Songwriter's Thread (All Musicians Welcome)

For all the music-lovers out there, this is your place to swap lyrics, talk about new bands and jazz about concerts. All things related to the audio world belong here.

Postby Strafe » Tue Aug 24, 2010 10:20 am

Actually, alot of my recent songs written from my own thoughts seem to have been about how aimless everyone around me is, and how they don't seem to be alive. As if we're all nameless nobodies living for no purpose, or living in a meaningless purpose. Like how even the clouds look at us and see that we're meaningless. I wrote a few songs about broken people looking for what they think is love and finding it to be empty and in the end self destructive. Another is a song about the fear of things around them changing and trying to run away from the future. I write from what I see around me I guess. I continuously ask the question, is there something more? Who are we exactly? What are we looking/ waiting for? What does it mean that nothing lasts?

And my symbolic answer to that question is in the worship songs, and biblical songs I write. And I write alot from Scripture and the Psalms, Bible events. Like The Apostle Paul before his death. Psalm 42, 43.

And then one time I was feeling really weird and wrote in the perspective of a heroin addict staring at the moon about to commit suicide... The guitar riff was pretty good though. But it shows that when you don't have much of an inspiration, you start getting strange.
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Postby yukoxholic » Tue Aug 24, 2010 10:45 am

Ahhh, youth. XD yeah, when I was younger I would constantly think that way. Sometimes I still have that manner of thinking but its through Christ that we have a purpose even if we are unsure what that purpose is we should strive to find out what exactly God has in store for us! In Christ everything is possible.

I think that’s wonderful that you love writing worship/biblical songs so much. It’s great to see a younger generation really excited about their faith in God. Your dedication is admirable. ^_^

Strafe (post: 1419383) wrote:
And then one time I was feeling really weird and wrote in the perspective of a heroin addict staring at the moon about to commit suicide... The guitar riff was pretty good though. But it shows that when you don't have much of an inspiration, you start getting strange.


I wouldn’t necessarily deem that as “strangeâ€
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Postby Strafe » Tue Aug 24, 2010 12:33 pm

Oh wait. No I'm not the one asking the question. Let me try to explain what I mean.

It's great that I know what my own meaning is, but what of all these other people who might never find it? That's what the songs are all about. It's not wondering for myself, or my own doubts, since I know what to do with them. But for other people who have no where to go, you know? I write those songs for the secular audience, in the perspective of the audience. People constantly in love, people working hard to succeed, they are people all around me. What happens when they wake up and smell the coffee. Or on their deathbed, they see that it didn't ever matter in the first place. Or if they never think about what it means at all. Sort of my way of reinforcing Ecclesiastes in a relevant context for this day and age. At least remind people that they need to be looking for something. I write the worship songs as my own answer to that question, but the question is not my own. I want the song to stir some sort of discontent in someone and perhaps make them think about what they're doing with their life.

Now does that happen? I don't know. Maybe I'm better off writing only worship songs then outreaching to a secular audience. But I don't think non Christians will take worship songs any deeper than nice sounding words. What do they do with songs about a God they don't believe in? I write these questions since they might understand it better. To them, it's real life, while to me, the Worship songs are real life. Of course, the worship songs aren't written for me, but to God alone. My pastor has been getting on how I word things, so I'm getting on catching myself.
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Postby yukoxholic » Wed Aug 25, 2010 4:44 am

Strafe (post: 1419413) wrote:Oh wait. No I'm not the one asking the question. Let me try to explain what I mean.

It's great that I know what my own meaning is, but what of all these other people who might never find it? That's what the songs are all about. It's not wondering for myself, or my own doubts, since I know what to do with them. But for other people who have no where to go, you know? I write those songs for the secular audience, in the perspective of the audience. People constantly in love, people working hard to succeed, they are people all around me. What happens when they wake up and smell the coffee. Or on their deathbed, they see that it didn't ever matter in the first place. Or if they never think about what it means at all. Sort of my way of reinforcing Ecclesiastes in a relevant context for this day and age. At least remind people that they need to be looking for something. I write the worship songs as my own answer to that question, but the question is not my own. I want the song to stir some sort of discontent in someone and perhaps make them think about what they're doing with their life.

