How To Create Rock Music
There's a reason guys like Jimmy Page and Kurt Cobain aren't called "top corporate recruiter" musicians. Yes, that would be unwieldy … but it would also be lame. Let's call a horse a horse.
In that vein, I'd like to look at how rock musicians write rock music. I run a not-so-oft-updated site calledThe Songwriting Process where I collect quotes from musicians on their creative process. In the process of collecting them, I've noticed a few patterns.
Of course, songwriting can't be boiled down to a definable process. You'll never find a recipe that makes it easy or straightforward. Creativity doesn't work that way. Still, there are some techniques that help songs flow more freely. And if you do some analogizing, the patterns I've found should be useful forany creative process.
This is how to write rock music like a rockstar:
1. Start with one small, but good, idea.
This is an extremely common technique. The idea is to build songs from the ground up: Rather than worrying about song structure or interplay between instruments, just come up with one good part — a melody, guitar riff, drum loop, lyric, whatever. Once you have a part that moves you, grow it into a full song.
John Lennon describes how he wrote the Beatles's song "Because":
I was lying on the sofa in our house, listening to Yoko play Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata," on the piano. Suddenly I said, "can you play those chords backwards." She did, and I wrote "Because" around them.
Metallica used this technique to write their hit "Enter Sandman." Guitarist Kirk Hammett came up with the song's main riff, which was then modified slightly by drummer Lars Ulrich. The rest of the song evolved from that single riff. Ulrich calls "Enter Sandman" a "one-riff song."
2. Use rules or limitations.
It's easy to feel overwhelmed as a songwriter. After all, a song can go in any direction and become almostanything — the freedom's almost too much to handle. For this reason, some songwriters like to constrain themselves.
Nine Inch Nails mainman Trent Reznor says:
If I come up with rules or limitations it focuses me in a direction. … those rules and limitations can change if you realize it's a dumb idea. You start to mutate it and see what fits best.
For the album With Teeth, Reznor forced himself to write two songs every 10 days. He also decided before starting that he wanted to album to sound "frail" and "unsure of itself." This guideline had a big impact on his recording and production process.
Bob Dylan says that if he gets stuck while writing a song, he forces himself to change keys on guitar. Because of the nature of the instrument, playing the song in a new key often leads to new ideas: "Anything you do in A, it's going to be a different song in G. … There's too many wide passing notes in G not to influence your writing unless you're playing barre chords."
3. Keep it simple.
Many songwriters write with just one instrument–often acoustic guitar or piano–and their voice. A whole band or complex equipment would just confuse things. Other instruments and parts can come later once the core of the song has been formed.
Heidi Tveitan, head of atmospheric rock outfit Star of Ash, describes the writing process for her most recent album:
All songs were written on piano, and when I felt that it worked there, I took it further in the studio. It was important to me having the compositions work in their basic forms before I started layering, as it is so easy to get lost in the arrangements during the writing process. This way I was also more confident and had a clear vision on the songs' expression before I brought in additional musicians.
Mike Mills of R.E.M. and Billy Joe Armstrong of Green Day both report writing hard-rocking numbers by themselves on an acoustic guitar. While Mills says the songs can change a lot when he brings them to the band, Armstrong says he always has the dynamics of the full band in mind:
I always have it in the back of my head about the dynamics of electric guitar and drums and bass. … But I think that's the beauty of this. That not only can I play these songs with a band at full volume, but also that I can play them on a cheap, acoustic guitar. And it can have the same kind of impact.
4. Record ideas and come back to them later.
So songwriters often start with a single idea — see (1). But what if they have an idea but don't know how to use it? Or what if they have too many ideas and can't use them all right now?
David Gilmour of Pink Floyd solves this problem by recording his ideas to a portable device. Since he started doing this, his output has grown "massively." He doesn't forget his ideas any more. Gilmour's most recent (solo) album was composed from 150 ideas that he recorded over 12 years.
Niklas Sundin of melodic death metal outfit Dark Tranquillity says his band works similarly:
We always have a backlog of tons and tons of different riffs. You write something that everyone agrees is good, but it might not be possible to finish it at that time. Then a few years later it might be perfect for something that's around then.
Interestingly, avant-garde singer-songwriter Björk takes a completely different approach. She tries not to record her melodic ideas when they first come. Rather, she prefers to "let [her] subconscious do the editing," using only ideas that she can remember later.
5. Intermingle the writing and recording processes.
Some songwriters don't like to keep things simple. This is partly a stylistic issue: Some musical ideas are, at their core, too complicated to be composed by one person on one instrument. Instead, a multi-track recording device is necessary: Ideas are recorded, layered, and rearranged as inspiration calls.
Mikael Åkerfeldt of progressive metal band Opeth actually demos the band's songs by himself in his house. He uses a simple Pro Tools setup on his computer, recording guitar and vocal parts and programming drums electronically. He listens to recorded rough drafts of his albums before the "real" recording process begins.
Ihsahn, leader of symphonic black metal band Emperor, says that while composing the band's newer albums in the studio,
I could record a riff when I came up with it, or I could write a riff to accompany a new synth passage, or vice versa. The arrangements became more complete because of this; I had much more freedom. I could delve into various elements for a mid-section of a song, and then not have to worry about the beginning or ending of the songs until later on. … I can document my ideas as I get them, record riffs immediately after they are developed. Later on, I can pick out elements and work more on them or change them afterwards
Previously he had been forced to write "band music" in rehearsal and then layer the symphonic elements later.
6. Jam with the band.
Most people think bands come up with music by jamming together in the same room. And some bands do, of course. But I was surprised to many (and perhaps even the majority) don't. Instead, a single individual often writes the core of the band's songs, with other members layering their parts later.
Still, many artists like to compose collaboratively. Madonna describes how she worked with Prince to come up with "Love Song":
He played drums and I played the synthesizer, and we came up with the original melody line; I just, off the top of my head, started singing lyrics into the microphone. And then he overdubbed some guitar stuff and made a loop of it and sent it to me, and then I just started adding sections to it and singing parts of it. And then I sent it back to him, and he'd sing a part of it and add another instrument and send it back to me … it was like this sentence that turned into a paragraph that turned into a little miniseries.
John Lennon reports that he and Paul McCartney often wrote together, eyeball to eyeball, in the Beatles's early days. He says:
In "I Want To Hold Your Hand," I remember when we got the chord that made the song. We were in Jane Asher's house, downstairs in the cellar playing on the piano at the same time. And we had, "Oh you-u-u / got that something…" And Paul hits this chord, and I turn to him and say, "That's it!" I said, "Do that again!" In those days, we really used to absolutely write like that — both playing into each other's noses.
Mike Mills says R.E.M. takes a half-way approach: members will come up with ideas themselves at home, but then they'll jam together to form songs:
Everybody sits at home and diddles around. Sometimes you'll come up with little ideas and sometimes you'll come up with a huge part of a song. And then you'll take that into everyone else and piece it together until you get a song. Other times, things just come out of, literally, just the four of us sitting around and making noise. All of a sudden it will reemerge into a song.
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These are the patterns I've noticed so far. Have you seen others? Do you use techniques like these in other pursuits?
By the way, for many, many more songwriting tips, check out thesetwo articles at Songwriting Zen.
How To Create Rock Music
Source: http://www.miketuritzin.com/writing/how-to-write-rock-music-like-a-rockstar/
Posted by: calhounthesto.blogspot.com
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