Composing Music

When composing a song or a musical piece, with me it always starts off with a guitar (after the head part of course). I come up with ideas everyday of riffs, proggy time signatures, catchy melodies but the hardest bit is transporting your idea from your head into an actual piece of music. One day I hope to possess the skills to be able to do such a thing, that way I feel I could be much more creative in what I write. Anyway at the moment it always starts with a guitar, sometimes a simple chord progression which I will then take a rough recording of. At times I may have nothing else to give so that chord progression goes in the bank or sometimes, (like my song seeking you); the whole song just flows out in one afternoon. So starting with seeking you, here are examples of how I have composed pieces of music in the past:

Seeking You
So as I was saying with seeking you, it just flowed out of me. First came that simple guitar hook which was slightly different at first (had less notes). At first I wanted to add more to it but I felt perhaps what that little hook needs is a chord structure underneath. Thus I find myself playing a chord pattern of two notes underneath. As the chords change, the melody stays the same; this causes something in the brain to go...wow thats really catchy. If you listen to ABBA, they do this a lot with their vocals melodies, the chords change but the vocal lines stay the same. From there I needed a verse progression which flows well from that chord sequence. The new progression starts with the same two chords but then goes to a d then to a dmaj7; here the switches between the chords also change this time after one bar instead of two. Again from here the pre chorus (G-A) was composed into another simple chorus (D-G). Now I have my basic structure. From here I started playing around with each chord sequence and planned out the songs structure whilst adding a coda at the end. Because this song got flushed out so quickly, it wasnt long before I came up with the vocal melody for both the verse and the coda. From here I started writing the lyrics. I looked to the theme of each part of the verse looks to God from a different point of view. I had written out things like Here We Stand So Amazing at the lives that you change, something something, we seek you. Something something, something, something etc etc. The lyrics were started

anyway. It was time to do a rough recording and bring the song to some other people. This is where co-writing comes in, something which is very important in my opinion. Not only can co-writing improve your song drastically, the whole song could be seen from a completely different perspective and the finished product usually comes out so much better when a team is behind it than just one person. Everyone can get creative and give each other honest opinions. So over time we came up with more lyrics for them verses and then the pre chorus. As for the main chorus, it wasnt until the last time we met up we came up with a melody. We wrote down some rough lyrics and then ran out of time. Luckily due to a team effort, Linda came to me with some great ideas of lyrics for both the chorus and coda. After a few changes, the song was done. Now to record. Im not going to talk about the recording process into too much detail as I have done that in my overview for my FMP however I would like to mention that the composing does not finish until the song finishes. It was not until I was in the studio I came up with all electric guitar parts (minus the main hook). It was not until layers of the song started coming together that I realised a rhythm guitar was not needed. I was still able to be creative in the studio and I managed to play around with sounds and tones to complement the song and the parts I was playing. I taught myself to space out notes and not keep the song busy; this made the finished product so much brighter and more enjoyable to listen to. Regarding coming up with drum patterns, they start from me tapping on my laptop, tables, cousins, you name it. I then go and record and then try and make out what I was playing/meant to be playing when I am at a kit. From there I practise and practise and change up fills, add different snare rolls, and simplify it until I am happy. Once again, I wasnt one hundred percent finished with my drums until I started tracking them. Overall seeking you is one of my favourite songs to create; it has been such a journey for the song to see it come together like it has and so easy at times too.

Unnamed sludgy metalish song

Not its final title I am sure you can tell. I created this song back in around March time. I was under pressure to come up with something and record it for deadline. Sometimes pressure can be a really good thing. I was just playing around in AADGBE tuning with a really dirty distortion and was just about to give up when I came up with what was going to be the main riff of the song. This is the sort of song which is really one riff based and in my opinion no matter how many times you hear the riff you cant get sick of it. The song starts out with the riff and this is where I was going to over complicate things and add different verses, pre-chorus, bridge etc etc etc. No. In the end I decided to keep this song simple. The intro and the verses were to be the same, relying on the drums and the bass to change it up. This is what I did, the same riff, different dynamics until them extra four chords quickly hit in and link back into that all out main riff again. After two verses, the song drops into a sort of mid section where the band kind of jam about. I like to think the mid section has a kind of status quo vibe, the way the song jigs along and picks up and up and up until the pinnacle point. The pinnacle point I am talking about is a riff that took a little thinking up, it needed to be big; it needed to change the song. This is where drums come in handy. I came up with his little drum beat and started humming a riff over the top. I then had to get it from my head to the guitar which luckily wasnt too much of a challenge. The best bit is that it actually worked. I was really happy with this riff and give the song more time to breath and more time to have a bit of an instrumental without getting boring. From here, the song came naturally; it was just a matter of dropping it out before BAM! Back in full swing again, this time accompanied by a guitar solo (something that was decided and thought up half way through recording. The backing guitar would change riff and add in some higher notes to get that stoner rock feel to it while the other guitar would shred before coming back in to that pinnacle riff again.

The song then comes back down again before heading back into the main riff for the final verse. Lastly I had to compose the ending which kind of gives tribute to that mid section again but this time ends very abruptly.

We Will Stand This song I actually wrote the music for back in September. It started off with playing around with some chords on an acoustic with a capo. I recorded it on my phone, left it a few weeks, came back and begun to add more sections and change up what I had. So it starts with the verse (used as the intro). Layers of instruments get introduced all throughout the intro before kicking into the verse. From the verse I made a pre-chorus and then a chorus. Unlike seeking you, each section doesnt have a link to the other regarding using the same chords in the same order. For this song I feel each section stands out on its own and changes the atmosphere of the song. I used dynamics to change up the first and second chorus and then added than end coda which just changes up the whole song completely. So when I got to record this in September, it literally was MIDI bass, MIDI drums and my warlock guitar for both clean and overdrive. I worked out my sections and began to record. The coda section actually was different to the original and was made longer so the song can breathe and build up and fade back down. The finishing product back in September showed the songs structure but nothing else. When I got a chance to start my EP I thought about bringing this song back and then decided on showing the team what I had. Not much was created on top apart from the coda melody and lyrics. We will not be moved, we wont be shaken, and we will stand for the glory of

the lord. This small sentence of lyrics really set the theme of the song which is why we named it We Will Stand. From there I went about re-recording the song. First the acoustic guitar which really didnt change much from the original clean I had but this time I kept it going in the coda section of the song as well. I then like seeking you composed some extra layers of electric guitar over the top for the first half of the song. Again I let the song breath when it needed to because the guitar would have its chance on that coda. At first when I recorded it, I almost thought the tone sounded too heavy for a worship song but in the end I decided it changes the song up a bit and really emphasises the meaning of them lyrics. I then added the keys (something the September version was without). We messed about with different keyboards and string sounds and actually ended up with the same sort of sound as seeking you which really adds that continuation feel of the EP. Over meetings with came up with the verse melody and Linda literally wrote both verses. We had a chorus melody but I was never happy about it so Linda re-wrote it with the original lyrics in mind. The outcome was perfect and again with a few minor changes the lyrics and vocal melodies were written (something again missing from the September version). From here we recorded in the vocals and added some nice harmonies over the top. This song was now finished to what standard it should be at. So really this song started in September and ended in July, a much longer time taken to compose than seeking you.

I hope that gives some insight into how I composed the above three songs and I hope to keep writing and improving my composition skills as I move on in life.