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Actual Songwriting Tips for Guitarists

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 6:13 am
by death2yun
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?

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 11:51 am
by stewart
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.

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 5:06 pm
by Pens
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.

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 10:23 pm
by endsjustifymeans
need tension?

Add dwarfcraft.

Though, that's my solution for basically everything.

Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 5:02 am
by death2yun
Idk what dwarfcraft is.
It's hard to word this right, but Okay how many bars do verses,chorus,etc consist of. 4 bars?

Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 7:29 pm
by stewart
as many as you like/need to have.

Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 8:22 pm
by George
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

Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 10:55 pm
by honeyiscool
Almost all my songs have prechoruses.

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2011 12:58 am
by Pens
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.

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2011 4:10 am
by death2yun
ahh okay that makes sense. thanks dewd

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2011 4:15 am
by death2yun
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?

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2011 4:20 am
by gaybear
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

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2011 4:29 am
by death2yun
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.

Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 1:24 am
by gaybear
so was there any luck with this?

Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:04 am
by robroe
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)