Sometimes people ask me "how did you get the idea for that song?", or "how did you make that up?"
I tend to cringe at the thought of "making something up". I'd like to think that I create, compose orchestrate or something high sounding like that.
But I suppose when you boil it all down...I make it up.
And the process for "making it up" can be as varied as the people doing the making...er, creating.
For me, when things are going really well, it's like I have this radio inside my head, and I hear all of the parts happening. That's really the best, because then all you're trying do is transcribe what you're hearing.
However, my radio is often fuzzy or not working at all. And when you don't have the radio, what do you do? Well, that's when you need to create or make it up, based on a number of other factors.
I tend to like to start with the words or the lyric. Now, when you don't have your radio working, sometimes it can seem tough to find an idea to write about. However, ideas are all around us. Conversations, Movies, TV Shows, Books, Magazines, Blogs, the list is endless.
The real trick is to find something within those things that you can try and boil down to what may be considered a universal idea, something that might have appeal to a wide group of people, or at least that you think a wide group of people would understand. I've always thought that if I could write something about tying ones shoes, and make it interesting, it would have a chance of being a big hit, because everyone has had to learn to tie their shoes.
So, once I've found my idea of what I want to say, I then have to spend some time determining how I want to say it. What treatment do I give this idea. What point of view am I writing from.
Often, when I know what I want to say, sometimes I'll just start with a sentence or two, without any concern about whether it rhymes. I'm just trying to be coherent and get a start.
If I think the first couple of lines are any good, they may suggest the next lines.
At this point, I'm not concerned with tempo, although I'm keeping my eye and ear open for any cadence the words may suggest on their own. Depending upon what's happening, I may write the lyric to completion, or I may go about half way and see if the words suggest a melody or rhythm - something to propel me.
I usually don't move forward until I have a lyric and melody that I think is working. When I reach that point, I begin to build the musical accompaniment. Most often I'll start with finding the chord progressions, then it's on to the rhythm tracks.
The idea for my song "Do You Remember America?" came from a blog post. As I was reading the blog, many of the ideas there spoke to me, and I felt like...hey I think there's a song here.
Now, I still write lyrics with pen and notebook, but more often, I find myself at a computer, so I tend to fire up notepad and start typing. I probably had the rough draft written in about 10-15 minutes. And then the radio in my head started playing with the words that it saw on the page, and it suggested a melody and cadence for the words.
I knew that I needed to get home right away so that I could record what I was hearing so that it wouldn't fade into the ether. So, I race home and fire up my gear, and just record a rough vocal with a click track, just enough to capture the idea. Then I'm able to go back later and finish "making it up".
Everyone I'm sure creates or "makes it up" differently, and it changes even more when you have a collaborator. The real key is to find what works for you, and then to repeat the process over and over. You'll eventually reach the point where you can call upon your process even when your "radio" isn't operating at peak efficiency.
For a free download of 3 songs please visit http://ez.leemanuel05.com/
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