A thread or conversation with fellow ampers
to discuss what gets your juices flowing to pick up the guitar or whatever
and approach the recorder to create a composition or new song???

This could be intersesting???



swordfish

Ok I'll go first ...........

So .............

I love the fact I can musically try almost anything here on bandamp .............
so there is an audience for whatever i try to do..........
sitting in front of a blank computer leads me down one of these routes.........
I tend to noodle with drum patterns for ages and get nowhere........... thats a normally poor route!!
I get hold of a phrase or a bit of 'talk' ........ that gets me going .........!!!!!
even better is when i just grab the guitar and play!!!..........most ideas tend to come from this....
Also......... experimenting with stuff i find out about from you tube---- like multitrack recording mehods --or vocoder in FL8--adding fx .....etc
The best is when i just grab a really off the wall subject and run with all the above!!!
Working with others (collabs) is hard ........... but great fun when it works!!!!!!


did i mention Sauvignon Blanc???

Fish Exposed HaHa

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE

The more I practice the more ideas I get, always start with major and minor scales, about 5 mins per day.
Try to practice for half an hour a day, also I experiment a lot, try to find new chords that SOUND NICE, and find ones that go together well, once I've found a nice sound, it becomes natural to create melodies, they just come into my head.

The other important thing is to be relaxed, thus your mind is more free, able to tap into your creative abilities.

And finally probably the most important 'MAKE IT FUN'!!!!!

This is a great thread idea swordy.
What sparks me...well...sometimes i get these random surges of lyrics and i just have to stop everything and write this huge list of things that have appeared in my head. This is a result of me thinking about the subject of the song or the idea of how I would like something to go, but sometimes its completely random like when I'm not even thinking about it. That's how I usually come up with lyrics, in random surges. Then i go through and fix em up and add or take away later. An idea just pops in my head and then my brain starts running with it and coming up with rhyming structure and all this stuff and then im like OH CRAP I NEED TO WRITE THIS DOWN!

For music and the actual tune i might come up with it as my brain is stewing over the lyrics, and i'll immediately go to the guitar and be like...hmm what notes is the tune thats going through my head..and i'll try a bunch of different chords until i find the right ones that match with the tune in my head. those types of songs are usually easy ish lyric/chord structure based songs. for like epic songs and guitar solos and stuff i really get ideas from just sitting there and playing guitar, practicing like denis said. even playing other songs. just screwing around and see what i can come up with. the more i play the more i discover and i think that is so cool and brilliant.

then ill go over to the bass or keyboard and mess around with more stuff, record a demo track, send it to my friend, and then we go from there.

I tend to get it from all of those places at any given time.. recently, a harmonica
player with a blues review I've been playing keys with on the side,  threw a hook
at me that he and the guitar player couldn't seem to do anything with..   and asked
what I made of it.. well I toyed with the actual hook line until it seems a couple of
hours passed and I had a complete song done...  the motivation was from three
total combined factors..   1) my birthday was in two days and the hook almost seemed
as if was aimed right at my heart!!  2) of course they asked me to see if I could
do something that was blues and lastly 3) I had been in a Coltrane rock-a-billy kinda
mood for the previous couple of days..  with the first part of a hook line of
"I'm halfway to one hundred"...    and the second part was shite!!!   made it even
more challenging!!  in which again it took a couple of hours..   I'm in the process of
waiting on my son to finish his project where I can get back in my own studio and
lay a track to it...  the kewl thing was the very next day after I had finished it, I had
once again let a deep depression of melancholy set in..  while looking at a big igloo
mug my daughter had brought from "The Old Cookie Store" here in our local mall,
staring at it for a while, also kicked in the muse and creative juices started to flow yet
again..  this turned out a sweet little ballad that I will be doing tracks on after i finish
the first..  yes I at least have a couple of roughs on both to keep from loosing the melody
lines and such!!  I don't think to many of you would be at all surprised if I ever confessed
as to just how many of the ones I'd put up here were just my guitar, myself and the ol
two track.. lol..   guess that's why I'll never be asked to submit material for one of the band
amp compilations..

Peace, Love and Blessings,

Bluey


God gives real talent to real musicians! That way not to much time is
wasted on bullocks like me!!!

Swordy... you've managed to motivate me to reply a thread, and I've not been on this site (as a contributor) for months.  So well done you!

Anyhow, the main reason I've not been on here is because I'm writing more than I have for years at the moment, with inspiration that seems to be flowing in line with the amount that I'm performing and the new people that I'm meeting. But it was always thus.