Now does that happen? I don't know. Maybe I'm better off writing only worship songs then outreaching to a secular audience. But I don't think non Christians will take worship songs any deeper than nice sounding words. What do they do with songs about a God they don't believe in? I write these questions since they might understand it better. To them, it's real life, while to me, the Worship songs are real life. Of course, the worship songs aren't written for me, but to God alone. My pastor has been getting on how I word things, so I'm getting on catching myself.


Oh ok! I understand what you mean now. I have the starting of a cold so you'll have to forgive my incoherentness. That and the fact I've been trying to record a new piece which is now being put on the back burner until I can clear up this cold! XD

Anyway, songwriting, I believe is universal. That's great that you want to reach out to a broad audience. Secular music can be an easy as well as difficult place to reach out with Christian music though but it is possible. Bands like Switchfoot, Relient K, Flyleaf (LOVE!!), etc have all broken into the secular scene and have written Christian songs. They also appeal to a wide audience including both believers and nonbelievers.

I think you should keep doing what you're doing. Who knows maybe one day you'll find yourself among those types of songwriters! ^_^
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Postby That Dude » Sun Aug 29, 2010 12:09 pm

In response to your earlier question about the collab with all the people on this thread, I'd totally be up for that.
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Postby Strafe » Sun Aug 29, 2010 1:01 pm

I have your song down with chords and all set up, but I don't really like what I did with it. Its really... dark and depressing lol. Interesting chords and modulations though. Do you want me to put it together for you anyways with what I have?
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Postby Sapphy » Fri Sep 03, 2010 1:52 pm

Gah... hate when my browser screws up and I have to re-type things...
Anyhow.

I would like to get into songwriting, but first I have to learn to write music. Which means figuring out which chords work together on guitar. And figuring out how to prevent songs getting stuck in my head when writing...

Some of my favorite bands are the ones that are Christian, but still have songs that everyone loves, even if they aren't a believer. I'd love to get into something like that one of these days. Don't get me wrong, bands that are obviously Christian and only have stuff Christians will listen to are okay... but I'm drawn to the music that has a message for everyone, myself. Maybe it's the way music, which is pretty much my passion, can be used to reach out to people, even if they don't believe in God. Maybe someone will find Christ because of this kind of music, maybe not... but it still gives everyone good, clean music to listen to, regardless. And there's always that chance they'll check out the more Christian music written by a band they love and God will speak to them through it.
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Postby Strafe » Fri Sep 03, 2010 6:10 pm

When I first started writing songs, I just used typical chord progressions like the 1-5-6-4, then wrote about what I wanted to. After learning a few common ones, you can start mixing things up, getting fancy with chords and whatnot. Writing the music usually consists of the lyrics, and above the words, a letter annotating "A" or "G#m" or something. Pretty simple.

I guess a lot of the Christian artists write upbeat secular stuff... but my secular stuff can be rather depressing, darker themes and such. Maybe darker than some regular secular music.
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Postby yukoxholic » Sat Sep 04, 2010 5:21 am

Firstly, Sapphy, you don't have to know music to write a song! If you have words you're already halfway there! As to the actual "musical" part that can also be a simple step. If you do not currently have a melody to put your words too playing around like Strafe had mentioned with chord progressions can be a lot of fun and educational!

Lots of popular songs have the same chord scheme consisting of: G,C, D, F, and E with minor/major variations of the note. Some examples: Lifehouse - G, C, E minor, D, Michelle Branch – G minor, C major, YUI – G, E minor, C, etc. All of which have songs that contain those 5 chord schemes! Learning those simple chords will get you started on a great path and then learning variations of those chords (minors/majors) will really set you off!

The song Falling Slowly by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova is a great example song that only uses 3 chords: C, F, and A minor. So, as you can see it doesn't take much to put music to your song just a little music knowledge and viola!

