Hi, Our band has been jamming for a year now. Covering Metallica , Maiden , Megadeth ...the usual. And now we want to write our own song. But im sort of lost. I do have a lot of own composed riffs but i donno how to put them all together and make a nice clean riff and select a good chord progression. Any help would be helpful
perhaps for us to be of any real help, we should hear your 'riff's first? see what scales they are in and then try to fit them together? know what genre of music you are planning to do and then work from that point on ... see what the lyrics are like? get a fair understanding of the temp your song will adopt? ... the only advice i can give you to sit down with your complete band, and play together .. take what sounds good to your ears and leave the rest. dont overcomplicate things .. goodluck
Here's a good and effective suggestion...... Try writing few simple songs.....Dont expect to write a Hangar18 as your first song.....Make something very simple like a 3 chord song types.....Get the groove of it, try laying down the vocals, solo..Make a simple song structure...Let it be Nirvana types....Once you write 5 or 6 simple songs, you will start getting better and also will understand about the whole song writing game..... Most beginners when they want to write their first song, they think of their most favourite and complex number....A kick ass riff, then the second guitar joins in harmony, and then double bass drumming, high pitched vocals, killer leads.......You never went to 9th Std. straight....You went through all those kindergarten crap....So take song writing too like that.......
@Shak - We are gonna sit down in the summer and show whatever we have got and then go from there. I think thats the best way to do it. Thanks everybody!
*Get a basic idea of scales keys and modes. Theory helps you improvise more efficiently. *Doodle on your guitar trying out various keys, and changing a chord here and there to see how it sounds *Listen to the sounds of different bands. Maiden has a signature style. Almost all their songs have the same chords (same key too generally) but each song is superb. Similarly with Megadeth -most thrash metal bands have quite a few similarities in their sound. *Don't get stuck with power chords, try some chord inversions. Best example is Smoke on the Water. *Go wild with Guitar Pro, try playing that, and tone it down to your skill level. *Make the whole song yourself, then sit with the band and modify it *Just jam to tunes you know, you may end up with something original that you like *Wait for a stroke of creative genius : EDIT: *Induce creative genius through weed or acid (not recommended unless you pray to the Beatles or the Doors : )
...the thing is im proud of some of the stuff ive written...but its far from metal...its mostly blues and emo...
bulls eye buddy!! you gotta have this chemistry with your bandmates, you gotta sit down and play 'together' < thats the key word (i learnt it the hard way .. .. do a search on IGT if you wanna know what happened between me and the blue butt monkeys)
