My name is Jamie and I wanted to solve the problem of how to write an entire song from scratch.
At first glance, writing a song may not seem like you are solving a problem. To many, it is simply putting notes that go well together and some lyrics. However, this is not the case at all. Music is more than just one vocal contribution, one drum contribution, one piano contribution, and one strings contribution. It is a collection of many more parts, but more than that, it comes from the heart. Creating music is putting all the melodies in your head down and making them mesh well together, however you see fit. And although this may seem simple, attempting it is quite the opposite.
For my project, rather than just writing a full song (my first ever), I wanted to take on another slight challenge to make the project more interesting. I wanted to write a song that sounds creepy and, in a sense, scary, for a good amount of it. My reason for doing so was because I wanted to give myself more of a challenge; if my task was to just write a song, I would have so much direction and so many options, while giving myself this narrow path gave me less options and made writing a song more complicated. Doing so essentially means that I have to use less scales fully and create my own sound, which to me, is much more difficult since many amazing riffs, chords, and progressions are created using the basic scales.
To start, I wrote a few riffs and progressions and began changing one or two notes to go up or down one note. So rather than playing a common power chord of "D A & D," I made it "D A# & D," which made it sound slightly off and a little bit creepy, using some effects. I continued with this trend, making the next power chord notes change from the common "D# A# & D#" to "D# A & D#”. To show what I mean, I have included a short clip so that the difference between the power chords can be heard. The first sound clip is the power chord D#, and the second sound clip is the same chord but with the A# changed to an A.
Power Chord Change
After writing the initial verse on guitar for the intro, I was stuck. For hours, I could not find a way to transition this intro into the next part of the song. I tried numerous guitar riffs, I tried different patterns, etc. yet I could not find a way to properly transition the song into the real verse. Finally, after a long time, I was able to make the transition. What I did was slightly change the tuning for the verse. The song starts off in "Drop D" tuning, and then at the transition, I changed the chords and progressions played to "Drop D#" tuning. It has a strange sound to it, but it works very well together. Then, to continue this trend, for the choruses, I changed the tuning of the guitar and the chords yet again to now be in E Standard tuning. I had never attempted or even thought of change the tuning mid song, but in doing so, I was able to produce such a unique sound that, although took very long to finish, I was very happy with.
My process in creating this song was started on the guitar itself. I sat down for a while and wrote some riffs that I enjoyed and thought fit the theme of 'creepiness', and then I translated that into the program Garageband. I did so because, at this time, I did not have a chord that connected my guitar to my computer, however for Chanukah, I got one of those chords, and was able to record the guitar directly into the program. Because, though, I did not have the chord at first, the intro guitar is computerized, however the rest was all done through my recordings. The singing was done as well through recordings. The bass, drums, piano, and effects were all sounds that I created using Garageband. To further my claim that a song is normally not one contribution per instrument, my song had a total of 38 parts used to create it. I used 7 total vocal parts, 15 total guitar parts, 6 bass parts, 4 drum parts, 1 piano part, and 5 strictly-effect parts.
However, just recording and writing all of these parts was not the only thing that I did for this project. I also had to add effects to each part, like make certain drums have a heavier tom drum, have the volumes slowly increase and then immediately decrease, make a vocal part pan from one side to the other, and, in some cases, add five to six effects to one part. In the pictures shown below, the yellow, blue, and green lines (as well as the very subtle different-color lines around some of them) show the effects that I had to edit and make.
For the vocals, I tried some different things to get a unique sound. I multi-tracked certain parts, meaning I used two or more tracks at once while singing to give it a different effect. I also whispered some parts fully, and whispered one line of lyrics under another line to give it a different sound. The whispers definitely gave the song a creepy sound.
As for the guitar solo, I wanted to make it completely different than the song itself; I wanted it to be unexpected, so I sped up the tempo to double the tempo of the entire song. I played five different guitar parts for the guitar solo part of the song, three for the rhythm, and two for the solo itself. I went off-scale to continue keeping the unique sound.