I always use this site for guitar chord reference when I am writing a song that will be played on the guitar as they have free printable chord charts. You can also reference music books over at LTP.com which offers hundreds upon hundreds of music books that you can purchase for every instrument and level! Also, Youtube offers a lot of talented people who can help you out in your musical learning with free tutorials!

Once you have these tools songwriting will be a breeze for you! Just remember to keep doing your best!
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Postby That Dude » Sat Sep 04, 2010 10:57 am

Strafe I'm interested to hear what you've done with my lyrics.
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Postby Strafe » Sat Sep 04, 2010 11:14 am

Aight. I'll record a vid later today... I get really depressed playing your song though. eheh...
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Postby Sapphy » Sat Sep 04, 2010 12:56 pm

yukoxholic (post: 1421857) wrote:Firstly, Sapphy, you don't have to know music to write a song! If you have words you're already halfway there! As to the actual "musical" part that can also be a simple step. If you do not currently have a melody to put your words too playing around like Strafe had mentioned with chord progressions can be a lot of fun and educational!

Lots of popular songs have the same chord scheme consisting of: G,C, D, F, and E with minor/major variations of the note. Some examples: Lifehouse - G, C, E minor, D, Michelle Branch – G minor, C major, YUI – G, E minor, C, etc. All of which have songs that contain those 5 chord schemes! Learning those simple chords will get you started on a great path and then learning variations of those chords (minors/majors) will really set you off!

The song Falling Slowly by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova is a great example song that only uses 3 chords: C, F, and A minor. So, as you can see it doesn't take much to put music to your song just a little music knowledge and viola!

I always use this site for guitar chord reference when I am writing a song that will be played on the guitar as they have free printable chord charts. You can also reference music books over at LTP.com which offers hundreds upon hundreds of music books that you can purchase for every instrument and level! Also, Youtube offers a lot of talented people who can help you out in your musical learning with free tutorials!

Once you have these tools songwriting will be a breeze for you! Just remember to keep doing your best!


Thanks. I do know several chords, I just have to figure out how to put them together. Gonna work on that one of these days when I get some lyrics written out...
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Postby XIV_whisper » Sat Sep 04, 2010 1:06 pm

yo strafe, XIV_whisper here

that dude you ignored in chat the other day

i play the piano, clarinet(not really sure if i like it), learning bass and drums and then going for sax(maybe alto).
i like playing music cause it's another language that not everyone can learn and that not everyone can learn well. to be able to flow just like that is a beautiful language that very few obtain. i tried writing songs, but then had to abondon them cause of school. when i try to go back to them my head is pumped i can't remember what i wanted. it makes me furious. i have to try again and this time i will succeed. i will speak the beautiful language of music.

thankx for this thread
whisper out
GODISAWESOME

check out thread "the war to decide fates"
contact me(XIV_whisper) if you want to join or know about it.
P.S. send private message:thumb:

Originally posted by firestorm (post: 1421080):
"you know if you wish to find yourself self you must first let go of all your fears and inhibitions..." Firestorm says as he acts all zen like.

-Dante-(my reply)
people always say that, but how can i do that when my fear is me. from the day i was born the only thing i feared was what i was. now i am terrified of what i am becoming
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Postby Strafe » Sat Sep 04, 2010 2:03 pm

Nah man. I wasn't ignoring you, I was just talking to Nami. But yeah. Do your best!

Here's your Song, That Dude:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_r_RYoSvew
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Postby yukoxholic » Sat Sep 04, 2010 2:45 pm

Strafe (post: 1422006) wrote:Here's your Song, That Dude:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_r_RYoSvew




Ahhh, I like this a lot! And your vocals don't suck. Great work guys! Also, love your SID covers both acoustic and electric versions! Uso is actually my ALL TIME FAVORITE SID song (yes, this deserves all CAPS). XD You should do cover requests. This makes me want to record cover songs now. ^_^
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Postby That Dude » Sat Sep 04, 2010 3:12 pm

Strafe (post: 1422006) wrote:Nah man. I wasn't ignoring you, I was just talking to Nami. But yeah. Do your best!

