Originally Posted By: HearToLearn
Wow Herb, those points you posted are so spot on, in my opinion!

Quote:
Someone said that bad songwriters have many good ideas.
But they try to put too many ideas into the song and it becomes difficult to know when it's finished.
OR they have so many good parts, they can't decide which ones to keep.


I would be curious who that someone is. In my experience it's not an over abundance of good ideas. It's that they maybe have one "ok" idea, that they don't make an effort into developing it into something better. It's a huge reason why people collaborate. To bring in MORE ideas, and different ideas/perspectives. Check out the user showcase for some EXCELLENT examples of people who can write on their own; but still choose to write with others as well.

Commercial or not, you really need to have more than one good idea in a song. Lyrical, music, production choices...many things.

I've heard some non-commercial songs that have very little "production" by choice. That is still production. It has everything (but nothing more) than is needed to support the strong ideas of the other elements. MANY great ideas that are combined in what would appear to be a simple way. Simple doesn't mean easy. It's a craft.

So personally, I'm not sold on armature song writers suffer from too many good ideas. I can't stress enough that that is just my opinion.



I don't think I have ever seen or heard a bad songwriter who had so many good ideas in the song that he/she didn't know which ones to keep.

WHAT the......???


HTL....

You're not the only one holding that opinion. Just about ever songwriter I've ever run into at songwriting seminars is in agreement on this. The amateur writer hits one semi-good idea in a song and tries to replicate that throughout the song which of course, doesn't work. You have to have good ideas all throughout the song from the first line in verse one to the last tag of the song. The easy part is getting one good idea.... the hard part is staying on subject and finishing several more verse, a chorus and possibly a bridge and making them all as strong as that first line.

I hesitate to equate amateur with "bad" because they are not the same.

Bad writers don't want to grow, tend to use the same cliched ideas and lines over and over, have predictable rhymes, and aren't inspired and fresh or think outside of the box to take chances.

Amateur writers are learning and growing and constantly getting better through writing more songs, learning about writing, listening closely to the work of others, and doing it because they love the art and craft of song writing.

Last edited by Guitarhacker; 02/23/17 02:36 PM.
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