Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of Steven Snodgrass

September 15th, 2009 – The friend I’m staying with here in Osaka is quite a busy musician. Up until now though, he’s been mostly playing covers but lately he’s been working on original material. He asked me how I start a song and how I build up its production.

I’m not experienced enough to be able to write songs a certain way every time, so I was unable to tell him a magic formula. Sometimes an idea just comes to me and it could be on any instrument. Sometimes I sit there on one instrument until I come up with something interesting. Sometimes, although it hasn’t happened in a while, someone commissions me to write a song based upon something that’s hot on the radio.

After I get the idea, I build from the rhythm tracks, up to vocal melodies and lyrics. I’ll then add little ideas that pop out and make the track more interesting. Next, I’ll start mixing the music. Sometimes an effect will overtake the mix and become its own hook. At that point, I may tear down the track again to build around that new idea.

As you can see, I’m somewhat all over the place when I create music. I’m sure I’m not alone in lacking a go-to songwriting method though. Do you have a surefire method on how to start a song? How do you build up the production?