Wanting to write some Oklahoma legends kind of story telling songs. Obviously, something about Pistol Pete, but what else? What are some cool Oklahoma stories that should be told?
Songwriting is relatively new for me and my process is to get the music bed first and then see what story I think its telling me and go from there.
Here's my process...
1. Pour some whiskey, and occasionally take one nice hit on the ol hippie lettuce.
2. Pick up acoustic guitar and see what happens.
3. Any riffs or hooks I come up with, I record on my phone.
4. Next day, I listen to them and delete the ones that suck.
5. The ones that are good, I listen real close to see if I'm ripping something off and didn't realize it.
I've already thought I've written what just turned out to be rough covers of Green Grass and high Tides by the Outlaws, Can't you See by Marshall Tucker Band and probably a dozen others that were too similar to use.
6. After that, if anything makes the cut, I demo a music bed with me playing guitar and bass parts and a programmed drum track on Garageband and play it for my band (not DTK) This band is called Firebird.
7. The tunes that have a good groove or hook, we keep. Those that don't turn everyone on go to the parts pile.
8. Then and only then, do I try to figure out what the song is about and put lyrics to it.
As I said in another thread, this band is kinda southern rock/blues/Americana/alt country and I really don't want to write about relationship stuff so much as tell cool stories. Being an Oklahoma band, I really would love to find some cool subject matter to write about. Legends, outlaws, Ghost stories etc. Any ideas?
Songwriting is relatively new for me and my process is to get the music bed first and then see what story I think its telling me and go from there.
Here's my process...
1. Pour some whiskey, and occasionally take one nice hit on the ol hippie lettuce.
2. Pick up acoustic guitar and see what happens.
3. Any riffs or hooks I come up with, I record on my phone.
4. Next day, I listen to them and delete the ones that suck.
5. The ones that are good, I listen real close to see if I'm ripping something off and didn't realize it.
I've already thought I've written what just turned out to be rough covers of Green Grass and high Tides by the Outlaws, Can't you See by Marshall Tucker Band and probably a dozen others that were too similar to use.
6. After that, if anything makes the cut, I demo a music bed with me playing guitar and bass parts and a programmed drum track on Garageband and play it for my band (not DTK) This band is called Firebird.
7. The tunes that have a good groove or hook, we keep. Those that don't turn everyone on go to the parts pile.
8. Then and only then, do I try to figure out what the song is about and put lyrics to it.
As I said in another thread, this band is kinda southern rock/blues/Americana/alt country and I really don't want to write about relationship stuff so much as tell cool stories. Being an Oklahoma band, I really would love to find some cool subject matter to write about. Legends, outlaws, Ghost stories etc. Any ideas?
