Actual Songwriting Tips for Guitarists

death2yun · Post by **death2yun** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 6:13 am

Okay I took lessons for years and learned lots of theory and whatnot.
I've been trying to work on song structure & I'm having issues with how many parts a song should have.
Most of what i'm writing is structured like so;
Intro, verse,chorus,bridge,whatever
But what i'm wanting clues about how to build tension in the verses, and just generally how other people go about building dynamics without being boring.
Idk any tips?

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 11:51 am

personally i'll change vocal melody halfway through a verse or change the guitar part, or have the bass do something different (in a band situation). or bring in some sweet pinch harmonics and a gong. the choices are, literally, endless.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 5:06 pm

Um. I guess my only "tricks" are to have the bass change lines maybe two bars before the chorus, or pick up the vocal part to a different melody. Or the old standby of playing the second half of the verse with more distortion and a more screamed vocal, or then there's the strum the last couple of chords harder trick. Actually I use the strum harder at the end of the verse thing a lot.

endsjustifymeans · Post by **endsjustifymeans** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 10:23 pm

need tension?

Add dwarfcraft.

Though, that's my solution for basically everything.

death2yun · Post by **death2yun** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 5:02 am

Idk what dwarfcraft is.
It's hard to word this right, but Okay how many bars do verses,chorus,etc consist of. 4 bars?

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 7:29 pm

as many as you like/need to have.

George · Post by **George** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 8:22 pm

death2yun wrote:Idk what dwarfcraft is.
It's hard to word this right, but Okay how many bars do verses,chorus,etc consist of. 4 bars?

use an ouija board

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 10:55 pm

Almost all my songs have prechoruses.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Sat Dec 24, 2011 12:58 am

death2yun wrote:Idk what dwarfcraft is.
It's hard to word this right, but Okay how many bars do verses,chorus,etc consist of. 4 bars?

Er, depends on how long 1 bar is? I always go by feel when it comes to writing songs.

Okay, so this one song I have, the verse is 4 bars clean, next is 4 bars the same riff but distorted, vocal melody is the same but my voice is louder and more distorted (screamsinging?), then the chorus, 4 bars, then back to the main riff, 4 bars distorted. Repeat for next verse.

Other songs might be 2 bars before the verse, some choruses are only 2 bars. I have one song that has a chorus that's 3 bars.

Just depends on the length of one bar and how it feels in the song.

death2yun · Post by **death2yun** » Sat Dec 24, 2011 4:10 am

ahh okay that makes sense. thanks dewd

death2yun · Post by **death2yun** » Sat Dec 24, 2011 4:15 am

okay so i just demo'd the different parts of this song i came up with really quick; help would be appreciated.
http://singinbrokenenglish.tumblr.com/
it's the first post that shows up, and i'm just having trouble designating the parts.
On the recording i just play the parts through with no repeating. it's like a minute long.
Anybody care to gimi tips on how to structure it?

gaybear · Post by **gaybear** » Sat Dec 24, 2011 4:20 am

so it seems to me like you got
phrase A: picky part
phrase B; strummy part
phrase C: half-time strummy part
phrase D: strummy bridge
i think a good start would just be to play
A, B, C
A, B, C
D
A

death2yun · Post by **death2yun** » Sat Dec 24, 2011 4:29 am

gaybear wrote:so it seems to me like you got
phrase A: picky part
phrase B; strummy part
phrase C: half-time strummy part
phrase D: strummy bridge
i think a good start would just be to play
A, B, C
A, B, C
D
A

hell yeah. much obliged.

gaybear · Post by **gaybear** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 1:24 am

so was there any luck with this?

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:04 am

work on developing the ammount of voices you can make with your voice. start with an impression of someone, then tweek it and use it as your own.

like i got a quiet voice, loud voice, axl voice, courtney voice, baby kitty voice (its a mix of the dude from Cinderella and me)