problem with writing music :c

[Froogleyboy]

Okay, me and my friends are starting a band. I'm the vocalist and they elected me to be the songwriter. But, we have a problem. I can write lyrics, but not sheet music. I can't read it either. I'm just so confused. It all looks like dots to me :c

[zeratul]

Why do you need to write sheet music? For your vocal parts, just record them on a computer or tape recorder or something after you come up with them. It's much simpler that way.

[Froogleyboy]

The sheet music is for the other members.

[THAC0]

...Do you know anything about music? Not even reading - if you've got a tune, could you figure out what chords you are using and tell the instrumentalists?

If not, I'm thinking you've got a lot of work ahead of you before this band is a good idea.

[Blaine.Bush]

Seriously. (lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+read+sheet+music)

[Froogleyboy]

Seriously. (lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+read+sheet+music)

It's not just that I can't read it. I know nothing about music

[Blaine.Bush]

It's not just that I can't read it. I know nothing about music

Try learning about it before starting a band, FFS.

[THAC0]

It's not just that I can't read it. I know nothing about music

Then why are you starting a band?

[Froogleyboy]

Then why are you starting a band?

It wasn't my idea. One of my friends was the lead guitar player in an old garage band. Well, they broke up about a month ago, and he asked me to start a new one with him

[Crimmy]

It wasn't my idea. One of my friends was the lead guitar player in an old garage band. Well, they broke up about a month ago, and he asked me to start a new one with him

Froog, you're worrying about a novel you can't do, and so many other things. And now you wanna compose music for a band without having formal knowledge of music (other than just listening to it)?

I hate to say it like this, but... You really must be joking man.

[Winter87]

As much as my pretentious classical music training wants to say other wise but you don't have to know how to read music to make songs. Now that's not to say a good knowledge of music theory won't help you greatly but it is possible. Now if you can't play an instrument then your probably past the point for help.


Staff music is pretty simple once you know your note names. Each line or space is representative of a certain note. For details like others have said google is your friend. I would recommend musictheory.net personally.

[THAC0]

It wasn't my idea. One of my friends was the lead guitar player in an old garage band. Well, they broke up about a month ago, and he asked me to start a new one with him

It doesn't matter if it's your idea or not. You said yes. Clearly, that was a poor choice.

[THAC0]

As much as my pretentious classical music training wants to say other wise but you don't have to know how to read music to make songs. Now that's not to say a good knowledge of music theory won't help you greatly but it is possible. Now if you can't play an instrument then your probably past the point for help.


Staff music is pretty simple once you know your not names. Each line or space is representative of a certain note. For details like others have said google is your friend. I would recommend musictheory.net personally.

You definitely don't have to be able to read music. But some knowledge of music is necessary, especially if you are needing to communicate your music to other members of the band. Froogley has already said he knows nothing about music.

[Icewalker]

Either just improvise as a group until you come up with something good, then repeat it, and don't write it down, or go and learn music. You may be great at writing lyrics and tunes, but sounds like you just flat don't know how to write music. You can learn to, or you can wing it. But there's no quick fix.

[Capt Spanner]

Start by learning other peoples' songs. This will give you a feel for how the band plays, and give you some good indications as to what you find fun and what you don't. It will also get you starting to think about the way to play, and you'll get a much better feel for how songs are put together.

(As an analogy, if you want to learn how a motorbike is built, you could start much worse by taking one apart.)

I'd also recommend you learn some theory. CyberFret (http://www.cyberfret.com) has a good theory section. (http://www.cyberfret.com/theory/index.php) Their article about chord progressions (http://www.cyberfret.com/theory/how-chord-progressions-work/index.php) is pretty useful, and this series on chords (http://www.cyberfret.com/theory/all-about-chords/part1/index.php) looks pretty good too.

Once you've got going trying to set your lyrics to music, this page offers some good advice (http://www.cyberfret.com/composition/index.php) but nothing for the absolute beginner.

[Lycan 01]

Stop biting off more than you can chew. Seriously. :smallconfused:

[Moff Chumley]

I vote that you get someone else to write it. This is like writing a novel in a language you don't speak. :smallsigh:

[Fifty-Eyed Fred]

Froogleyboy, you baffle me. It always comes across as though you're struggling for recognition or compensating for something. But, unlike your novel, I think this one is more feasibly workable. You say you're the lead vocalist, yes? Then you don't needs sheet music, and to be honest, unless it's a marching band none of you need sheet music, you just practice until you know your parts in your songs fully. I have no idea what your voice sounds like, but I wish you the best of luck.

But please stop biting off more than you can chew. It's not good for you in the long run.

[Anuan]

...Why did you accept the part if you not only, y'know, can't read music in either form, but know nothing about music?

