songwriting tips and style advice

[EatADeadGoat]

So basically every time I write a song it ends up being roughly three minutes or so and I'm just wondering how to lengthen it without making boring. I write a decent number of riffs but it just never seems to get to the length id prefer in a song.

Also I'm pretty into gothic rock and was just wonderijg whar role the bass plays besides the role it normally has and just general advice for writing roffs for tjat style of music

[MalcolmAmos]

Not sure what Gothic rock is supposed to sound like....... but here are some suggestions off the top of my head.

• To lengthen I would repeat the chorus more often. In my music twice happens all the time. See if you can get three in there.
• Add more verses. Five instead of the normal three.
• Have lead solos after some of the choruses. Again in my music we can have from zero to two lead breaks in a song, see if this could be expanded.
• Add an intro.
• Play slower.

[sbass traveller]

Originally Posted by MalcolmAmos

• To lengthen I would repeat the chorus more often. In my music twice happens all the time. See if you can get three in there.

Double chorus at the end with a key change FTW.

You could also recycle the 1st verse as an outro that kind of ties everything in together.

Solos, breakdowns, bridges, musical interludes, whatever you want to use...

And +1 to the write more verses. I recently started writing lyrics out of boredom (and hey, it's always an asset to have if you play in bands) and I usually try to write 8-10 verses per song and pick the best 5 or so. If the leftovers are really good I can keep them in the song, or I can re-work and reuse them later for whatever else I'm working on.

If you're "pretty into Gothic Rock", I'd suspect you'd have a better idea of the role of the bass musically within that genre, but don't limit yourself. Dress in robes (or whatever you want to wear onstage), close the curtains, light some candles, or however you want set the mood. Then just jam away to however you feel and work with it. See what happens.

[uethanian]

personally i really dislike modulations for the sake of adding length. mainly because i've seen it at the end of a lot of cheesy choral/band arrangements.

1. add instrumental sections. find a cool line and vamp on it for a while. these can work pretty much anywhere in a song.

2. if you're looking to create a new section, try taking an existing section and just altering it. change the beat to half-time, double-time, triplets, whatever you feel like. take an existing chord progression and make substitutions...so if the guitars are playing Dm normally, you can throw down a Bb underneath them and change it to a Bb major 7th. if your original progression is major, make a mirrored minor version, or vice versa. play parts in reverse. trade roles with other instruments.

3. as far as gothic rock specific stuff, i think you're pretty free as a bassist. but i haven't listened to that much...

[zachoff]

Breaks, changes, and all kinds of riffs. Unless your goal is to write pop music, you never, ever have to follow the verse chorus verse chorus break chorus format. It's silly, IMO. A lot of my songs don't even have a chorus. Just verse, verse, break/solo, verse, break, end. Or if I do have a chorus it's verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, break, break, chorus, end.

Anyway, mix it up. You don't have to follow the pop formula.

Minor chords/scales for goth. Others might chime in with other "darker" sounding chords as well but yeah... Nothing too happy.