October 2024 Guitar Newsletter: Collaborative Songwriting within a 4 Piece Rock Band
I am fortunate to be part of a project with a drummer, bassist and vocalist working on writing original rock songs. This will be a challenge since songs don’t appear out of thin air or record themselves. Birthing original songs will require the accumulation of musical material while minimizing the temptation to mimic others and instead, allow the band to grow both on a musical and personal level. The accumulation of musical material begins with bringing something to the table to get the song writing process rolling. I will provide riffs, chord progressions, melodies and sonic landscapes to share at band practices and record them. The bassist and drummer submit their ideas while the singer shares a vocal melody or song lyrics. These wavefiles can be downloaded to a designated digital band folder for everyone to listen to. Thanks to digital multi-tracking technology, it is easy for a band mate to record another track on top of it and pass it on. All of this is useful if regular band practices are not possible. When we do get together as a full unit, those sessions can also be recorded, edited and archived for us to review.
All the while, the goal is finding our own original sound. The litmus test for originality is not only whether individual contributions sound interesting by themselves but also how they resonate within a band context. In the big picture, better-known Rock bands with their own sound are a rarity. It can’t be forced and no formula for it exists. Musicians that stick out from the rest found the key to unlock their own voice after much labor, trial and error. For guitarists, that involves the choice of guitars, amplifiers or effects that aid them in defining the sound in their mind.
Most professional musicians are heavily inspired by their musical heroes and are inclined to mimic them. For those striving for any kind of financial success, it makes perfect sense to give into the temptation of what is popular at the time. Unfortunately, the ability to innovate can be hijacked by imitating the ringleaders. This ends up limiting your own creativity as well as the potential of the band. The remedy lies within experimenting collaboratively with unconventional ideas. That means having an open ear to suggestions from band mates and allowing the musical nugget you brought into the room to morph into something completely different.
Being in tune with your self and having something pressing to get off your mind is another essential ingredient to this endeavor. However, honest songs written within a band setting doesn’t imply that all partakers have to see eye-to-eye on everything. Working creatively in close quarters means becoming vulnerable and possibly having turmoil within the artistic statement you find yourself in. On the flip side the audience might sense this tension in the vibrations of the songs, which is why rock music attracts and sounds “real”.
Appreciate your favorite original sounding bands more because it’s easy to take them for granted and assume that it somehow just happened. For me, dwelling on this topic is a good reminder that original material can only stand apart from the norm if the makers involved are willing to take chances and be open to collaboration.