Here's your Song, That Dude:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_r_RYoSvew



Neato! I like it! Sorry it makes you sad...Though I do have one small complaint. It wasn't written by Sam Trefren, that's a friend of mine that I named my techno project after...Would you mind changing that to Michael Harris? Thanks!

And like Yuko said, it's nice!
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Postby That Dude » Sat Sep 04, 2010 3:55 pm

Here's some more lyrics...I wrote these about a week ago...

All Alright.

The moon is out tonight
Shining over the city
Stepping through these pools
Splashing through the light

And it's a beautiful night
It's all alright, all alright, alright.

And I'm here with you
Staring at the stars
Watching the moon
This was meant for two

And it's a beautiful night
It's all alright, all alright, alright

This night is my muse
It brings me thoughts of you
Always just out of reach

But it's still a beautiful night
And it's all alright, all alright, alright.
-----------------------------------------

There you go mien friends.
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Postby Strafe » Sat Sep 04, 2010 6:39 pm

Whoops. Sorry dude. I went and changed it. lol.

Thanks guys. I thought it was too depressing, but maybe I'm just not depressing enough. lol.
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Postby Htom Sirveaux » Sat Sep 04, 2010 8:33 pm

As I said in the Guitarists' thread, I write some faith-oriented songs of my own. I might post up some lyrics here sometime, but I'm hesitant to put anything on YouTube because I don't want my music stolen.
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Postby Sapphy » Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:31 am

Strafe (post: 1422006) wrote:Here's your Song, That Dude:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_r_RYoSvew


Just watched the video, and that was pretty amazing... just saying.
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Postby That Dude » Wed Sep 08, 2010 5:54 pm

Htom Sirveaux (post: 1422052) wrote:As I said in the Guitarists' thread, I write some faith-oriented songs of my own. I might post up some lyrics here sometime, but I'm hesitant to put anything on YouTube because I don't want my music stolen.


You should post some of the lyrics!

They won't be stolen. I promise! :evil:
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Postby Strafe » Mon Sep 13, 2010 5:03 pm

So when my comp gets back, I'm going to install live 8 and lay down a few tracks of my own songs. It's been a really long time since I last recorded with real software. Hope things turn out alright.
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Postby That Dude » Mon Sep 13, 2010 8:16 pm

You should let us hear it when you get some done.
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Postby Strafe » Sat Sep 18, 2010 12:55 am

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/363250

So I rerecorded Clouds to sort of feel around with the program... and wow. Live 8 is incredible. SO powerful... and ate up all of my dinky netbook's RAM so it almost crashed with only 3 tracks... But I had a lot of fun with it. I'll be strategic with signal processing in future projects so I don't kill the poor thing...

Got rid of that Sax improv and replaced it with piano improv... lol. It's probably not common practice to improv in recordings these days, but its too much to actually figure something other than the melody.

Next up is something with Electric guitars and fake drums. I might do a real cover of Uso, or maybe one of my songs. I dunno.
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Postby yukoxholic » Sat Sep 18, 2010 5:14 am

Strafe (post: 1425112) wrote:http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/363250

So I rerecorded Clouds to sort of feel around with the program... and wow. Live 8 is incredible. SO powerful... and ate up all of my dinky netbook's RAM so it almost crashed with only 3 tracks... But I had a lot of fun with it. I'll be strategic with signal processing in future projects so I don't kill the poor thing...

Got rid of that Sax improv and replaced it with piano improv... lol. It's probably not common practice to improv in recordings these days, but its too much to actually figure something other than the melody.

Next up is something with Electric guitars and fake drums. I might do a real cover of Uso, or maybe one of my songs. I dunno.


Holy crap.

