finally going into the studio to record some of our songs so now Im really excited. :hyper:

I wouldn't say I'm the main songwriter, but many of my contributions have wound up on CDs.

I write all the lyrics for my band, along with the guitar chords for my guitarists. Kind of weird my guitarists are good if you show them how to play what you want them to they just have no good creativity skills so not only am I the lyricist I'm also the tab writer the only one with the creativity is my drummer and he's a ****ing GOD!

I do music, but I don't just play bass. Couldn't write lyrics if I had a gun to my head.

I write a lot of music, quite a lot of which gets used in a band setting. I also write lyrics, if they're needed.

For years I was happy just to play bass, but I sort of picked up the keyboard as a writing instrument and now write songs on keyboards and bass. I even get ideas riding the subway if Im out and call my answer machine to hum ideas into it so I dont lose it. These ideas I work out on the piano later. Ive always liked to read and well words come easy to me so I write lyrics also.

thats cool guys (gals?) I do think it'd be more ideal if the lead singer is at least writing the lyrics so that they will be personal and heart-felt, but if he loves them he can make them like his own and put a lot of emotion into it.

Of course in my case i would rather write the lyrics for us as a band than having him doing it cuz so far i am better at it then him and i have a lot of creativity, plus yea, its cool to be writing! and once the singer understands the lyrics and helps out as the band gets the song together it really is the band's song...not just the one or two people who sat down and figured out notes and words.

one of the beautiful things about music i'm learning...is that it seems like there are a lot of guidelines but you can break them and come up with something great!!

In past bands I have been the chief songwriter and I don't sing at all - not even background vocals. In my current band I have written about 1/3 of our original tunes while our banjo player, who is a prolific writer has contributed the rest. We typically write music together - or at least arrange it together.

Yeap, I write music, though not for the band in which I play bass. But I find bass very poor and dull for songwriting - I prefer piano and acoustic guitar. Otherwise, bass is a great instrument.

thats cool guys (gals?) I do think it'd be more ideal if the lead singer is at least writing the lyrics so that they will be personal and heart-felt, but if he loves them he can make them like his own and put a lot of emotion into it.

Geddy Lee always sounds amazing singing Neil's lyrics!

I write stuff, depending on the project it can be a lot or not too much. I have written about 20 songs give or take for myself and my projects. Most of the time I'll contribute melodies and lyrics, but not always.

I've written music, arranged for several instruments, since I was 5-6 years old. I consider my writing to be the best part of my musicality.

I come up with a lot of our band's songs, but not with the lyrics. I suck with coming up with lyrics, but I can rhyme really good :smug:

Yes, I play bass, sing and write songs. I've written some that were published and used on albums/CD's.

George

In the last orginal band I was a member of a few years back I wrote better than 60% of the music and about 40% of the words. So many of the songs were not what I'd call "Bass Centric" but were with "Bass Prominent" melodic bass lines.

i guess i'm a bit of a songwriter
i have written, arranged, and sung for ****
but when i sing, it's more of a "Mike Patton with Fantomas" type of singing
i don't really have a thing for writing actual words

I have a 1-man band, so naturally, I write all the lyrics.

I have been the primary songwriter in my last three bands. Usually, I compose stuff on the bass, but since a couple of the guitarists have come up short on ideas, I often end up writing guitar parts on my acoustic guitar just in case. About half the time I use a drum machine to map out parts, because I often use odd-times that throw off my bandmates.

The thing for me that's difficult is giving up songs. You never know how long it's going to take a full band to 'get it' and make their mark. Furthermore, you might give up a song to a band, only to have that band implode in six months time, which often results in not playing that song ever again. You give up your creation and one of two things happen. Either your bandmates heighten everything and make it a better song, or they mess with the flow and create a disaster. It's a crapshoot, but that's part of collaboration.

I am constantly writing music and I really have found no desire to turn those songwriting reins over to someone else. But, the thing is that as a songwriter you have to be open to taking risks as well as taking cues from your mates, who often will have good ideas to bring to the table.

I do about 80% of the writitng, that includes the guitar lines, words and melodies, as well as the bass lines.

Yeah, i agree with the guy who says he wouldnt want to give up writing.. I do wish i could be better at doing melodies because often i'll have just a very vague idea of what i'd like the song to sound like but i have no way to describe it good since i dont even really know myself!

The one downside to writing is that i'm finding i am spending hardly ANY time practising my bass playing at home since so much of my free time is spent trying to get ideas down....although i assume i just need to learn to pull myself away from microsoft word and pick up my axe and start workin on those scales and stuff for a while.

My songwriting is improving though i think...so that's good.

ANd... maybe if i'd quite surfing...i'd have more time!! VOILA!!

I try to write, but I have yet to write a song that I really like. In my band, I play much more of an arranger/producer/engineer role to my guitar player's really good songwriting.

I have a really good way of hearing the big picture and taking songs to new places - but I have a very difficult time creating a song from scratch myself.

I envy those who can! Don't let anyone ever tell you that song writers are only a little important... Good songwriters are the difference between bands you like one day and forget about the next and ones who you remember for the rest of your life!

tZer-
That's actually an important role you have, being a song arranger, producer/engineer. I mean, don't discount that at all. In my band, our drummer typically does the engineering, since it's his equipment, but I wish somebody would step up and do more creative arranging. That is a skill wholly unto itself, apart from chord progressions and riffs. I find it satisfying, but also the most challenging of the songwriting aspects.

I write all the lyrics, except for the occasional quipping line from the guitarist.

I used to write all the music, now I co-write it with the guitarist, about 60%/40%.

EDIT: My guitarist is also the sound guy / engineer. I'm the stage theatrics mastermind and art director.

I think I'm quite good at creating grooves, like 1, 2, 4 or 8 bar patterns that I loop. I think I can write decent melody lines and songs too if I have the inspiration for it. But I'm terrible at writing lyrics. Sometimes I come up with a phrase or so that seems interesting to work around but I just never get it right, no matter how much I listen to Sting, Don Henley, Donald Fagen or other great lyricists... Maybe I compare myself too much with them, but everything I write seems to end up being too cheesy, silly or just too pretencious. :bawl:

Lately I've been writing instrumental jazz and bossa songs on my nylon string guitar, even if I can't play jazz properly (I know a lot of chords but cannot improvise so it sounds like jazz, yet...) The good thing with instrumental songs is that you don't have to think about the lyrics... ;) You only need a strong melody.

My brother and I are both the principal songwriters (he plays guitar, I play bass.) We pretty much split up everything in writing, performing and singing, and we still manage to fill out our trio at all times. I really enjoy hearing my own song completed and recorded though, its something I will have for the rest of my life!