Any of you bassists songwriters?

[Bloodfist]

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

[b to g is yummy]

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!!

[tZer]

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!

[Jeramaya]

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.

[XansNiceSweater]

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.

[Deacon_Blues]

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.

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.

[Jeralya]

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!