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Inspiration or craft: does one dominate?

dkeifer	Date: February 11, 2004 @ 10:01 AM When you’re writing, does emotion or technique come first? Or are they two sides of the same thing? For instance, I’m never happy with a song until it starts wearing its heart (or some other internal organ) on its sleeve. On the other hand, the only way I can ever get started is to clear my desk and experiment with chords and scales. Music…it’s interesting.
Apertome	Date: February 11, 2004 @ 10:20 AM Good question! It's definitely a combination of the two, but personally, my writing process is more emotion-driven. Hell, some of my most interesting stuff is completely accidental. On the other hand, I do most of my work on a computer. I have a MIDI keyboard, but I'm not much of a keyboardist. When I play the violin the technique is a lot more important. That said, I've always focused more on being expressive than being able to play the most difficult material. If you can play Beethoven's violin concerto reasonably well, and I can only play the Pachelbel Canon and it's gorgeous, who is the better violinist?
mawcs	Date: February 11, 2004 @ 11:23 AM interesting topic. For me, songwriting always starts with and emotion. Now, that emotion might be stirred up by experimenting with some guitar chords, or improvising on the piano, or with some soft-synth stuff, but its always an emotion that already existed. That being said, I do have 'sketches' that are just recordings of expiriments. I rarely turn them into songs unless somebody says. "Hey that's awesome, you should do more with that." In that case I try to find an emotional attitude to finish it. If I don't find it, I don't finish it.
MikeGruz	Date: February 11, 2004 @ 11:25 AM That's an interesting question..For me, the accidental stuff is usually my best..usually if I just sit around consciencely (sp) trying to write something, I only become frustrated..but if I just noodle around on the guit than something almost always comes out.. The stuff that most often happens to me is that I'll be working on another part of a song and come up with something cool-a lot of the time it doesn't really fit the song, so I'll branch that into something else.
mawcs	Date: February 11, 2004 @ 11:25 AM (I declare this thread greyscale.)
TameasDust	Date: February 11, 2004 @ 1:17 PM usually food dominates the others are second
fold	Date: February 11, 2004 @ 3:49 PM Hmmmm the chicken or the egg opps wrong thread. Well initially it has to be inspiration for me. As I don't play any sort of instrument (oo-er) proficiently enough to mess around with chords as such, my ideas arrive mainly from the countless number of tunes that pop into my head throughout the day or night . These vary from melodic progressions to fully-fledged song ideas. If one sticks or keeps coming back into my mind then I then try apply what craft I can to getting a physical representation of that developing idea.
Woof	Date: February 12, 2004 @ 4:10 AM Used to be, I'd begin with a texture, and build on that... it was all about soundscaping, and harmonies developed as the layers were added... After years of that, though, little bits of tune would just pop into my head, and I'd make 'em into songs... that's still how I like it to happen today. If a melody line or mood or rhythm gets stuck in my brain, and sticks around for more than the odd day or two, I figure I'm onto something...
Arthen	Date: February 12, 2004 @ 5:58 AM Kinda the same way I work like Woof. Keyboard-wise I just have abt enough average technique to survive. Work on your technique and hone it in your spare time; only when u're totally focused on the writing and composing and the occasion calls for it (always for the sake of the song, not showing off) ; then hopefully you can deliver.....
billhudson	Date: February 12, 2004 @ 11:31 AM " emotion or technique come first?" Well, it is both. I sometimes teach a songwriters class . I bring 3 things with me. A Thesaurus,Rhyming Dictionary, and a Dictionary. I then teach them how to say what they want in a song. Another words... be focused. I write it on the blackboard in big letters. So lets say you have one line, just one line. Write it down. And maybe you can't get any more out and thats fine. Write it down and file it. Go to the next song. When I wrote , Gauguin ‘s Dream, the frist line, "Gauguin drinking colors frist thing in the morning". That one line I could not get more into the song. And it stayed that way for about two years. I keep coming back to it and coming back to it. So it seems one has to write and re-write and re-write again. Words in a song have to have a beat, rap is a good example . And maybe you don't even have the music yet, thats ok. Sometime I finish the words and then put down the music and try to find the "Voice" of the song. This takes some digging and then some. The muse does not just give it up. What you put into it ,is what you get out of it. I liked what Woof said,"if a melody line or mood or rhythm gets stuck in my brain, and sticks around for more than the odd day or two, I figure I'm onto something." Good way to put it! Still Pickin' Bill Hudson

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