Beginning song writing, need some help, starters, tips, all that jazz :D.

[Jbyjnkx57]

Hey TBers!

So I'm just now getting into some song writing, I'll be writing some vocal melodies and some lyrics for sure and maybe some bass stuff.

My questions are:
What are the best ways to effectively convey your creativity?
Where to start when writing a song or music?
General beginner tips, tricks, secrets, stuff to watch out for, and anything helpful really haha.

I definitely appreciate the help to everyone who decides to contribute, and I really love the tight knit tb community!

Thanks so much!

Joby

Also if it's any consent, we are writing mostly pop/hard rock.

 

[BenBL]

Seriously remember melodies. I didn't write vocal melodies for the first couple of songs that I wrote and they just sounded awful.
I often come up with a cool riff or chord progression that I will build the rest of the song off of. Don't be afraid to throw stuff away. I have been writing this huge song, and arranging it for a bunch of instruments, I probably wrote enough to make the song twice as long as it will be, so if something doesn't work no big deal just come back to it for another song.

Over all just start writing

 

[SeanO34]

Seriously remember melodies. I didn't write vocal melodies for the first couple of songs that I wrote and they just sounded awful.
I often come up with a cool riff or chord progression that I will build the rest of the song off of. Don't be afraid to throw stuff away. I have been writing this huge song, and arranging it for a bunch of instruments, I probably wrote enough to make the song twice as long as it will be, so if something doesn't work no big deal just come back to it for another song.

Over all just start writing

Great advice, my band have thrown away more songs than we have, but always come away with the best material at the end of it! You have to write the rubbish songs to know there rubbish! Don't rush things!

I wouldn't say there was 1 particular method for doing it, wether it be;

Suggesting ideas at rehearsal

Sitting in your bedroom by yourself and craft a whole song and then present it to your band mates

Or any other ways you can think of! Lol

A great thing our band does is try to record EVERYTHING.... Sounds silly but it means things in the magic of the moment can be regurgitated! I just use my iPhone , the quality is horrible but if it's decipherable then job done!

 

[AmieLouHat]

I'll second the notion of recording everythihng. We have recorders on phones, we record every rehearsal, there's a 4 track digital recorder sitting on top of our piano at home and we keep another in the living room where the guitars tend to hang out. Just the other day the drummer put a CD from rehearsal in of something the rest of us were playing while he went to grab sticks. He had expanded the 4 lines of vocals that I had to about 2.5 verses and a chorus and had written a very nice drum part that made the song sound like something between the Who and the Foo Fighters. We probably won't play that one out at our next gig on the 13th but I have no doubt it will be ready by May or so. With all four of us in the band writing we come up with about 6-8 songs a month and throw out about 2-8 songs a month, or at least put them on the chopping block. Nothing is trash, some things just aren't ready to shine yet.