Inspiration?

How do you get your inspiration that motivates you to start the songwriting process? Firing up the DAW without any preconceived ideas and start from scratch? Noodling around with your guitar, keyboard, or (for some) your Alembic? A melody that's already in your head in which you start recording piece by piece? 
 
Inquiery minds want to know....
 

I have to shut off everything.  No stereo, TV, PC, phone, etc.  I can't listen to anything else when I'm working on a song.  I may start with a bass line or a drum part, but I'll build it out mentally until I've got every part.  If I can't finish the song, I'll file that segment away and let the subconscious work on it.  Sometimes, I'll get that kick from the nether reaches of my mind that tells me that a part I've ruminated on for months has just been finished.

I've been told my process is not normal.

 I know a lot of people start off a project with a beat and go on from there. I have a ton of beats  and kits and for some reason none of them click with anything I try to do lately. The beats were never made with a concrete idea  in mind the way say a real drummer would react with a group. There is something missing, so my best moments have been just firing up Sonar and playing something. Sometimes I'll hear something else to add to it or put my own beat to it.

 Really the best way for me is to sit down rested and not concerned about anything and play what I'm feeling at the time.If I'm not feeling anything I don't try it. To force anything sounds forced in the recording. So I am a melody guy mostly and i build from there. If I can make percussion or drums fit it then ok, but not the other way around usually.

 

 

Mesh

Firing up the DAW without any preconceived ideas and start from scratch?

Never this.

Noodling around with your guitar

This. I try and get the whole thing laid out in some form before I record anything, otherwise it's the kiss of overdub death.

 

I just write, routinely. 

It's easier for me I start to think creatively, if I'm constantly in it. Of course, a large portion of what I do doesn't really deserve to see the light of day BUT it's part of the process. Makes it easier for me to hear what's in the chords, what's hiding inside and to carve it out, a bit like a sculptor, manipulating blocks of stones until he sees what's in it.

What's uninspired stays off the record - but you can still learn a whole lot from it. 

Otherwise, I seem to get a lot of my ideas in the shower, humming freely. But the routine helps put me in a mood where I'm receptive enough for those things to happen.

Mesh

Firing up the DAW without any preconceived ideas and start from scratch? Noodling around with your guitar, keyboard...

 

For me, I'd say that's pretty much it.
In all honesty, I am relatively undesciplined. I generally noodle with a guitar or explore variuos synth sounds.
If I stumble across a riff that I really like, or something suggests itself, I'll run with it. As an idea gels, I get more focused.
As a rule, my songs are more the result of a happy accident than a preconcieved notion.
I've also noticed that I get easily distracted if I try to listen to other stuff while I am working on a project.
Hence my long absences from the Songs forum. I don't even listen to the radio in the van during the day.
When I was working out of my personal van, I could put my tracks on a thumb drive, and listen to them throughout the day. I can't do that in the company van.

Mesh


How do you get your inspiration that motivates you to start the songwriting process? Firing up the DAW without any preconceived ideas and start from scratch? Noodling around with your guitar, keyboard, or (for some) your Alembic? A melody that's already in your head in which you start recording piece by piece? 
 
Inquiery minds want to know....
 

Alembic???  Who the heck has one of those???

doing this....



Sometimes taking pictures can inspire me as well...

I always have great ideas for tunes in my head at work. But when I get to the studio NOTHING! 

Some songs come from ideas for a great lyric hook or a title that sounds really good.  Quite a few of the songs I have written were started like that. 

Sometimes I send them to my co-writer and she comes back with some good lyrics and that fuels the process. 

Messing on the guitar or keyboard doesn't really get me too many ideas. 

Listening to songs other people write will sometimes inspire me. Jimmy Gentry and a song he wrote inspired a song that Pat & I wrote called....That Ought to Count for Something...... I sent his song to my co-writer with explicit instruction not to copy anything in Jimmy's song, but to use it as a guide for whatever idea she came up with. One day later she sent me the lyrical idea and I started working it into a song with her.  

Sometimes I will fire up Band in the Box and start messing around with patterns in it and something interesting develops. Sometimes not...... but quite a few of my songs were inspired and created in this manner. 

I don't set down to write very often with just a goal of writing a song, although that has happened too.  I am a TAXI member and every now and then, looking through the listings, I see something that sparks an idea. I take the info they placed into the listing describing what the director is wanting and I will write something based on that. This has turned up some interesting songs.   Footsteps in the Hall and Just another Rainy day are examples of tunes that were written from a TAXI listing..... and both were started and completed in just a few (2-3) days max..... from  an idea then start to mastered. 

I can say truthfully that I never fire up the DAW and use it as a writing tool. When the DAW gets fired up, the song is already together and 99% finished. It might have lyrical edits left at that point.  I'm not saying that you should not use the DAW if that works for you, it's just not the way I write. 

No matter how you get the inspiration, the important thing is that you get it. And then what you do with it. 

