RE: Dear Steemit Songwriters ... I Have Never Written an Original Song Before and am Looking for Advice on How to Start
Thanks so much for your thoughts and advice @jaybird! I really look up to you as a songwriter, so it means a lot that you took the time to stop by my post.
Love the idea of just hitting record and seeing what happens. I just tried that this morning, and it went better than I thought! The nice thing about recording it too, is that if anything ends up being good or usable, I can reference back to it. I imagine it would be easy to forget a melody or riff a couple days later.
Also thank you SO much for stopping by my little sisters intro post and showing her some support!! It means so much to me that you did that. I I think you’re right that she can hopefully teach me a thing or two about songwriting. 😉 She’s been a little shy about sharing her original music in the past, but I think steemit will be a good opportunity for her to get out of her comfort zone a little bit and start sharing.
No Problemo on both fronts.
Are you making any progress?
You're bang on in thinking: "The nice thing about recording it too, is that if anything ends up being good or usable, I can reference back to it."
That's definitely the point of this method. It's an idea generator, which you can take further through repetition and workshopping.
Equally as important though is also paying attention to why something was good....all the subtleties that may have emerged with the initial improvisation. Elements such as dynamics, or voice quality, things that affect the vibe, emotional quality and the groove ie. laid back or pushed, or emphasis on syllables or words/how you said a specific lyric or line, melody ornamentation etc.
Those little things when preserved from the initial conception of the idea can sometimes make a "simple or bare bones idea" suddenly interesting as fuck...