Songwriters and solitude.

[dgolding]

I thought my new american wife had gone bonkers when she announced that we were having biscuits and gravy for dinner. Grits are something of a curiosity to me too. I also learned early on not to say, "man, I'm dying for a fag".Anyways, I often find that if I deliberately sit down to write, I have a real hard time of it. I get much better ideas and inspiration when I least expect it, and usually when it's totally impractical.You know how you can see, and actually watch something with your peripheral vision, even though you are looking directly at something else? That's often how ideas come to me. I may be doing something totally unrelated to music, but a part of my mind wanders off to do its own thing, and comes up with ideas. Music tends to come to my mind as a fully finished production, then its a matter of decompiling it to record it.I guess it takes all sorts. A friend of mine prefers to just play, and see what comes out.

[jeffe]

I tend to experiment wildly. Most of my compositions just appear in my head. One day I'll actually reproduce them in the way I first heard them. I'm starting to get quite a bit closer now though.I also pick up my guitar at random times in the day and just fool about. Sometimes I play something by accident and a song can build from that.

[mixopenta]

Wow!This thread turned out to answer the exact same question I was pondering on a couple of weeks ago.I thought I was the only one getting these "finished productions" in my head, and most of the time unable getting them tangible.All of a sudden I "hear" a song in my head, and it's got everything in it - in terms of arrangement and production. But as the minutes go by the "song" kind of thins out, and by the time I'm in front of a keyboard the "magic" of the arrangement is gone and the few fragments I still hear is not at all what I heard in the "full" production.Now I have some tips on actually how to approach this problem. (This forum is an amazing knowledge base). Other times, and often as most of you pointed out, I get a melody or chord progression when I'm doing something completely different. And I think for me it has to be something physical, like chopping wood, or mowing the lawn, when you can allow your mind to sort of drift away. On these occasions it's much easier to put it down, and these ideas tends to be the best.For me, I've found that nothing works twice. If I think I made a great song in one way, there's no way I can repeat it doing it the same way. I have to come up with a different thinking each time. Sometimes playing around with an instrument I'm not familiar with, or buying or borrowing a new keyboard might also do the trick.Well, enough said, I have a ladder to visualize

[donnypike]

Hi Jeffe, For the last 4 months I have been living in the jungle on the NE shore of Maui, Hawaii. I am to the point of talking to my plants. I have no TV, no radio. It takes two and a half hours to get to a real city from where I am. I watch the whales play off shore through my front window. It is a wonderful place to write music and contemplate life. The only thing I miss is someone to share it with.

[jeffe]

Quote:Hi Jeffe, For the last 4 months I have been living in the jungle on the NE shore of Maui, Hawaii. I am to the point of talking to my plants. I have no TV, no radio. It takes two and a half hours to get to a real city from where I am. I watch the whales play off shore through my front window. It is a wonderful place to write music and contemplate life. The only thing I miss is someone to share it with.I'm glad you took the step to join us on here Donny. I've only been on here a short while myself, but I found there are so many people on here who share my love of all aspects of music.There are people who nit pick to the nth degree. There are those that always point out positive aspects. Those that point out negative aspects. Those that are always friendly in their words and some who deliberately oppose, and I think they are all fantastic.There's all the colours of the rainbow here. One big musical family.Welcome aboard.I've looked at your site, and you have a good and interesting musical history. It's not out of place here. A lot of forum members have been doing the music thing all their lives.I found it difficult to come across people around me that could understand my love and obsession with music.I recently discovered that most of them were here.You've got an array of experts in many fields at your disposal here. Everybody seems to help each other.Producers, musicians, lyricists. You name it.Don't hesitate to weigh in with your opinions on threads of interest to you. It helps us all.

[chrisbee]

I'd like to jump in on this thread about creativity and solitude, etc. but first let me throw a Mahalo out to Donny!! Welcome to the forum! I love the north shore of Maui - I've been to Maui twice (+ the big island once) and stayed in Haiku for a week one of the times. The one thing my wife and I noticed is that EVERYTHING shuts down at night on that side of the island. I can see why it's solitude for you. Man I loved it there but I think I'd get cabin fever if I stayed 4 MONTHS! Plus I mostly write tunes from the keyboard and I'd have to ship all my gear over including my G5 Mac... that would be expensive! But onto the thread at hand: I found a great help to me as a composer - I carry a small, digital, dictation machine with me in my car and elsewhere. It's about 1/3 the size of a cellphone, so it fits in my pocket and was only about $40 at OfficeMax. When I get ideas, (which like some of you have said, can happen anywhere), I quickly record the idea by singing into the mic so I don't forget the original idea. I probably look silly driving down the street singing and talking into the little thing, but it's paid for itself MANY times over with songs that I've eventually finished recording and made $$ with. But it also helps keep me close to the original idea as the song develops. Most of the tunes I write I hear the full arrangement all at once, like u peters stated: Quote: All of a sudden I "hear" a song in my head, and it's got everything in it - in terms of arrangement and production. But as the minutes go by the "song" kind of thins out, and by the time I'm in front of a keyboard the "magic" of the arrangement is gone and the few fragments I still hear is not at all what I heard in the "full" production. Having a dictation machine with me at the beginning of an idea allows me to "jot" down other information that I'm hearing about the arrangement so I don't forget it as I go along.When I get stuck I'll usually go away from it for a while; walk the dog, take a shower, etc. But I keep my dictation device close by so if I get a breakthru (better melody, the illusive bridge, the perfect string line, etc) I can dictate the idea and therefore not loose the "magic" as you put it, bro. I highly recommend getting one.

[jeffe]

I've got one of those too, but now I use my phone to do all that, because it has a voice recorder on it.

[walter327]

I definitely need solitude to write, am not to cool on large gatherings and see most of TV as a waste of time and brain cells. I do like short term gatherings, and if I do spend a good deal of time with someone, they're normally the same type of person as I am. Hate going to Asheville, 'cause I seem to lack the ability to block people's rudeness and ignorance out (as if I'm never guilty of that). Work better on my own, too.

[jeffe]

It's really interesting. All the different ways we approach it. However, there seems to be a lot in common with the ideas.