Writing songs.

I've never actually written a song.. or perhaps I should say 'finished' writing a song. When I think out a song I have a strange procedure... and your first take will be "that makes perfect sense"....

I start with the Rhythm, or the beat. Ok, I'm drummer... logical, right? BUT... I don't do it from a drum basis.... I use the rhythm guitar, or even the lead guitar/keyboard/ trumpet whatever. This before the melody... which, as you know, is bass-ackwards. I like, maybe need, to "hear" the flow of the song from which I can apply a melody. Sounds limiting but it actually isn't for me. I can create, (again, mentally), a rhythm and then mentally work out many different melodies.

So why don't I write songs? Good question... certainly a lot of reasons but right at the top would be plagiarism. Not consciously... but over the years I've worked out many melodies in my head only to discover, somewhere down the road, I'm mimicking a song already written and recorded and that I know. Also I don't 'speak' music very well, as this post will attest. I can't really relay what is in my head to the other musicians. Laziness... I'm just too lazy to sit down at a keyboard and pencil out what's in my head. I tend to be overly complex... most of the most beautiful songs are not really complex... they are quite straight forward. Then there is this: Fear of failure.

I view song writers who come up with something truly original the same way I view Einstein's theory of relativity and those that can comprehend it. - JamesJM