[DireWuff]

Just had to put my dog down, of 14 yrs today, and am overwhelmed with emotion and wanting to express in song. I am an good guitarist, but have never written song one. Just curious, i have some lyrics and wondering to the song writers of the group where do you go from here. i realize this is a very open ended question, but I am curious to hear some methods that you guys may use.

Peace

He's Gone

[CaptainTrips]

Well there are several options available to you know. You have lyrics, so you could try to compose chords to convey a certain feeling. Then from these chords you would draw a melody and put the lyrics to the melody.

Or you could think about what the lyrics mean to you and come up with a melody first. From there just some simple music theory can help you harmonize the melody into chords and everything will be nice and tightly fitting. This is my preference as it allows the melody to determine everything else in the song.

And lastly you could start off with some sort of beat and then start reciting and eventually singing the verses you have written a way in which you would want it to be expressed. Then from there you can take that to the melody and chord phase.

Its all up to you really. Good luck and be sure to let us have a listen when youve finished.

[DireWuff]

Just got finished playing I know you rider, and this is the first time I have cried playing this song since Garcia died. What an unbelievable song in a upbeat key that expresses possible sorrow. That's what I want. I guess that's the secret......

[DireWuff]

Thanks Capt!

[BuddhaG]

I love sad songs that transcend their content with the musical ideas. I would say... if you have lyrics then try to find a chord progression that expresses what you are feeling in the lyrics.

Or think of it like this. The music and the lyrics each could stand on their own: as poetry and as a melodic statement. When they come together to make a song they are more than the sum of their parts.

I'm not much of a songwriter but recently I wrote one that I really liked and it was my most successful attempt and it all just came rushing out one evening in about an hour.

Some people would say its all about the flash, capture what you are feeling in this moment that you most need to write the song. And most of all, do not doubt yourself, just let you and the song be.

[DireWuff]

think of it like this. The music and the lyrics each could stand on their own: as poetry and as a melodic statement. When they come together to make a song they are more than the sum of their parts.


Great feedback!!! Thanks BuddhaG

[DireWuff]

listening to Morning Dew on sirius....WOW

[DireWuff]

tips on searching a chord progression?

[DireWuff]

Thanks folks! working it out now...

Much love to my brothers and sisters in RUKIND!!!!!!!

[Rev_Roach]

not sure what you mean by "searching a chord progression" but id start by picking a key.

lets say you pick G, your diatonic (inside the scale) chords are:

G Am Bm C D (or D7) Em F#dim

so play around with them and see what you like. of course, you can go outside of these chords (F and A are possibilities, as well as slidy things like C-C#-D) but they are a good starting point.

once you get a progression you like, work on singing/whistling a melody over it.

of course, you could make the melody first and then match the chords, but this is the way you asked so thats how im answering.

[DireWuff]

Thanks Rev.. Big help. I guess what im sayin is how do you find what chords sound right in each key?

[Mick]

Finding the right chords for a key: there are some excellent posts on this in Think Tank II that explain this really well, but this is a quick summary: If we think of the key of C, the notes are C D E F G A B, we can also think of these steps as numbers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. Sometimes this is written in Roman numerals like this: I ii iii IV V vi vii(dim), this is the pattern Rev_Roach showed you and it works for every key. So, if you pick key of C and want to play an inside D chord, it will be minor because D is the 2 in the key of C.

Said another way, the ii, iii and vi are written lower case because they are minor chords. The I, IV and V are written upper case because they are major chords, so for the key of C, the inside chords are C, F and G major, D, E and A minor and B diminished. To give you another example, in the key of E, the inside chords are E major, F# minor, G# minor, A major, B major, C# minor and D# diminished.

Hope that helps.

[DireWuff]

Thanks for the summary Mick...I'll check out the think tank. That really did help!

In the key of C major, what scale works, or which do you guys like to use? How would that work for other keys?

[Mick]

Well, this is probably leaving the area of my best knowledge, so if this is completely whacky, feel free to ignore. But, I think the answer is that if you pick key of C, what scale to play really depends on how high or low you want to sing the song and/or solo (not that you can't move scales during the song, and probably should during the solo more often than not). When just playing like jacking around or playing along with recorded music, I will mostly use either the Ionian, Phrygian or Mixolydian scales, probably only because I know those patterns the best. So for C, I would play the Phrygian off the nut, the Mixo off of fret 3 or the Ionian off of fret 8.

Just a personal opinion: If you are writing a song about the loss of a friend, you might want to consider avoiding the keys of C and G. I always think that C and G "feel" "happy" as opposed to D which I think feels more "sad", A can also sound "somber" to me as well. This is completely subjective IMO, and I am sure depends a lot more on HOW one plays the key than just the key itself, and probably depends on where the key fits into the vocalist's range as well, and maybe thousands of other factors, but it is my opinion anyway.

Mick

[DireWuff]

Thanks for all the input Mick, I can't thank you enough for the help.