Originals Bands

[TimR]

Ok so the Coverband thread is getting long and I think the point is getting missed.

How many of you as bass players actually have any input into your originals band songs other than helping with the arrangement by coming up with a nice bass line.

Pual McCartney is a good example of a good song writer who also played bass.

It's not meant to be a contentious issue but I'm sure it will become one. Really I'm just interested.

Edited October 14, 2010 by TimR

[Bilbo]

Words?

I write instrumental music that never gets performed. The music I play live is generally the same sh*te everyone else does! So its Lerner and Loewe, Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael, George Gershwin, Sammy Cahn, Stevie Wonder.......

[clauster]

The guitarist comes up with riff ideas - I help him link it up nteresting verses and chorus patterns with bridges and a middle 8, then the drummer helps me work out the rhythm. Then the singer does words and tunage.

[lojo]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='988269' date='Oct 14 2010, 06:44 PM']Words?

I write instrumental music that never gets performed. The music I play live is generally the same sh*te everyone else does! So its Lerner and Loewe, Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael, George Gershwin, Sammy Cahn, Stevie Wonder.......[/quote]

I hope you find an outlet for your own music Bilbo

-

Sorry cant answer, I only play covers now

[risingson]

[quote name='TimR' post='988261' date='Oct 14 2010, 06:40 PM']Ok so the Coverband thread is getting long and I think the point is getting missed.

How many of you as bass players actually have any input into your originals band songs other than helping with the arrangement by coming up with a nice bass line.

Pual McCartney is a good example of a good song writer who also played bass.

It's not meant to be a contentious issue but I'm sure it will become one. Really I'm just interested.[/quote]

I do. I love songwriting, as a musician I would feel completely unfulfilled if I couldn't write and perform my own music. Bass is my main instrument on which I am most competent but I do basically all my writing on guitar.

[crez5150]

I write loads of original songs and instrumentals, spend hours recording.... I never perform any of it live though cause I'm too busy with my function band playing covers

[Bilbo]

[quote name='crez5150' post='988314' date='Oct 14 2010, 07:15 PM']I write loads of original songs and instrumentals, spend hours recording.... I never perform any of it live though cause I'm too busy with my function band playing covers[/quote]

That sooooo sucks. But that's what the Macdonaldsisation of music has done to us all.

[thisnameistaken]

Our guitarist/singer comes up with all the lyrics and vocal melodies and he's very good at it. Usually my contribution is vocal harmonies, bass parts, middle 8s, overall structure, horn parts sometimes. I understand more about how music works than he does but he's got that creative spark that - if I'm honest - seems to have left me.

[crez5150]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='988333' date='Oct 14 2010, 07:29 PM']That sooooo sucks. But that's what the Macdonaldsisation of music has done to us all.[/quote]

Nah not at all.... I love it..... plus I get paid vast amounts of money..... plus it means I don't have to get a proper job.

I see where you are coming from though Bilbo but as you say it's a personal thing....

[EdwardHimself]

I write everything. Well the last band i was in we were getting somewhere with me actually helping write the songs instead of having to do it all myself which was nice, but i was playing the drums so i decided i'd rather not. Kind of wish i'd kept on with it actually.

[Stingray5]

Apart from my last couple of function/covers bands, I've never been in a band where I did not have a major hand in writing the material - be it a song that was 100% mine (words, music, arrangement, etc) or a collaborative effort with one or more other members of the band.
The bands have been Pop/Rock, Country, Prog Rock and a sort of Jazzy-Fusiony-sortathing and I've enjoyed writing songs for all of them.
I write mainly on guitar, plus occasionally on keyboards and, yes, even bass!

[dincz]

[quote name='Stingray5' post='988349' date='Oct 14 2010, 08:47 PM']Apart from my last couple of function/covers bands, I've never been in a band where I did not have a major hand in writing the material - be it a song that was 100% mine (words, music, arrangement, etc) or a collaborative effort with one or more other members of the band.
The bands have been Pop/Rock, Country, Prog Rock and a sort of Jazzy-Fusiony-sortathing and I've enjoyed writing songs for all of them.
I write mainly on guitar, plus occasionally on keyboards and, yes, even bass![/quote]

I find a chord sequence I like and a melody pops out of the air. I give a hum/strum recording to the singer with a description of the mood I have in mind, and he writes the lyrics. Or at least I used to. I'm rehearsing covers now and enjoy it but it's not the same.