Lastly, to create the drums, bass, piano, and effect parts I first had to write the parts themselves, and then 'translate' them into Garageband. To do so, when I added a part, I pressed the editors button (the scissors at the top left of the screen) and manually placed each note down as the proper note, in the correct place, and to last for the appropriate amount of time. The picture below shows some of these notes.
I solved my problem in creating a song from complete scratch. It was a challenge to create my very first full song, taking upwards of 50 hours to finish, however the process was so amusing. I was successfully able to write each part, edit each part, and, in my opinion, get the sound that I wanted in this song. I knew that writing music was difficult, but the difficulty is never truly known until you attempt to write a full song yourself. Also, I would like to credit my brother for writing the lyrics for this song. He did an amazing job at writing lyrics for this song that continue the trend of creepiness. The lyrics themselves are about someone who is slowly becoming more and more delusional as time progresses.
The song is called "Fair-Weather," and I hope you all enjoy!
Link to Song: Fair-Weather
Link to Lyrics: Lyrics
My process in creating this song was started on the guitar itself. I sat down for a while and wrote some riffs that I enjoyed and thought fit the theme of 'creepiness', and then I translated that into the program Garageband. I did so because, at this time, I did not have a chord that connected my guitar to my computer, however for Chanukah, I got one of those chords, and was able to record the guitar directly into the program. Because, though, I did not have the chord at first, the intro guitar is computerized, however the rest was all done through my recordings. The singing was done as well through recordings. The bass, drums, piano, and effects were all sounds that I created using Garageband. To further my claim that a song is normally not one contribution per instrument, my song had a total of 38 parts used to create it. I used 7 total vocal parts, 15 total guitar parts, 6 bass parts, 4 drum parts, 1 piano part, and 5 strictly-effect parts.
Vocal and Some Guitar Parts
Some Guitar and Bass Parts
Some Bass, Drums, and Effect Parts
However, just recording and writing all of these parts was not the only thing that I did for this project. I also had to add effects to each part, like make certain drums have a heavier tom drum, have the volumes slowly increase and then immediately decrease, make a vocal part pan from one side to the other, and, in some cases, add five to six effects to one part. In the pictures shown below, the yellow, blue, and green lines (as well as the very subtle different-color lines around some of them) show the effects that I had to edit and make.
Volume, Kick, and Compression Being Edited
Volume Adjustment
For the vocals, I tried some different things to get a unique sound. I multi-tracked certain parts, meaning I used two or more tracks at once while singing to give it a different effect. I also whispered some parts fully, and whispered one line of lyrics under another line to give it a different sound. The whispers definitely gave the song a creepy sound.
As for the guitar solo, I wanted to make it completely different than the song itself; I wanted it to be unexpected, so I sped up the tempo to double the tempo of the entire song. I played five different guitar parts for the guitar solo part of the song, three for the rhythm, and two for the solo itself. I went off-scale to continue keeping the unique sound.
Lastly, to create the drums, bass, piano, and effect parts I first had to write the parts themselves, and then 'translate' them into Garageband. To do so, when I added a part, I pressed the editors button (the scissors at the top left of the screen) and manually placed each note down as the proper note, in the correct place, and to last for the appropriate amount of time. The picture below shows some of these notes.
Drum Note Placement and Lasting Length
I solved my problem in creating a song from complete scratch. It was a challenge to create my very first full song, taking upwards of 50 hours to finish, however the process was so amusing. I was successfully able to write each part, edit each part, and, in my opinion, get the sound that I wanted in this song. I knew that writing music was difficult, but the difficulty is never truly known until you attempt to write a full song yourself. Also, I would like to credit my brother for writing the lyrics for this song. He did an amazing job at writing lyrics for this song that continue the trend of creepiness. The lyrics themselves are about someone who is slowly becoming more and more delusional as time progresses.
The song is called "Fair-Weather," and I hope you all enjoy!
Link to Song: Fair-Weather
Link to Lyrics: Lyrics
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