songwritting(guitar)

ggreiner9

helloo ive been playing guitar for almost two years, and id just like some advice/help/tips on writing songs on guitar... (i know this isnt the most specific forum in the world to post thisat, but i can use all the advice i can get)

i play rock.

thanks

CamiBor

I play guitar too but you dont need any advice to writ a song you just need to write words from your hart and play with the guitar to find the muisic that you want!

Good Luck!

Kaneda

Pretty much agree with ggreiner9. No real need to learn anything - play and progress by trial and error. Still, music theory can be helpful if nothing else then to add some inspiration by broadening your vocabulary and informing you on the choices you have to make a certain effect. But the most important thing is to listen to others - listen to what you like, and constantly broaden your tastes.

To me, it works like learning to speak a foreign language - you can learn it by studying grammar and listening to others, or you can learn it by listening to others exclusively, but you can't learn it by reading a grammar book and not listening.

If you do decide on doing some music theory, everything helps - from harmony over counterpoint to arrangement etc. I write music in anything from electronica and rock over jazz to orchestral ("classical") music - and the music theory is helpful in all of it, not least rock - Prokofiev can be very helpful when writing a rock ballad Wink

I don't play guitar, by the way, but piano and saxophone.

Oh yes, another thing... A dictaphone or similar is a good investment when you come up with a great melodic phrase out of nowhere - no matter how deranged you may look to other people when you're humming (or worse, singing) into it in the supermarket. Smile

Ricky

U knead 2 lern 2 spel sew U kan reed the werds U rote.

Tumbleweed

Chord progressions are allways handy to give you a basis to work off and not hard to learn if you can play some chords.
Then Chord fills to embelish your progression , pull offs ,slides, hammer on's ect
Then some scales for the twiddly bits.... even basic scales triplet'ed fast enough sound cool
You could try to play by your ear or by your heart and you could be the new Jimi Hendrix (he uses jazz chord progressions) but I think you need first to give your heart the tools to voice itself.
I know nothing of song lyrics apart from some writers write a whole story/essay on the subject at hand and take snippets out of that and re-arrange the order, sorta like below they would be my first three lines to a song made from my short passage above

" you could try"
" hard not to learn"
" you can play"

best of luck

SunburnedCactus

Nick87

I can go and type out a lot of the theory here, but I'm not going to, It's gonna be a lot of work, and I'm sure you would get just as far with some creative googling.
I am a professional songwriter, and it can be really hard work, but I know from my own work, when i just follow the classic rules, I get something that's nice, but if I don't pour my heart and soul in there, it isn't going to be great, and do you want a nice song or a great song?
Make sure you don't settle, even if you don't find the great guitarriff you are looking for right away, put down your work for a while, go take a walk, or have a smoke or something and start again. Don't stop until everything is right about the song. It doesn't matter in what genre you're about to write a song, make sure that every note is right, every single note in every part.
If you have a good melody, that's nice, but it isn't much without the right chords under them, and those two need to be supported by a great bassline etc. etc.
And don't be afraid to break the rules, experiment. Hook up your microphone to your distortions, try making a drum with coathangers or use kitchenappliances for extra effects...
Good luck!

Tumbleweed

achene

go on and jam - eventually with your band if youre in one.. that way i get a lot of ideas for my bands songs. we play metal though.
another thing you could do (and alot of people do) is to learn scales.

erik

What kind of music do you want to write?