Structuring ideas help / Songwriting

[shiekaa]

Hey all,

Just looking for some peoples opinions and how they can fix a dilemma I have been having for a while;

I write a hell of a lot of metal style music, I have aboslutely no problem churning out riff after riff and progression after progression, I write drums and guitar for it aswell. I've recently sort of found my unique sound for writing and am happy with it.

However despite having many ideas I can't seem to structure them together to make a song I'm happy with.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist but I just can't seem to grasp how to get ideas to link together and form something that sounds great rather than ideas clumped together.

I've been seeking a second guitarist for a while to help me with writing as the one I have doesen't write, he just seems to be good at improving what I have already done haha.

The bottom line is I want nice transitions rather than idea after idea.

Anyone help?

Cheers,

Sam

[BottomEndian]

One way I've seen used to good effect in sludge and metal is to link two riffs by coming up with a sort of intermediary riff that combines elements of both riffs, and stick it in between them. Works best when the two riffs to be linked have a fair amount of common ground to start with.

[xilddx]

My brother's a genius at this, he normally feels it though, no theory. he has it all in his head and plays around on the guitar until there's a match. IME it's best not to be playing your instrument at the time, feel it, sing it in your head, you'll get a truer reflection of YOU that way.

Good luck.

[Low End Bee]

Lyrics first is always easier.

There's a structure to combine the musical bits then. Even though you invariably end up editing lyrics and music again once they're together.