November 5, 2003
Day 5
[ Edit ]
It’s really, really easy to do pieces of things. Extending them into songs is much harder. But I knew that.
Something I didn’t know: apparently I think I need lyrics before I can write a song. I’ve come up with lots of stupid little ideas on guitar, but none of them wants to go anywhere without words. So I’ve written half the lyrics to two songs so far — neither of them is probably going to be a keeper, but at least I’m showing myself that I can write words if I really have to.
So lyrics come before music in a singing song, but what about instrumental? I have no idea. I haven’t come up with something I really like yet, so I have no answer.
On the drums front, I’m getting much more proficient in Logic’s Matrix Editor, which is the visual way to edit MIDI sequences. My idea right now is to sequence a long MIDI drum groove, and then record real drums over the top. Tonight I worked on Vinnie Colaiuta’s groove from Seven Days, a song on Ten Summoner’s Tales, my favorite Sting album. It’s a groove in five that loops over two bars. It’s pretty simple in theory, but not easy to play consistently as well as Vinnie does on that track. Anyway, I’m programming something based on that groove, and it may make my EP.
Posted by Joe | TrackBack
Honestly, I never write lyrics first.....but then again, I have a really unproductive take on writing music. I only write what my instrument says to me, which often times is nothing. When it does say something, lyrics are easy - they're just translating what the instrument's doing. I'll often just wind up playing something and words come out.
They're definitely not going to be much of a coherent narrative, but I'm not a storyteller through poetry anyhow.
And then again, maybe you shouldn't listen to me at all - how many complete tunes with vocals do I have in my songbook?
Posted by: rocko at November 6, 2003 10:59 AM