songwriting and instruments

[vibrancy]

hi all!

do you think that there are instruments that increase a sense for the music to create songs?
i mean if there are instruments that make you a better songwriter.
for example a guitarists has much more options to play his instrument than a triangle guy.
on the other hand rythm instruments improve your sense for rythm. so a drummer is gonna create more groove related music rather than melodic i guess.

the piano is sometimes called a complete instrument. u can make a bassline and a melody at the same time. u can of course also do it with a bass guitar.

a lot of great composers played different instruments so i dont think u can say that the violin or the piano makes the best composer and creates the best music knowledge.

but i really think - not just because iam a bassist that the bass improves the sense for music. because a lot of people just ignore the drums and bass and just listen to the melody and voice of a radio band. but the bass requires a special ear that not anyone does have. its easy to hear a guitar riff or solo but to note and identify a prober bassline (not hip hop bum bum) is often harder must be trained because it goes down the mix. i often have also the tension that bassists care more on the sound than guitarits. the last mentioned plug in turn on the disortion and go while bassists experiment with the eq to be heared through the mix... so this also makes a bassist maybe more sensible soundwise.

there are (or were) actually a lot of great bass composers in metal for example cliff burton, steve harris, alex webster, rex brown, steve di giorgio and lot of others. a few are even bandleader. in jazz jaco did also an amazing job. in classical music i dont know any bassist that composed famous stuff..

so what do think about this? are there instruments that make u more musical? do u think that melody instruments make u a better muscian than a percussion instrument f.e.according to songwriting and overall music sense?

[Ubersheist]

I really think a good songwriter has a good general knowledge of music and a good ear for music first and foremost. Second, is a good knowledge of a variety of instruments and how they sound and interact together if they are writing a peice of music involving multiple instruments. True, there are exceptions to the rule, but I think (as a rule) most good songwriters are multi-instrumentalists with one main instrument they might play. Sting was also known to play guitar in shows, for example.

Being a virtuoso player rarely translates to good songwriting. The only ones that I know who are can afford to do nothing all day except play guitar, for example. The other virtuosos that I know have day jobs. They might be great [insert instrument here]-ists, but I can't think of any that are really good songwriters. This is especially true for drummers, as their skills don't as easily translate to other instruments.

So to answer your questions: A) There is no "best" instrument - it's all about the general knowledge, ear and creativity that an individual possesses. B) Percussive instruments don't lend themselves well to other instruments, and as a result, drummers tend (but not always) to have a tougher time learning other instruments and becoming well rounded musicians, and therefore, tend not to be as good of songwriters.

[Bard2dbone]

On the other side of that coin, I've met drummers who were really good rap songwriters. The dominance of rhythm and minimization of melody in rap sort of plays into their hands.

I've been a songwriter for a long time (Note the username) and notice that whichever instrument I'm holding when inspiraion strikes generally gets the most interesting part to play in one of my songs. In one I'll be playing guitar when I figure out where the song needs to go. In another one, I'll be on bass. You can listen to the majority of my older songs and tell pretty easily which instrument I was playing when I had the principal idea of a song.

So I guess that's a vote for multi-instrumentalists. But that's because I think that I'm fairly typical in that way.