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Monday, September 10, 2012

10 Ways To Compose Music More Effectively

songwriting image from Bobby Owsinski's Big Picture production blog
Marcel Thomas recently had a wonderful post on Music Think Tank regarding "8 Ways To Compose Music More Effectively." You can read the entire article to get Marcel's take on the first 8, but I added a couple of extra points that I found to be particularly useful.

1) Don’t disregard your ideas too quickly
2) Write something every day
3) Go for a walk before you start composing
4) Listen to your music with fresh ears
5) Write out a structure
6) Seek the advice of other musicians and friends
7) Write in a style you have never done before
8) Learn from other composers, songwriters and producers

9) Don't feel you have to be perfect right away. Too many writers feel that if they don't have a masterpiece right way, the song is no good. While some writers are lucky enough to channel a hit in 10 minutes, that doesn't happen the vast majority of the time. It takes some time and work to polish your idea. Which brings us to:

10) Don't be afraid to refine what you first wrote. While your initial ideas may be the best, the entire song probably isn't. It can take a lot of passes before you get it right, so don't feel like you might be losing some of your mojo by doing a rewrite or two or five.
Songwriting is just like any other creative endeavor. For all but the lucky few, it takes time and effort to polish an idea into a song that other people want to hear.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

These are great and I agree with all of them.

Another one I would recommend, along the lines of writing in a different style: "Try writing with a different instrument than what you're used to".

I find changing guitars or switching to mandolin, tenor guitar or bass, for example, really unleashes some amazing ideas and helps me. I don't believe you need to be a master in the instrument, but just have a rudimentary understanding, for the ideas to flow.

And I've heard that many of the AC/DC hits were written on piano!! :)

Love the blog...cheers...Chris

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