Remembering to do this woooo
Dec. 11th, 2014 11:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swagmancerI am really interested in how you write music, so I'd love to hear you talk about that! Like, how you go from "song idea" to "playable song." for veryroundbird
This is a question that comes up a lot during (the few) interviews Time Crash has done, so luckily I have a back-pocket standard answer... though at the same time, the process is so amorphous that it's still difficult to describe. But I can try!
Obviously it always starts with an idea. "We should write a song about Donna Noble," or, "I want to write a song that evokes I Am the Doctor (without committing copyright infringement)." In the first case, when I'm writing about a specific thing, I look to come up with themes, musical styles and lines of lyrics that fit the character: what does Donna Noble sound like? If I can land on a particular musical genre, what are some common tropes of the genre we can work to our advantage? In the second case, when I'm starting from wanting to write a song not about a thing but evoking something, I'm more free to let my mind float around the question until it snags on an idea.
Once I know what I'm writing about, in the case of a Time Crash song, I'll revisit the relevant episodes and take notes. Then it's a process of really starting to write the song, and that's where things get amorphous.
I usually start with lyrics, just 'cause that's how I do. Sometimes I freewrite to see if anything interesting comes out. Sometimes I'm lucky, and bits of the song just come to me in a burst of inspiration (the entire bridge of Who Am I came to me on a bike ride). Sometimes I come up with a line that needs a rhyme and make lists of words that might work. The rhythm and structure of verses and choruses comes pretty naturally to me. I might write a line and think, "That's it that's the chorus hook," or, "That's got real impact, but it'll be diffused if the line gets used too much, so that should be saved for the bridge/a verse."
The melody doesn't come after the lyrics so much as evolves alongside them. Most of the time, as soon as I've written a few lines I start to sing them in my head, and a melody forms. This sort of organic growth process will continue until I've got, like, a complete melody but one-and-a-half verses and also the last chorus has one missing line (because I seem to be allergic to repeating choruses whole-cloth, which is probably a symptom of being a musical theatre kid). So I need to play around with possibilities, let things marinate. If I can't find words to fill the holes, a few lines may need to be scrapped and re-written. This sort of puzzle assembly goes on until I have something I'm satisfied with.
Writing solo (read: non-Doctor-Who-based) music is more or less the same, but with less structure. It's pretty much just the "here's a line, here's another, here's a melody, oh look it's a song" process all on its own. That's how I've wound up with a number of songs that aren't any of them about one thing, because at any given point in the songwriting I could have thought the song was about something, but then it veered off in A Direction and I let it because it was neat.
That there's the most detailed description of my songwriting process I've ever given! Since in interviews there's usually more questions than that to be asked =P It's a very rewarding process, and I'm proud that I'm even able to describe it -- it means I've been writing enough to notice the patterns! And now I'm inspired to go home and write some more.
veryroundbirdThis is a question that comes up a lot during (the few) interviews Time Crash has done, so luckily I have a back-pocket standard answer... though at the same time, the process is so amorphous that it's still difficult to describe. But I can try!
Obviously it always starts with an idea. "We should write a song about Donna Noble," or, "I want to write a song that evokes I Am the Doctor (without committing copyright infringement)." In the first case, when I'm writing about a specific thing, I look to come up with themes, musical styles and lines of lyrics that fit the character: what does Donna Noble sound like? If I can land on a particular musical genre, what are some common tropes of the genre we can work to our advantage? In the second case, when I'm starting from wanting to write a song not about a thing but evoking something, I'm more free to let my mind float around the question until it snags on an idea.
Once I know what I'm writing about, in the case of a Time Crash song, I'll revisit the relevant episodes and take notes. Then it's a process of really starting to write the song, and that's where things get amorphous.
I usually start with lyrics, just 'cause that's how I do. Sometimes I freewrite to see if anything interesting comes out. Sometimes I'm lucky, and bits of the song just come to me in a burst of inspiration (the entire bridge of Who Am I came to me on a bike ride). Sometimes I come up with a line that needs a rhyme and make lists of words that might work. The rhythm and structure of verses and choruses comes pretty naturally to me. I might write a line and think, "That's it that's the chorus hook," or, "That's got real impact, but it'll be diffused if the line gets used too much, so that should be saved for the bridge/a verse."
The melody doesn't come after the lyrics so much as evolves alongside them. Most of the time, as soon as I've written a few lines I start to sing them in my head, and a melody forms. This sort of organic growth process will continue until I've got, like, a complete melody but one-and-a-half verses and also the last chorus has one missing line (because I seem to be allergic to repeating choruses whole-cloth, which is probably a symptom of being a musical theatre kid). So I need to play around with possibilities, let things marinate. If I can't find words to fill the holes, a few lines may need to be scrapped and re-written. This sort of puzzle assembly goes on until I have something I'm satisfied with.
Writing solo (read: non-Doctor-Who-based) music is more or less the same, but with less structure. It's pretty much just the "here's a line, here's another, here's a melody, oh look it's a song" process all on its own. That's how I've wound up with a number of songs that aren't any of them about one thing, because at any given point in the songwriting I could have thought the song was about something, but then it veered off in A Direction and I let it because it was neat.
That there's the most detailed description of my songwriting process I've ever given! Since in interviews there's usually more questions than that to be asked =P It's a very rewarding process, and I'm proud that I'm even able to describe it -- it means I've been writing enough to notice the patterns! And now I'm inspired to go home and write some more.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-11 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-17 06:14 pm (UTC)