Oh my gosh, yeah, I don't know if you mentioned or not if you take piano lessons (if you did sorry I forgot!) but that was amazing. Seriously, I cannot believe how much insanely awesome potential and talent you have. I was listening to this while I was on campus and a professor of mine had come over and was like, "is this one of your students Ms. (insert last name here)" and I was like, "No, this is someone whom I know on a forum and just something he was working on." I went on to tell him about the thread and all that and he was really impressed!

Anyway, I'm actually really glad you nixed the saxophone! This piece is really pulled together by the transitions of the piano and flows incredibly well with the melodic atmosphere of the song especially within the beginning measures and how the tempo was very soft and slow and then it transcended gradually to a faster speed. Really, really, loved that! I can’t say there is anything at all that I would change about this piece. I think you did a great job putting it together!

Though I know you had mentioned that you wanted to try and add in other instruments or to reintroduce the saxophone again this would be interesting to listen too. The only advice I have to say when incorporating other instruments is a little goes a long way. A song is composed of many, many, layers that work with the multiple “inner workings” as I like to call them within a song (aka: rhythm, harmony, melody, structure, etc) You never want to drown out one instrument over another or even your voice. Every instrument should have their “shining moment” even if it is just in the background quietly helping to keep the rhythm of the song.

All in all keep it up Strafe! And I would seriously consider looking into something music related in the future. The music is in you and you have a God-given talent that I know he’d love for you to continue to share!
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Postby Strafe » Sat Sep 18, 2010 8:32 am

Wow. Jeez. Hrm... That's like the nicest thing anyone has ever said about my music. I'm almost crying since I just woke up and I'm all moody. So thank you so much to you and your professor!

I do take piano lessons, and about the sax, it's a really funny story... all my friends said the exact same thing: Get rid of it. I almost died of laughter because it seemed like they got together and were like... "Tell Matt to get rid of the sax. It kills the song." XD. So, I just had to redeem myself. I haven't got them to listen to it yet, but I hope they like it.
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Postby yukoxholic » Fri Oct 08, 2010 1:55 pm

Strafe (post: 1425144) wrote:Wow. Jeez. Hrm... That's like the nicest thing anyone has ever said about my music. I'm almost crying since I just woke up and I'm all moody. So thank you so much to you and your professor!

I do take piano lessons, and about the sax, it's a really funny story... all my friends said the exact same thing: Get rid of it. I almost died of laughter because it seemed like they got together and were like... "Tell Matt to get rid of the sax. It kills the song." XD. So, I just had to redeem myself. I haven't got them to listen to it yet, but I hope they like it.


Sorry this is coming so late! I've been busy with school but I meant every word of it! You seem to have a real passion for music. It's definitely in you and you have the potential at least from what I have seen/heard to most certainly take your gifts to the next level. ^_^ Don't give up, keep working at it.

LOL! Well, you redeemed yourself and then some! I think the saxophone would be an interesting aspect to try adding in again but as more of "background" to the piece. I'd actually love to hear what strings would sound like in that composition. :D
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Postby Strafe » Fri Nov 05, 2010 7:18 pm

This thread be dead. But that be ok.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK3vkHIP1tAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK3vkHIP1tA

I wrote a variation of happy birthday to sing for my friend's birthday so I didn't get sued.
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Postby Strafe » Tue Nov 30, 2010 6:51 pm

sigh... Oh well. None of my threads are faring too well...

But I finished up writing down my composition, and cut it down to 7:21. I'll put the sheet music up after the festival when it becomes public-ish domain or whatever, if you guys want to play it.

I also made All State Band on sax whoo.

Writing a Christmas song for the church about Simeon with my Pastor. Not working out. At all.
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Postby Warrior4Christ » Tue Nov 06, 2012 4:50 am

Bump?

I and two others rewrote Call Me Maybe (Carly Rae Jepson).. to be about Saul's conversion to Paul in Acts 9. So we called it "Acts 9". It was hastily written on a camp, and hastily performed, which didn't go so great, so this is the proper recording.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjbM-i4ss7s
Everywhere like such as, and MOES.

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