Songwriting, ep 1: How to Turn Your Ideas Into Songs

"Always record, always record."

That's lovely

Listening to you talk about songwriting and messing around with different sounds is similar to watching Bob Ross paint a masterpiece. I'm completely relaxed and inspired, and the world seems a bit brighter.

For those of you with an iPhone, there is an app called “tape it” that is a great little idea grabber. You can put a record button on your Lock Screen, and with one tap it opens the app and automatically starts recording audio. You can then stack up to 4 tracks and do little cursory mix. Great for catching this sudden inspos.

you have great talen as musician!!!

Ah man, your general demeanour is so comforting, really enjoyed this video, you're like the human version of lo-fi hip-hop.

half way through the video and i am thinkin "what an amazing looking and sounding guitar ...

Hahahah bleh bleh bleh me me me. Finally some content creator that’s human.

Your seem like the coolest dude. I relate a lot to what you said in the first minute. Thanks for your video, they're awesome <3

[Redacted]

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge/expertise. But i definitely just liked this video because of how funny, down to earth and humble you were regarding your social media sites. 😆 love it

Bob Seger: You just keep writing songs, man
Glenn Frey: But what if they're bad?
Bob Seger: They're gonna be bad, but you just keep writing until they're not as bad.

Persistence.

Something my fuit are teacher told me was to not overthink it. If you find something, anything, write it down and come back to it later. Don’t think about semantics of music theory, you can come back to that later.

There are some really good teachers online. I think you are def super high up there near the peak. Such good lessons. Thank you!

ok, this was far more useful than those odd songwriting classes where they talk of nothing but being brave and embracing your creativity or other vague stuff

writing a comment before j watch but i never can't write but i wanna write something that doesn't sound the same

You are one of my all time favorite guitar figures. Up there with Lee, Pete, Marty, and others.

One of the biggest problems i had with writing music is i record by myself i play all the instruments (aside from drums) and one of the most prolofic realizations i came to was, i have a tendency when writing the guitar part to overcomplicate the parts especially on rhythm guitar, and often I'll find that simplifying the chords i write and putting the rest of a chord in the other instruments' parts sounds a whole lot better than an overcomplicated rhythm part.

That's my problem i hear all the parts in my head and attempt to play them all on guitar rather than diversifying amongst different voicings and parts.

Watching this on my break during a bad day at work n feeling musical. Thanks so much. ❤️

I love this! I just released the first episode of a new series where I write & record an original song every week from scratch while explaining my entire process along the way. I’d love if you’d check it out and let me know what you think!

Sounds like Cherub Rock by Smashing Pumpkins

And this is exactly what all of these AI platforms are doing when they instantly create custom music. They're drawing from databases full of decades, maybe centuries of previous music and music theory. There's nothing new about it, it's just been rearranged in a new way. Thank you for the video, you had some great tips and points!

You are awesome. What I've been looking for. Have so many cool riffs saved. Written a few good songs - but really have no idea what I'm doing. Feel like it's all by ear and luck.
Guitar player for decades. But want to know how to move forward with ideas more efficiently.
TY !

Your personality is awesome “mi,mi,mi, there they are” lol

I know I'm late to the party, but thank you so much for this video, it made some things click in my mind for writing that other videos couldn't, I love your chill vibe, keep up the great work man!

Within five seconds i knew i liked you quite a lot, you, and your whole deal here, with the kitchen back there and the accidental, yet unabashedly hipster thing.

Sorey, I am unfortunately into women only, but I wish i was some smokin hot goth-lyte hipster chick for ya. I wish i was the girl i wish would come into my comments section, and then one steamy night, life-section. Sigh. She will so get me and my shitty songs.

Yeah i might need happy accidents when writing chords

This is a good video about music writing, or composition, but the title was misleading. I kept waiting for the songwriting. Songs are sung; they have words.

So stoked to have found your channel. Can't wait to check out more. Thanks, man!

I have so many 20 second long recordings 😂 I never find a way to stitch them together

that 4/4 to 6/8 was actually cool. it's wacky and weird. it can be made into an interesting song.

I'm so happy that I discoverded your channel !!

Thanks, that was extremely helpful!

Are we allowed to share a song we made

I was listening to one of my Neil Young CDs on one of the songs somebody was yelling the songs are all the same.......... I think he said you're right they are

how do i get his tone?

Basic stuff presented very well … good video

what are chord numbers?

stop waving the audio from right to left you are not the beetles

Eric is a NJ guy… Philly area here.

as a beginner I'm completely lost besides knowing what major scales and its chords are (since yesterday)

Yeehaw!!!!!
Pizza!!!!
Had I only found this decades ago.

Thank you, Jack Stratton

Always carry a phone and record melody directly to your digital recorder app. Then transfer that later into garage band logic or whatever daw you prefer. Then find tempo. Etc. And start fleshing out your arrangement copying and pasteing sections adding or repeating what you need. Use a keyboard so I you need to transpose the chords it’s easy.

I think this helped me some thank you 😊

Cool to see a Silvertone 1484 in the wild. I love the way this amp sounds.