Getting ready to record or create a song?

I was thinking about recording a song and or writing a song today. The thing is that also made me think : "How do you prepare to do that?", I know you practice what you are doing which is something that I just can't seem to get around to doing, I just go with the flow so to speak and lay it down. Which more times than not is a mistake. I need to practice and I know it and I'm trying to get around to doing that, it's a time issue. Ok enough about me so back to the subject : " How do you prepare to record or create a song?".

Here's what I am getting at and I hope you get it, Here's a short example, lets say you are going to record a Vocal part wouldn't it be a smart move to listen to songs in the same genre of music and key and or tone or your vocal range that you are gonna record for a short time before you lay down the vocals and practice with it while listening a couple of weeks in advance?. This is just a thought and I know I'm reaching here and I hope somebody get's what I am talking about.

All at the same time though, wouldn't it be better to just totally get away from what you are doing and be more creative in your music by listening to something different and trying to be more creative? Or that is just pick up your instrument and start playing without thinking. I do this far far too much, I just make up stuff on the spot and yeah it's fun but in the end it always lacks something or has several mistakes. I tend to overlook them because it was fun but that doesn't mean others do also. I'm not asking about practicing tips or nothing like that, I'm talking about : "How do you get ready to record or create a song?". You can practice and then come up with one, or you can just pick up your instrument or start playing sound or start writing poetry a few weeks later after being in the wilderness and not talking to anyone. Just wondering?

I know you could try both as far as practice and listen to music and or stay away from music and then start creating it, I mean you can create a song based on anything in any genre of music by starting out with any instrument as a foundation. I'm probably not conveying what I am talking about too well which is more than likely the first sign of a bad songwriter or performer, what the heck it's fun and I'll keep on trying.
Either way I just thought this would be a nice topic to discuss because we can all use advice on getting prepared before hand to record a song or create one. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Keep on keepin' on!

Sorry such a long message, I really really need to go practice!!!

I'm with you guitar hacker,
Exposure to new music, practice time, and noodling for riffs are all continuous processes. Often the combination will lead to a finished instrumental composition. But for an actual song i tend to depend on lyrical inspiration: a lyric idea has to hit that has enough substance to generate two or three verses and a chorus; which after writing, rewriting, and rewritng again, becomes the song stucture. Once i have a lyric to work with, the natural meter of the words suggest the melody, then working out the harmony, bassline, drumbeat, solos and fills is just a matter of time and effort and refinement.

I don't have a set system.

My most common scenario is to find a riff or chord progression that shows promise and then fire up Sonar and put in a simple drum loop and try to play it over that. I adjust the tempo as needed and if things go well I lay down a track or two to get started. After that it can be a dead end (project that is unfinished to be revisited later hopefully) or I can spend time for days, even weeks afterwards trying to add to the song in various ways. That is why my songs are so dang "schizophrenic".

The other scenario that happens is that I come up with more of the song while practicing/playing and then I fire up Sonar. Just a delayed version of the first scenario really.

Maybe I'll get better over time and will learn to create songs with just my guitar and a scratch pad but for now, Sonar is part of my writing process. I guess it could be considered cheating or a crutch but it is how I do things at this moment.

On a few of my collabs with Tom of Project Shed I simply gave Tom some unfinished song ideas and he sliced and diced them to give it a better structure than I had and then we simply started piling other stuff on top of that. That is a really cool thing to hear happen and I plan to try to mimic that to some extent whenever I see an opportunity.

I am certain though that to date, I have never written a song entirely before going into Sonar.

i start work on a composition in the key i first hear it in in my head. if all goes well it might end up in that key. but i will transpose in order to try out different guitar chord voicings, to move the bass notes to an easier to play range, to make it easier to sing, or to put it in a key i can play on harmonica, then finally use midi transpose on the key parts and a capo on the guitar parts to get everything in the same key.

I go through my musical ideas looking for snippets with the same BPM or similar style, then juxtapose them and see if they work together. I've had several longer compositions put together from snippets this way.

Check out this thread

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.asp?m=1407966

1. take guitar into bedroom with voice recorder in case i do something cool
2. start messing around with chords.
3. start singing random words to find a melody. (sometimes these random words turn into lyrical ideas.)
4. when i've got a tangible sketch i turn on the voice recorder and run through it a couple times.
5. start writing down lyrics - typically these get done in less than an hour, with some minor editing later on. i find the longer it takes me to get the lyrics i want the worse they become.

That's a great formula, I used to do that a long time ago, but I must add the all important #6 : Make sure and don't do that more than 2 or 3 times or for 2 or 3 song I should say and make sure you finish the things you have started within a reasonable amount of time instead of doing like me and having about 200-250 cassette tapes with ideas and unfinished work that after so long you have no idea where the idea come from or where it should go. That's just my opinion anyway.

Keep on keepin' on!

My problem is that I give myself too much time to criticize my work and the project ends up getting shelved.
I'm still struggling with that, but I've been better at actually getting through a tracking session far enough to catalogue some good material for when I'm drunk enough to like it again.

ORIGINAL: Freeze1st


How do you decide what key you are gonna play in? I mean do you hang around where your vocal range is or do you constrict yourself to what you like? Or do you think in terms of someone else's voice singing the song? I know these are tuff questions and probably a little bit invasive. Sorry if that's the case, just don't answer. I'm not trying to perfect a method of recording or creating songs, I'm just trying to fish for ideas as to how I can come up with new songs or that is things I haven't thought of I should say.

I have a ton of cassette tapes that have so many ideas that I made up in the late 80's, some of the stuff is garbage but then again some of the stuff I like and I need to finish what I started so many years ago but it was started when I was younger when I had more energy or inspiration at that moment in time so to speak, everything that was made up at that time was on the spot with just me and my guitar on those tapes. I'm just looking for idea's as to what direction I should go with those ideas because it's been at least 20 years since I made that stuff up.

I never write in a way that i think of my voice. I write in a way that there is something pleasing to my ear coming from the piano or guitar. Reason is because i write ENTIRELY different things in different keys. Silly , but true. If you limit your writing to only a couple keys you may get stagnant sounding songs after a while. I transpose later if i need to.
Writing should be as free of restrictions as possible. you can (and will) always go back later when you've got something and change, fix, edit, scrap but not when you're creating. Creating and editing are contrary acts. Can't be building and tearing apart at the same time (and expect anything beautiful from it).

Those old boxes of tapes are all song seeds. you never know how far a phrase or simple off the cuff riff will take you once you've got fresh ears to hear it.

Don't expect to sit down and write, edit and record a song in one day and expect it to be really good. Let the song live in your head for a couple weeks. The melody will become more natural to you if it's living in the flow-zone and you'll hear how the lyric moves or doesn't move well with it.

It's one thing to sit and sing a song and like it and quite another thing to passively listen to it later. I make rough drafts of the song to listen to on mp3 while i drive and if i get a tight feeling or "what the $%#@ is that?" then i know it's not in the flow-zone and then work more. This takes time. Time is as essential to writing songs as it is to baking or anything living that has a gestation/growth.
Too many words. Try to find something you can take from this rambling