Great article. Inspiration is all around you, if you choose to see it. I sometimes have those random flashes of inspiration, a few words, a melody or bass line in my head, usually when I’m in the middle of doing something like driving, or first thing in the morning. My biggest problem is getting those ideas down before they’re lost. I’ve tried using small tape recorder, but it’s never where I need it when I need it, or the batteries are dead. If I hit upon something while playing my guitar, The act of turning on the recorder or grabbing a pen and paper interrupts the flow of the idea. I’d like to hear some ways others may be successfully overcoming this problem.

And nice article, Adrian. Thanks

I always love the notion of friendly competition. I was told that Lennon and McCartney were insanely competitive, and drove each other to constantly out-perform themselves.

One might arrive with a new tune, and the other says, “Me too,” and ducks out for a few moments to come up with something, not to appear empty handed.

Their game was (generally) friendly, in that it was mutually beneficial. They split their copyright 50/50.

And if you compare their early and later styles. In the early days, John was the rebel yeller and Paul was the sweet heart. But look at how with the White Album, they were pursuing each other’s strengths. You have Paul ripping vocals on “Helter Skelter”, and John contributing sweet songs like “Julia” and “Good night”.

I’ve read that Paul was pissed about John rushing the release of the Rev 9, not because he didn’t like the style, but because he had been experimenting with tape loops BEFORE John.

Anywho. Great article.

Really? REALLY? What is with the articles lately? These latest tuts don’t even fit the definition of a tutorial. I don’t come to these sights for an existential read about how inspiration is all around us. I mean, the article is good. But it just doesn’t fit the mold of what AudioTuts is supposed to be all about.

So Adrian, I liked your article, but I am here patiently waiting for a Tut that has to with digital audio. Not an article on where to find inspiration for songwriting or how to deliver a good vocal performance.

Thanks for the article Adrian. I always enjoy a good read about song writing. I have this book by Joel Hirschhorn called the Complete idiot’s guide to song-writing and it has many of the same points, like title collecting and people watching to spark ideas.

I’m a pretty bad(or impatient really) lyricist so I like to pester my creative writing major friends for lyrics so I can focus on the songs, and sometimes that has created some pretty awesome songs.

I also sometimes find that certain lyrics or certain melodies sound better with a certain instrument. I once got a lyric idea that I just knew had to be written on piano, and although being a bad piano player the song came out great. (I later solicited one of my friends to jazz up the piano part a bit)

Anyway, great article. I love the stuff.

If you’re a songwriter, I would recommend taking up journalling. I know, I know. “Dear Diary, I can’t think of a thing to write about. I ate oatmeal for breakfast this morning…” Give it a shot. Take an idea and write about it for a few minutes. Some of my best songs/lyrics came directly from a journal entry.

Dig the article.

In the past I’ve written down a paraphrased idea of a note progression. A few years ago when Reason 1.0 came out, I transferred all those ‘notes’ into songs. The cool part is I didn’t actually write down any notes, just relative progression. So I can now reinterpret what I developed years ago.

By the way, Reason has finally exorcised most of the tunes dancing in my head! Thank you Propellerheads!

I find that sometimes new equipment can trigger new sparks of inspiration when you fiddle around with it. For example, I recently bought a used Synthesizer from the early nineties and just trying out its sounds has led to several song ideas. The same could happen when trying out a new (perhaps more traditional) instrument, an effect unit or whatever.

Another great way get new ideas is to try to write something in the style of another artist or song. I usually do not succeed with this but end up with a pretty cool song in the process anyway

great and inspirational in its brake down of starting points for songwriting , like anything else the art of writing is something we must practice to the point where all of the methodology above becomes second nature ….

sweet article

i mostly of the time follow my intuition while ive my sequencer open.

i sometimes get the inspiration on different kind of things combined. like a certain smell and painting together, once i got inspiration when i dropped 20 coins on my arm from 3 feet high.

inspiration is on all kinds of places where you never look because it sounds insane, but if you live your life in an other way others do, you get inspiration easyer

man thank you

JAM! or Beer and couple of drunk friends with guitars

I don’t think that inspiration comes spontaneously very often.

Some people think that inspiration is the beginning of why we do work. I think it is the other way around, we begin to work and actively seek the inspiration. It can be a difficult concept to grasp.

I’m a big fan of freewriting though. =D

Freewriting really is the awesome, as far as lyrics go. Just don’t stop moving the pen no matter how silly your ideas seem, just let them evolve naturally. Then go back later and skim through and highlight interesting thoughts and ideas. Another bonus is that it trains your brain for writing. When you start to write all the time then you start thinking in terms of making things sound more interesting.

oh my… sorry about “really is the awesome” and any other terrible grammar mistakes. I’m half asleep.

Thanks for writing this article. The inspiration to write music is sporadic for me at best. It has always been that way. I wish you could harness the Inspiration and bring it out anytime you need.