My song inspiration normally comes from an experience as far as the lyrics are concerned, but musically it really depends. I can be playing around with a chord progression and I think "that sounds pretty good" - usually these musical snippets end up being played with for weeks or months until I've found something else to go with them.  But the most productive way of writing is for me to have a lyrical idea (but not completed lyrics) based on a recent experience to which I then add music and write words in a kind of evolutionary way.
Of course, sometimes I hear music that inspires me in a certain way to write lyrics (Denis' song "Living Free" was one of these).  But the words are always based on either my experience, or inspired by something that has happened to someone I have met and talked to.

Cheers guys...

I may even post a couple of new songs (purely acoustic) just as examples!

Jim AC

[Edit:]  I've done just that... Posted "Song of Dreams" cos this thread "sparked" me

hiya's bro..   very ltns..    I can relate to a few things you mentioned..
but the one that sparked the heaviest inspiration for me to reply was
the one "chord progression that I think sounds good" and  " it get's
played with and practiced for weeks sometimes months before I find
something else to put it with.."....   I just so happen to have one that
I've been working at since I was about 14yrs old..  it's a hybrid mix of
styles... The Who, Johnny Rivers (secret agent man / James Bond Theme)
and finally a little moody bluesish spoon full blended in...  in it's entirety
it runs seven minutes and 13 - 17 seconds... and that's without any lyrics..
many a budding lyricist have tried to write psalms and verse to it, only
to fail miserably...  At the famous Gruhn's Guitar Shop in Nashville, there
are tons of signs around that states "no mini concerts please"...  as they
do not want you spending a whole lot of time in one spot on one guitar, as
well as drawing crowds.... George Gruhn is really a very admirable man!!!
he's one hell'va shrewd business man!!!     well one tues. afternoon, I did
just want the signs asked not....   I played the whole song from start to finish..
just about everyone in the store, including a handful of employees were all
gathered around...   and I knew mr. g was gonna be very p.o.'d at me!!!  so
just as soon as I finished, I shuffled very quickly on my feet if I say so myself..
I stood up and held the little hagstrom I was playing up and proclaimed very
loudly..  There that is just one fine example of the way Mr. George Gruhn and
his fine staff take the time to make sure the guitars they get in here are setup
to their fullest and closest level of perfection!!!  And if I can make this old guitar
sound that good behing the hack guitarist I am for an old pianist, then imagine
what you real guitar guys and girls can do with it, or any of the other fine instruments
here on Gruhn's shelves...   I have already purchased two of his fine instruments, and
I have no doubts that each of you will find the one that speaks to you and seems
to be as if it was made for your own hands!!!  and with that I hung the guitar back on
the wall and tried to get out the door with my head still attached to my shoulders..
but needless to say, I didn't make it as far as the third isle before he had told a buddy
of mine to bring me to his own personal office..   dale and I showed up in the doorway,
and rather then rheeming me a new arse hole as was expected by both of us...  He simply
stated, "I would appreciate it if you didn't play any more concert dates in my store, but I
would like to give you kudos for the quick thinking to do the plug...  fast thinking young
man!!! "   he turned and went back to his work on his desk.. if there really was any, as
dale and I walked out looking at each other very puzzled with the unspoken question
"What the hell just happened???"  

Jim, I had not thought of that in prolly twenty five years or better now.. thanks, as that
was a fond memory, to know I brought the great Geo. Gruhn down a few notches in
younger days!!! 

 peace, love and blessings my friend,

Dan - Bluey

MY GOD SO MANY WORDS!!!!!!
Thankx for all your replies ...........
I had no idea how loquacious we could be!!!!...(WORDY.... )
so keep the commens shorter please........
CONDENSE the response ......... cos i nod off to sleep reading rambling stuff........
try bullet points ...........

OR EVEN PRETEND ITS A TXT MESSAGE!!!!

that will get the idea over fast 2 anyonr reading the thread .........
'jeez i sound like a teechr'......haha

Thanx
shorter punchier fish

Well, here I am. It's been a while since I have rolled around (and that I shall explain later to keep the post a bit... shorter)

My most recent inspirations have come from a plethora of different areas, whether it be love, the lake, another song, mainly it has come from experiences and what not in my life.

I remember 'Ole Blueyes once said, "I keep and acoustic guitar in the bathroom at all times, for when "inspiration strikes"! haha (and ever since then I have kept an acoustic guitar and what I call the "jonJOURNAL" in the bathroom)

                                                       Yours Truly,
                                                                 Sasquatcho