SOUND ON SOUND

[iggiecampos]

Hi everyone!

This is my first time posting in the forum and I wanted to know your opinions/solutions about this problem that I am constantly facing whenever I try to compose music.
I mainly listen to different subgenres of rock music(mostly alternative/indie, math rock, postrock, shoegaze, and a large etc.), and whenever I try to compose my own songs, I usually will start composing a song, not finish it, then start another song with a different genre and then the same again. I do not need to identify myself with any kind of genre but I would like to be able to find a sound that suits me and start doing songs that have things in common and can be put together into an EP or something similar.

Thanks for your time!

[Sam Spoons]

I think that before anything else you need to start finishing your songs. There is no need to stick to one genre just keep writing you will soon develop a style and it will, most likely, be an amalgam of all the styles you enjoy. What will emerge is something a little different to each if the sub genres that gave you the inspiration, hopefully something unique to you.

[The Elf]

Forget genres and just make music that makes your heart sing. That music will be inspired by music you like, but it needn't be confined by it. Break down those walls and run free!

[CS70]

+1 to what the Man With The Hat above said. The only music worth making is the music that moves you, regardless of labels!

[John Stafford]

Why not just write what you like?

[blinddrew]

I think until you start really finishing things you're not pushing yourself to work out what your own sound is. So start on that, but take and leave from whatever genre you want wherever you want to fit the song. Jazz drums and show tune bass with a bit of metal shredding over the top? Why not if it works?

[desmond]

+1 to finishing stuff.

Do that, and the rest will work itself out...

[Eddy Deegan]

I also concur. I've been through various phases of trying to write a track in a genre or to align with the general sound of some artist or other that I like, but writing what comes naturally is definitely the way to go.

Who knows; one day someone may then be trying to sound like you :-)

There's nothing wrong with having a load of demos, sketches, riffs, semi-complete works but I do think it's important to finish something on a reasonably regular basis as well.

[Martin Walker]

There's nothing wrong with having a load of demos, sketches, riffs, semi-complete works but I do think it's important to finish something on a reasonably regular basis as well.

If nothing else, completing a track gives a wonderful sense of accomplishment, whereas a load of demos etc. can ultimately prove frustrating in my experience.


Martin

[Eddy Deegan]

There's nothing wrong with having a load of demos, sketches, riffs, semi-complete works but I do think it's important to finish something on a reasonably regular basis as well.

If nothing else, completing a track gives a wonderful sense of accomplishment, whereas a load of demos etc. can ultimately prove frustrating in my experience.

For a while I would have said the same thing (and in some ways I completely agree) but the benefit for me is that the hundred or more fragments, demos, half-finished bit and pieces and so on I have floating around can be a rich source of pickings.

Nobody has heard them, they are original works that you own and you can re-use/combine/develop them even if doing so from the ground up for an actual release :)

[Ben Asaro]

Welcome to the forums!

I was a huge proponent of writing start to finish, one song at a time, until about a year ago when I started writing sections that I like and not worrying about attaching them to anything specific. I think it’s led to both more thoughtful and spontaneous music, but it’s a really slow way to make music!

I agree with the general consensus, though: don’t worry about genre, focus on completing songs, even if they are never publicly released (though there’s no reason not to do that, either).

We all go through dry spells when writing, that’s totally normal. The trick is to get the thing done. I wish you success!

[Arpangel]

Don’t think in terms of genre, simple as that.
Besides, those genres that we end up liking, weren’t there at some point, and I’m absolutely sure that those that wrote the stuff didn’t know they were creating or contributing to anything at the time, they just did what they did. It’s often been said, by lots of high profile musicians, that they just created music that they wanted to hear, that they couldn’t buy at the time! and genres and scenes came out of a general Zeitgeist of the time, a feeling in society, that sort of steered people to make similar music with a similar message.