Songwriting thread

SammieWammie · #1 11-21-2011, 05:19 AM

Thread about songwriting, not just limited to jazz, can be any genre you wish. Share your ideas, tips, methods, interesting points about songwriting

I've been working on a few ideas myself, my latest is shaping into a decent little acoustic piece, although I've never finished anything to the standard where I'd say "finished this piece, lets perform it".

jtizzle · #2 11-21-2011, 01:30 PM

I've been working on my songwriting as of lately. I want my senior recital, which is coming up in about a year, to consist of mainly original pieces. Not only that but I have a goal set up that I want to have an album worth of songs written out by the time I graduate, so if anything happens, I'm ready to go :P

Right now, I've gotten 3 pieces I can say are finished, and a bunch of ideas.
One is a really straight ahead, almost cheesy, swing tune, but I really like it. The chord changes are pretty fun to play over too, and really easy to reharmonize with lines.
Another one I wrote is a reharmonization to Rhythm Changes, which I think I talked about in another post. Basically took the changes, reharmonized it in the following way: the first 8 bars, the I-VI-ii-V's, turned them into Tadd Dameron changes. Reharmed the next 8 bars into 3-9 subs, some upper structure chords, and some sus chords. The bridge I made it move in 4ths instead of 5ths.
And the last one is a ballad I wrote that has some pretty weird key movements. C, to Eb to Ab and then the bridge just goes all over, transposing the second half a 4th up. This is my favorite of all three by far though.

My next venture is writing more modern stuff. I'm working with different time feels and also polyrhythms or weird subdivisions, like quintuplets or septuplets. Right now I have a pretty cool groove in 7/4 going and want to write something more modal with it.

fep · #3 11-21-2011, 02:29 PM

Is an instrumental piece a "song"? Does a song have to have lyrics?

I read that to keep in shape Stevie Wonder writes a song a day.

JonnyPac · #4 11-21-2011, 02:32 PM

We have a little system in the showcase thread for new compositions. Anything you have is welcome as far as I know. Check it out and post!

SammieWammie · #5 11-21-2011, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fep

Is an instrumental piece a "song"? Does a song have to have lyrics?

I read that to keep in shape Stevie Wonder writes a song a day.

Of course it is! And wow, that is a good way to stay in shape. If only I could do that...

fep · #6 11-21-2011, 04:36 PM

A song is a composition for voice or voices.

Song... singing... words look kinda similar, don't you think.

SammieWammie · #7 11-21-2011, 04:43 PM

I did not know that. I was referring to writing music in general. I call most musical pieces a 'song'. What should they be called? And personally I've never written a 'song' with lyrics, only instrumental.

fep · #8 11-21-2011, 04:48 PM

No big deal, but it can be confusing when you say song or songwriting because some (myself included) immediately think of lyrics being included.

Instead of song...

musical piece
tune
composition
(EDIT ditty is no good, looks to require voice also)
instrumental piece

Someone can probably come up with some more. Anyone?

SammieWammie · #9 11-22-2011, 02:37 AM

I can't think of any more. Unless it's a jam, then it's a jam.

A question that always bugs me: how do you name an original tune? I suppose it can come from anything. But examples?

jtizzle · #10 11-22-2011, 02:08 PM

I don't see the difference in calling a song a song or a tune or a piece or a composition. Music is music. A lot of instrumental music can be very lyrical and not have to have lyrics.

Usually when I title a song I do one of the following things:
I write it being inspired by something, so I call it something close to what inspired me. I wrote a song when I was thinking about back home, so I called it Palm Beaches (West Palm Beach, Fl).
I also try to take the first phrase and maybe put some sort of lyrics to that or something like that.

cosmic gumbo · #11 11-22-2011, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SammieWammie

A question that always bugs me: how do you name an original tune?

Random song name generator
Song Name Creator - SongName.net

MarimbaGuitar · #12 01-16-2012, 08:26 PM

Dont know if this is the right place to put this, but this is a little hook type thing I came up with and jammed over for a minute or two. I recorded it about 2 years ago when I still thought every jazzman used the blues scale haha... If anybody actually cares here it is. Download By All Means Funky (BAMF).mp3 - Kiwi6.com Mp3 Upload