Going to have to echo THAC0 and Blaine.Bush here. Get out of the band and learn some music theory first.

It's like going into a competitive judo competition without knowing any koshi-waza.

[Dispozition]

Echoing everyone in here about the 'you're silly' thing.

Firstly, as a singer, you should at least have some grasp of sheet music since a lot of vocal parts are kinda written with them. If this isn't the case with what you're learning...Make it the case. Either ask your teacher for stuff that has written notation, or find it if you're teaching yourself.
Second, why accept the position when you're struggling with other things?

[Lord Loss]

Learning to write music (the basics, nothing fancy shamncy) is very easy. Look around online. There are a great many tutorials available to teach you to read music. Now, there are many more advanced things you won't learn (eg. Codas) at first, but it'll come in time. I'm in the same situation, but I understand the concept of songwriting. I'm the group's harmonica (yes, you heard me harmonica).

[Dispozition]

Learning to write music (the basics, nothing fancy shamncy) is very easy. Look around online. There are a great many tutorials available to teach you to read music. Now, there are many more advanced things you won't learn (eg. Codas) at first, but it'll come in time. I'm in the same situation, but I understand the concept of songwriting. I'm the group's harmonica (yes, you heard me harmonica).

Nothing is wrong with a dedicated harmonica player, nothing at all.

[Narmoth]

Okay, this is what you'll have to do:

1. Start with the first tone
2. Find how far from it (notes up or down) the next tone is
3. Repeat

But really, you're doing this very backwards.
The normal proses is for the band to come up with the main riffs and chords, and then you finding the vocal melody to sing on it. You shouldn't be the one to compose for the other instruments.
Especially if you don't know not only how to play them, but can't even write the music for them

[Hazyshade]

Okay, me and my friends are starting a band. I'm the vocalist and they elected me to be the songwriter. But, we have a problem. I can write lyrics, but not sheet music. I can't read it either. I'm just so confused. It all looks like dots to me :c

Voice of Optimism here! I admire your gumption Froogleyboy. You can write lyrics? Excellent, you're doing better than 50% of songwriters already.

Firstly, as several others have said, don't bother with that dots-and-lines nonsense. What are we working with here, guitar, bass and drums? None of those instruments use the standard notation anyway.

My advice: write some songs. By which I mean lyrics and melody. Write your lyrics down, and then open your mouth and sing them. Don't worry about the other parts. Don't spend hours studying textbook stuff preparing to write some songs either. "I'll be capable of writing songs as soon as I understand X" is a never-ending loop. You will never have all the knowledge you think you need. You are capable of writing songs now, so write some. By a process of trial and error, they will get better.

Then, sing them to your group. Now if it were me doing this, and I was working with serious (not necessarily pro) musicians, I would expect them to be able to play along without any further input from me. OK, so I'd want to be in charge of the chords too, because I'm a harmony geek. But beyond that, I wouldn't feel the obligation to tell the other musicians what to play, because presumably they're contributing some individual style to the band that I want to give them the chance to show off. (Hence all the kerfuffle about Creative Control that major bands go through - songwriters wanting the song to be THEIR way at the expense of the other musicians' talents.)

Someone will need to come up with a chord progression. Your guitarist (rhythm guitarist if you have one) is the one who should be developing this skill. If you get blank looks at this point, you can always give your producer a call. In other words, record yourself singing your melody, post us a link to it, and an army of playgrounders will be your producer. For our usual fee. Then shove that under your guitarist's nose, get your bass player to play the roots of the chords (that's the note that's the same as the name of the chord, so the root of a G chord is the note G) and tell your drummer to, I don't know, keep the hi-hat going with one hand while alternating kick drum on the strong beats and snare on the weak beats. Even I can do that one.

If they're still clueless, then they are the ones who should be thinking twice about starting a band, not you.

Have fun! :smallcool:

[Narmoth]

I can't quite agree with Sushi Monster
When I work with a singer (I play guitar), I actually expect to get the main tone scale and starting tune from the singer before starting to work out chords

[Crimmy]

Stop biting off more than you can chew. Seriously. :smallconfused:

This. I really agree with this.

[Narmoth]

Okay, just to give some perspective:
John Lennon didn't know how to write sheet music when he started either.

Now, what you'll need is to sit down with the band and explain that music is something you have to write together, as you can't do it on your own.
The lyrics you write will often have a natural rhythm in which you'd like to narrate them or sing them.
This will be the rhythm of the song
Then you should, as I told earlier, find what note you'd want it to start on.
This note the guitarist can find on his guitar
Now, sing the song
The guitarist should try to follow it on the guitar
Some parts will have to be redone
The parts where you don't sing should be written by the guitarist (or anyone else, as long as it's not you)

Best of luck with it
Also, you can contact me for further help