• From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,649

Topic: one for the writers

i always get fits and starts when it comes to songwriting, and at the moment i'm in a deep trough ; cant string a decent chord progression together let alone some meaningful words.

i don't mind a bit of writers block, but why NOW? x factor is still going strong, just tonight i'm a celeb get me out of here started and all i've got for company is a redundant guitar, freecell and candy crush saga....help! sad

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

2 Reply by TIGLJK (edited by TIGLJK 2015-11-16 01:49:07)

  • TIGLJK
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Re: one for the writers

Phill

I found this site on youtube... it has some really good progressions.... when I played along (especially the later ones) I got lots of ideas for songs flying in my head.    Maybe it will do the same for you.

If nothing else, take one of my songs and record it with your spin on it - they always seem to  turn out great.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dsZNku58F6Q

it is a half step down in G   - not standard tuning , - but I played in standard and it still sounded decent.

Jim smile

Your vision is not limited by what your eye can see, but what your mind can imagine.
Make your life count, and the world will be a better place because you tried.

"Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except only the the best." - Henry Van Dyke
  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,649

Re: one for the writers

thanks jim, to be honest it was the longest 8 minutes i've spent for ages (8 mins being as much as i could stand...sorry) i've used all those sequences more than once. the chord i did like was the F#m flat6th, i'm gonna use that one when i get round to it.

i have been busy recording backing tracks for on stage, country roads and come on over to my place. the latter i had to learn the words which i've more or less achieved, something i haven't managed for a while...learning all the words of a new song. naturally i've put my own spin on it. oh, and i've been working on a song for bill.

so if you'd like me to mutilate another one of your songs give me some suggestions


phill

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • From: Wellington New Zealand
  • Registered: 2010-03-24
  • Posts: 1,346

Re: one for the writers

Gidday Phill
I know meaningful words are easier to write.
But maybe you should try ordinary or even silly words
to get you thru the block.
It`s a real trick to make it work,but often you end up with a great song.

The King Of Audio Torture
  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,649

Re: one for the writers

point in question....yesterday, cant remember what mccartney called it till the words came, but maybe i'll try it....no wait a minute, all my words are silly already, maybe i should try intelligent words?

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • Grah1
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  • From: Cold and rainy Settle UK
  • Registered: 2011-05-12
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Re: one for the writers

Phil take a  writing pad to bed with you let your mind run free and if you wake with a lyric in your head jot it down the wrirers block will soon lift.Ive written loads of songs in my sleep,wdll it works for me.

Grah1's Website

  • From: A black hole in deep space
  • Registered: 2007-10-28
  • Posts: 7,862

Re: one for the writers

I go through that once in a while it's normal I found that I enjoy practice more with my Trio recording the progressions I come up with and playing along to them, once there on my boss loop I save them via my Gibson memory cable and upload them to a folder as WAV files so I can get some ideas for songs and also practice on lead riffs it works for me. smile

"Growing old is not for sissies"

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8 Reply by TIGLJK (edited by TIGLJK 2015-11-20 17:53:26)

  • TIGLJK
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Re: one for the writers

ahhhh  ..... Phil     

can't wait till you put out the song for Bill..... I am sure it will be a classic !


AS far as the inspiration... consider this -  YOU are inspiring to many of us.

I have found that when badeye or Bill send us  to the hit of the week - there a lot of other really unusual but cool songs and performances on the list next to whats playing. I generally troll down through till I find something that strikes me  - then try to figure it out chordwise. Like Leadbelly, Robert Johnson, Django Reihnhart, TBone Walker, JL Hooker- Those guys can play !!  etc...  (I'm pretty limited as to what chords I can play - and I don't play lead, but you have both capabilities. )

I'm not sure after reading all that you do that you would have the time to that though.   just sayin - it works for me.


If I were to have you do a song of mine it would be they one that you helped so much on -   Heaven's Door Survivor.  There has never been any mutilation to my knowledge of any song produced by you, i've enjoyed them all.   Everything you change  has a magical touch to it somehow.

Take time to relax and hope something soon moves you to something musically magnificent.

Jim

Your vision is not limited by what your eye can see, but what your mind can imagine.
Make your life count, and the world will be a better place because you tried.

"Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except only the the best." - Henry Van Dyke
  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,649

Re: one for the writers

hi jim, no still nothing. i'm not worried though as i have given myself a couple of projects to do. i finished a CD in july and i've been playing it front to back every time i go somewhere in the car! so last weekend i thought i'd have a change and played 2 old CDs, one from 2006 and t'other from 2009. but they've been corrupted by the labels i put on them, so i'm going to re-do them....maybe.

now to survivor, i down-loaded it with the intention to add bass, keyboards and drums. unfortunately that didn't work out. when i have time i'll give it another go. let you know.

russ, new toys always get the juices flowing, i'm trying to resist. maybe a couple of weeks (or longer) of not writing will rejuvenate my appetite.

grah, the only thing that wakes me in the middle of the night is the urge to pee. having said that i have woken up with a song buzzing around the brain cells....just not recently.
hope you're feeling better after your sudden illness? iechyd da (good health my friend)
.

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

10 Reply by Peatle Jville (edited by Peatle Jville 2015-11-22 21:23:27)

  • Registered: 2015-07-31
  • Posts: 2,718

Re: one for the writers

Phill you are a genius of a musician and songwriter. What you do is magic. I find if I think to hard about song writing nothing happens. When I am completely relaxed without a care in the world lyrics and melodies start popping into my head. I have only been writing songs for about a  year so I have a lot to learn. Easybeat got me playing guitar and composing which has turned out as a great way for me to just chill out and relax.

Now I am in my sixties I still haven't figured out what I am going to do when I grow up.

  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,649

Re: one for the writers

peatle, i love it.....you made me laugh out loud...i'm in my 60's too and i often think my family think i'm in my room playing with my toys, not always quietly!

honestly i'm not worried about not having any inspiration ....yet! i'm just enjoying catching up with half finished songs, mine and and covers. i've been re-recording some stuff i did in 2009, surprised me some were good and some not so good. i may stick one or two on soundcloud sometime.

phill

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • From: Gainesville, Virginia USA
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 2,512

Re: one for the writers

Hey Phill - What I do when I get in a bit of songwriter's block is I go search for new music I might like...usually from artists I've listened to before or maybe something I randomly find out there or someone recommended by a friend. Maybe I'll find one or two, and I'll try and learn a new cover, something I've never tried before, that sounds unusually to me, or plays a chord sequence I know and have used before but in a different way that I used it. Gradually I'll get out of it. Just look a way a bit and get into other folk's music for a while, then get back too it when you feel it start to come back. Good luck.

J  E  T  S
...and yet a Washington Commanders fan (unless they change their name again) ...long story...HTT...C

jets60's Website

  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,649

Re: one for the writers

hi jets,  that's a funny thing, i've noticed that when i listen to a piece of music that i really like it inspires me too but by the time i get to my guitar the riff or chord progression i was thinking of has gone...that's old age for you?

i got up this morning and as i got in the shower i had the first verse of a new song. by the time i'd dried off it had gone again...did i already say that's old age for you?

anyway by trying to remember the chord progression i stumbled across a couple of new ones and a verse so i'll be working on that for the rest of the week as well as bills song and jims song.

bills is nearly finished all it needs is my voice to heal after the weekend and i can add a vocal.

looks like we're back in business

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • beamer
  • beamer
  • THE METALIZER. Naughty Rocker Boy.
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  • Registered: 2006-07-29
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Re: one for the writers

as far as progressions go try www.autochord.com its great. if nothing else it will get you through the hump and into variations.

“Find your own sound.  Dont be a second rateYngwie Malmsteen be a first rate you”

– George Lynch 2013 (Dokken, Lynchmob, KXM, Tooth & Nail etc....)
  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,649

Re: one for the writers

thanks beamer, i think i'm depressed enough as it is and i'm not into god bothering. thanks for the thought.

i think what annoyed me most was the "for people who cant be bothered to learn to play the guitar" or words to that effect. if it had been available when i was 14 i would probably have used it, but i've spent the last 50 years bothering to learn, if not very well.

phill

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • beamer
  • beamer
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Re: one for the writers

"for people who cant be bothered to learn to play the guitar" ******

Not susre where that came from,, but I hope you feel better soon. 
As for me personally,, never learning theory,, I have found it pretty darn great to use LOLOL

“Find your own sound.  Dont be a second rateYngwie Malmsteen be a first rate you”

– George Lynch 2013 (Dokken, Lynchmob, KXM, Tooth & Nail etc....)
  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,649

Re: one for the writers

Sorry beamer that didn't come out right. I checked out the site but it asked for join up money... Then I looked at some of the assets and all I found were hymn's. And there was a line there that said why not use this site instead of learning to actually play. That's when I lost my temper. Thinking about it now I was a little hasty. There are people that have no musical ability that want to write songs or provide backing music for themselves. I've just realised my granddaughter come under that category, she's always writing songs and puts them on Facebook with no backing. I'll have to give her more encouragement. So sorry and thanks.

Phill

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website