Writing Music

[deadowl]

Anyways, I've been a leisure guitar player since high school. I don't believe I'm great or anything, but I've tried writing a few songs.

I don't have a microphone on my computer, so I recently started looking for applications to create midis via guitar tabs. I finally stumbled across this app, SongWrite. I'm definitely not extremely good at using it, or else the stuff I put into it would sound a lot better.

This is the first song I've tried running through it.
http://www.archive.org/details/ThreeNightsroughDraft

Rough times of the different parts:
Intro: 0:00 -> 0:30
Misc Throw-in: 0:30 -> 0:55
Chorus: 0:55 -> 1:17
Climax: 1:17 -> 1:45 (I can't play it the way it is in the file)
Middle-End Fast-Paced Guitar Solo: 1:45 -> End (I can actually play this part that fast)
Outro: pretty much a modified chorus, but that isn't in the midi.

I believe the song, in it's individual parts, sound quite good, but the timing and transitions are simply horrible on my part. The part I described as the climax doesn't really sound as nice as other sections, but it probably would with a bit of work.

I was wondering if anyone wanted to constructively criticize this or have a go at editing it.

Okay, attaching the .sw.xml doesn't work, but you could email me (jrbeaure@uvm.edu), or just use the midi.

[DamjanDimitrioski]

If you don't have a microphone, and want to have, you can make cheaply, one.
First you take a broken wired phone, you open the phone handle and then you cut the 2 wires of the mic.
Then go to a hardware store or similar, then buy one audio pin, and audio cable (the ledge is up to you, depending how far is your pc).
Then you open the pin head, and connect the cable wires with the pin.
Then take the other side of the cable and connect them with the mic.
Or if you know how to solder wires, solder them, or ask for help from some friend who knows electronics.
The final step is to put the pin in the computers sound card in the red port.
And don't expect this mic to have some quality.

And to write music you need Audacity, but it cannot play instrumental music, only it can view the instruments from a midi.
But for wave type music, it don't have any concurrence.

[Backharlow]

Also, if you are more interested in your compositions than your actual live performances, a cheap midi to usb pickup is not that expensive. This would record the notes that you play from the guitar straight to midi notation. I do this for piano work, because once it's midi, options are limitless, whereas if you record straight audio with a mic, all you can do with it is multitrack and lay effects, for the most part.

[deadowl]

If you don't have a microphone, and want to have, you can make cheaply, one.

Wow, those phones I broke by throwing them against the wall can actually have a purpose. Thanks.

[Bungo Pony]

A microphone is essential if you're writing music! No musician should be without one. Trust me, pick one up and you'll reap the benefits. Get yourself a good one too.

What I usually do when I write is to write the main rhythm/riffs on guitar and the lyrics first. Get that recorded down so you have it somewhere where you can refer to it. Then, open up the drum simulator (I believe it's H20 on Linux) and try coming up with the drumming. Once you've got some of it down, play and sing along with it and make changes to the drumming as necessary.

Once the drum track is finished, record yourself playing guitar with it, then record your singing. You have your basic song down! Then go buy a bass guitar so you can finish it ;)

[deadowl]

A microphone is essential if you're writing music! No musician should be without one. Trust me, pick one up and you'll reap the benefits. Get yourself a good one too.

What I usually do when I write is to write the main rhythm/riffs on guitar and the lyrics first. Get that recorded down so you have it somewhere where you can refer to it. Then, open up the drum simulator (I believe it's H20 on Linux) and try coming up with the drumming. Once you've got some of it down, play and sing along with it and make changes to the drumming as necessary.

Once the drum track is finished, record yourself playing guitar with it, then record your singing. You have your basic song down! Then go buy a bass guitar so you can finish it ;)

To be honest, I still think it helps take my mind out of a sequential state when playing music to be able to hear and modify my riffs and rhythms from a tertiary outlet.