I constantly record ideas on my iPod Touch as I go. Then when I want to create I fire up my DAW, load in a few MP3's and start making these weird hummed melodies, rhythms and musical ideas into something that makes sense musically.

Noodling mostly.

Pretty much all the ways you describe Mesh.

I'm probably closer to Robert's description than any thing.

Sometimes I'll load up an app and I'll just dive into some idea straight away, sometimes I'll get a melody snippet in my head, sometimes I'll pick up a previously saved idea that sparks me off when I listen to it again, sometimes I'll just enjoy something that comes from a bit of keyboard noodling.

I generally have far more ideas down than I have desire in seeing any of them through to finished product so maybe inspiration isn't a problem as much as discipline following through with those initial ideas is.

Ah, ya, I guess, okay, sure I suppose, about what has been posted already.

hallucinogenic drugs

arse

For my own stuff mainly I fiddle/noodle about until something interesting finds its way to my finger tips.

On the very rare occasions I have an idea for a piece it usually ends being something completely different.

bapu


arse

yes, that too

daryl1968

bapu


arse

yes, that too

Good. I was worried you had strayed.

bapu

daryl1968

bapu


arse

yes, that too

Good. I was worried you had strayed.

the drugs remark was a bit irresponsible (sorry kids). Actually I don't do drugs and I don't drink anymore.
 
 
 
I don't drink any less either.

daryl1968

bapu


arse

yes, that too

Inspiration or Motivation?

bapu

daryl1968

bapu


arse

yes, that too

Inspiration or Motivation?

you know what Bapu, joking apart, I feel like I am in a very creative place at the moment.
I am writing songs for the first time in a while and really enjoying it. How's that book going? 

Most times I just start playing the keys. If nothing comes out, I grab a fakebook or various sheet music and jack some chords from songs and play around with them. If nothing comes after that, I start messing around with sounds from Omnisphere or some other VST. If nothing comes after that, I turn on my XBox and call it a day.

i`m with Starise-i start with the drums.
for our side project i chose my favourite songs by my favourite drummers and recorded the drums while playing along with them-after a few beers my mate and i pick a drumtrack at random and jam on it and once the melody and riffage are established we present it to the bass player and drummer at "rehearsal" for them to interpret their own way.
the beauty of the random selection is that the song structures(verse chorus tempo etc) are established and you have a parameter to fill and it`s a hell of a lot more fun than programming a drum machine.
it used to frustrate me that i couldn`t "write songs" on my own until i realised a band is the sum of it`s parts and that i could contribute in my own way.
i think it was Leonard Cohen who said he`s been writing the same song all his life,don`t quote me though
cheers

daryl1968

bapu

daryl1968

bapu


arse

yes, that too

Good. I was worried you had strayed.

the drugs remark was a bit irresponsible (sorry kids). Actually I don't do drugs and I don't drink anymore.
 
 
 
I don't drink any less either.

What a sell out!  Well, at least you have a prize-winning blue peter.  
 
Personally, I have no problems admitting that halucinagens have contributed to my inspirations in the past.
 

trimph1


doing this....



Sometimes taking pictures can inspire me as well...

  I knew I was missing something. I NEED A CAT!!!.....preferably one with a sense of rhythm. Just funnin' wit ya trimph1. I think animals contribute so much to our lives.

If you normally write with a guitar..... 

try writing with a piano or bass, or drums. The difference puts you into unfamiliar territory and your brain has to think differently and that causes new possibilities to surface, and often provides the inspiration for something totally different.  

Herb,

I don't know any chords on the drums.

Don't you have an Am drum?

Karyn


Don't you have an Am drum?

I have one on order from The Bouy Ltd.


The pre-order fess are killing me.

 Me neither.

 Had a tough time writing with a guitar too...so heavy and nothing came out.(that was REALLY unfunny).Do I owe the CH an apology for that one?

 
 

bapu

Karyn


Don't you have an Am drum?

I have one on order from The Bouy Ltd.


The pre-order fess are killing me.

Did they tell you the instruction book is a chargable extra?   and did they charge you to tell you?

Karyn

bapu

Karyn


Don't you have an Am drum?

I have one on order from The Bouy Ltd.


The pre-order fess are killing me.

Did they tell you the instruction book is a chargable extra?   and did they charge you to tell you?

Zactly! But on the bright side it was Opposite Day so there was 50% increase in price, rather than the normal 100% increase. 

Starise

I knew I was missing something. I NEED A CAT!!!.....preferably one with a sense of rhythm.

I love the cats we've got, but I've learned to keep them out of the music room when I'm trying to work.  Our old black cat used to sing along with me.  I could never determine if the cat was thinking "duet" or actually howling in pain.  I'm leaning toward duet because there was never any hissing.
 
For me, inspiration can hit in any form.  From noodling on guitar/bass/piano, humming, reading something interesting, mis-hearing someone else's lyrics.  If I run across a sweet song/book/album title, that usual inspires an attempt to create my own just-as-cool title.  For example "Dreaming With Tears in My Eyes" or "The Beat That My Heart Skipped".