Thank you, Doug! When I started with music, I felt the strong pressure of learning at least one instrument well enough to perform or release. I tried hard, but I never reached a stage ready level on piano, my vocals are not even good enough for a demo. But teaming up with other musicians and talking frankly about strengths, weaknesses and aims, I realised that (a) you don’t have to know everything and (b) your strengths could be another one’s weakness. I never knew about my songwriting and arrangement skills until I co-write songs and saw the tabs and arrangements of other musicians. I completely underestimated the importance of a good lyric until somebody send me one and I HAD TO compose the song in an instant!

I wish I could write some lyrics from a feeling, but paiting pictures is not my thing. My lyrics barely make use of images, I just write what I think. Plain and direct. This works well with rock and metal music, writing an emotional ballad is a real struggle.

Which tools do you use for word processing? I sometimes use a rhyming dictionary but most of the time, I just count syllables and try. No idea if there is a straighter approach.

Thank you. Indeed, there’s a lot to write about and I had trouble with structuring and shortening the article. I noticed that many electro people start with drum patterns of 8 bars, build a base and then a melody. Barely seen any pop or rock songwriter doing this. Maybe the workflows and techniques are differ from genre or instrument? You may laugh but there are many tutorials and books which describe audio production, composition or writing lyrics step by step. I really don’t get these.

I usually start to write a new song from scratch with the chord progressions or with the drums.
But in the majority of the time it really depends on what’s in my mind. Sometimes a simple bass progression shows me what’s next or the steps to follow and make my ideas real. It also applies when I just get a melody in my mind.
I’ve noticed that many producers start with a sample, experimenting with different key scales on the sampler, then they just add a chord progression and get the main part of the song as well.

I’m someone who considers that the music process is like building a house, first thing of all is the base, then walls and structure stuff and finally the furnishings and decoration. But music is not a house, it’s a piece of art that has many ways to express feelings.

Pretty good and rich topic.

Cheers!