[xgsjx]

In each of my bands, we usually write our own parts after one of us has turned up with the original idea.
Most of our songs start with either me bringing a bassline, melody & basic chord structure or the singer (guitarist/banjoist) bringing lyrics, melody & chord structure & then each of us writing our own parts for the song & all contributing to the flow (structure). On rare occasions another band member does something like this!
Sometimes it's started from a jam where one of us starts a wee riff or idea & then it grows & on rare occasions one of us brings an entire song & then it gets stripped down & chopped & shuffled until we're all happy with it (& then play it differently at every gig).

[Bassassin]

I co-write with our singer, up until now (that's 9 years) the guitarist & drummer have chosen to have no creative input as far as composition is concerned. This has worked fine, although some more collaborative input would be interesting - although the band started as a writing/recording project with me & the singer, so we're used to working this way. I'm very happy for the other guys to interpret and embellish the guitar parts & drum patterns I create, as I'm an average guitarist and no drummer at all. The vast majority of the lyrics & melodies come from the singer, although she has used the occasional idea or line I've come up with.

Things are changing a little, as we're working with a different drummer on our most recent material (it's a strange situation - we seem to have ended up with two drummers, each playing a different set of songs!) and he's composing his own parts from the ground up, and also adding some keyboard parts to our current bass/guitar/drums/voice compositions. He writes & records himself so I'm hopeful there will be some more collaborative composition in the future.

Jon.

[deaver]

Guitard/singer/frontman and the keyboard player come up with the songs. They knock up a well-formed demo, then we try and better it as a band. I plod along as best as I can.

[TimR]

In the case where everyone writes different parts do you keep a note of who has written what?

[xgsjx]

I try & record things on the fly on my phone to start with. Failing that, memory.

[ThomBassmonkey]

My bands have always worked where people bring their own ideas, play them, then if someone doesn't like them they say.

I play guitar too and know what's going on with drums (I did play, may moons ago but no longer) and can pick out melodies on my bass or hum them if there's something I feel the flute or keyboard should be doing, so I always pipe up if I feel I can contribute something to someone else's part. In the same way, other people do the same for me. There's certain songs where I play very specific basslines that I haven't written (or at least have only modified) but they suit the song and I'm happy to play them.

I think that with the nature of the beast that is bass, there's a lot of sections in songs where you don't have much choice other than to play very simple root notes anyway, anything more would be over-playing. If you haven't written those sections then the amount of input you have is limited anyway.

[Cat Burrito]

In my current band it's a new experience for me. I wrote a few lyrics in the past and even came up with the odd verse or chorus structure as well as writing my own basslines. This time around its very much a case of "rhythm section know your place"! We are expected to hold back, do as we are told and never, ever mess up. I quite like the discipline of it all although I definitely want to be more involved in the future. At least I mainly get a say in my basslines. I'd add before I conjour up images of a dictatorship that our songwriter does have a good understanding of drums and bass. In the past I've worked with singers who don't notice your parts in the past and I'm enjoying things at the moment.

[Dom in Dorset]

One of my bands has three song writers who all sing , I'm one of them.
I tend to write on guitar and deliver a fairly complete song for the band to work on, sometimes it's a bit more embrionic and the others chip in but I do write all the words.
I also play in an instrumental band where I have much less input mainly because thery've been playing for years, I joined last Christmas and I'm still learning all of the old stuff.

[Delberthot]

Geezer Butler wrote most, if not all, of the lyrics for Black Sabbath

[risingson]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='988269' date='Oct 14 2010, 06:44 PM']Words?

I write instrumental music that never gets performed. The music I play live is generally the same sh*te everyone else does! So its Lerner and Loewe, Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael, [b]George Gershwin[/b], Sammy Cahn, Stevie Wonder.......[/quote]

Sorry, only just picked up on this but I can't remember the last time 'Rhapsody in Blue' got spanked out on a rusty old clarinet in my local pub? Am I missing something here?

[Spike Vincent]

Generally I write the riffs and the singer/guitarist does the lyrics. Melodies? What's that?

[Lozz196]

In my last originals band, both the guitarist and I wrote the songs, and the vocal melodies, then the singer came up with the words that fitted in with those melodies. May seem he was getting off without doing anything, but his talent was that he was a fantastic front-man.

[Mog]

Melody????