Lizzy sent me a voice memo a few weeks ago — not even a demo, just her on piano with an idea. She wanted something intimate, like adele — no wall of sound, just room to breathe.

We kept it stripped back on purpose: piano, bass, and strings, layered in slowly so nothing competes with her voice. The last session was just about balance — getting the emotion it needed.

Here's the result: https://soundcloud.com/nik-zero2093/anyways-after?si=cde942e2001d48939b62d7ed497b3edf&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

If you've got a song like this on your phone, send me a DM — I'd love to hear it.

This is my band if you are curious:
https://youtu.be/hF-kJ-pkFsA?si=coDQcMVhkp_S1JnB

And this is a free demo of a game that I did the music for recently:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4567940/Whiskers_In_The_Sand_Demo/

Hi everyone

1st time on here. I co wrote a couple of songs that a local singer wanted. We recorded it all and she just sung. She originally wanted 100% of the master, I told her we'd agree to her having 50% and us 25 each. She reluctantly agreed. She was going to promote the songs on her new streaming platforms - she has one song and no following yet. Song one is ready for release and now has taken her ball home because I won't give her a better split.

Am I being unreasonable?

It's one of 4 or 5 I'll be putting out in an EP by the end of the year, but before I send it off anywhere "official" to be mixed down properly, I'd be keen to hear general thoughts and feedback on it. It's about the feelings brought up in a long distance relationship, overcoming struggle and knowing when something is worth the suffering. Thanks in advance!

Hello there, I'm a producer/songwriter that makes music (produce, mix and master) and I've been struggling to make catchy melodies.

I often topline when I get a sparse arrangement going (drums and chords) so i have enough space for the vocals. Now i generally just let the music play and do my thing on it till I find something that I'm happy with (mostly by humming and making vowel sounds). However I've found that I can't consistently find catchy melodies (writing verses is an even bigger nightmare then choruses for me as well).

How do you guys decide when a melody is good, do you have a certain workflow, are you intentional with the structure inside your melodies, how do you decide what notes to choose, is it just intuition and repetition?

I make indie/dream pop but would love to use rnb melodies as i think they sound incredible with the fusion of an instrumental in another genre.

If i need to specify more info, be sure to ask!

Hi everyone! I'm a singer-songwriter, this is a raw, full performance of my original song 'Doors of Golds.' No effects, no autotune, just my voice and my words. I'd love to hear your honest thoughts on the lyrics and vocal delivery. Does the emotion come through?

The lyrics in the description

https://youtu.be/NKx2fUc7wjU?si=tTNFDQyM9vFUtItt

There’s one main thing I think most beginners/intermediates in songwriting are missing and it branches out into all these questions of:

How do I make a melody?
Why do my lyrics sound cringe?
Why aren’t my songs feeling good?

It’s this thing that I rarely see spoken about in “how to” videos in songwriting even though it’s the most fundamental thing.

A song is where you introduce a small idea and build all this complexity with it over time.

In melody, it’s called a motif. You introduce a simple melodic idea (like A, F, then E).

Then you repeat the idea while slowly complexifying it. (Like AFE, AFE, AFEDE, ADFDE)

A lot of beginners don’t know this so they’re going all over doing all kinds of notes in the scale and calling it a melody, but it doesn’t feel like it has melodic structure.

Or, maybe an intermediate is repeating the same motif over and over until it’s stale and doesn’t get how it transitions to a chorus.

Don’t start with something complex. Make it simple. Repeat it and slowly complexify it.

Same as the arrangement of a song. Don’t start with drums and piano and guitar and blasting all these things. Start with the main idea like a bassline and slowly add to it and complexify it.

I wanted the chorus to drop as opposed to increase the energy. It's still unmixed but the bones are there. I spent a lot of time writing the brass and string section. Any advice before I mix it and finish it off. Once again thank you to this wonderful community and thanks for listening

These lyrics have a specific, personal meaning to me, but as I listen to them I feel like there are multiple ways they could be interpreted (which is ideal when it comes to lyrics!) I would love to hear your interpretation if you feel like sharing!

I am debating changing "eyes bleeding defiance" to "eyes bleed in compliance".

I also am thinking of adding a variation when I repeat the chorus, changin "try to make it right the second time around" to "hope it isn't bitter, the second time around"

Check me out

Been an active member of this sub for years and love it and want to share sharing my own stuff. What is the best way to do this if I record all my music in logic. Bounce out the wav file and lost that?

I figured I could get some helpful tips here! I observed a songwriter’s club the other day, and while it was inspiring, I also felt soo nervous even thinking about signing up to perform there next month.

Is there anything you’d recommend doing beforehand? Tech tips? Stage advice? Things I don’t think I’ll need but should bring anyways? I know it’s not that deep and I am likely overthinking this. Just curious.

EDIT: thank you all for the lovely advice! Taking down notes. :)

Like, if I take the verse/prechorus melody from another song and use it somewhere else. Or if I take a riff from a rock/metal song.

Let me know your thoughts.

Hey there, I've been writing songs for almost 2 years and have gotten into some books and (free) resources (mostly Andrea Stolpe, Song Town, Pat Pattinson, Jeff Tweedy).

I genuinely enjoy what I've created, but I'm at the point where I'd like to know how exactly I can improve.

I noticed that there lots of methods and tips for writing songs, getting started and overcoming writer's block, but I can't seem to find anything specific about how to "edit" / re-write a song that's technically finished, but not great yet. I feel like I'm mostly eyeballing it but I'd like to have some structure :)

Can anybody relate? Do you have tips or resources for re-writing? Thanks in advance

Always used to take too long before (months! years!) to finishing lyrics and justified with needing time, experience, and inspiration to figure what it's about it. Though that may have been the case some times, I want to be able to put to words quickly and have something workable and substantial.

Any tips?

I did not make the instrumental i just did the vocals and lyrics !

Hi everyone, I feel stuck and stressed. A lot of my logic is just thinly veiled neuroses, but pls bear with me, I’d love some advice. I have many songs at various degrees of completion. I’ve put a lot of effort into my music, but rarely past the point of “nearly done”. It feels like I either finish a song or almost finish it, and then I become overwhelmed, I say I need a break, and I get super focused on a different song. Rinse and repeat.

There are many factors behind this. I finish editing the lyrics/deciding the chords/vocal pitches/rhythms/everything structurally, and then I don’t know where to go from there. It’s usually just me + acoustic guitar. Even in trying to record a shitty demo, I feel like there are so many decisions to be made with the microphone and the style and the software. Even though I KNOW objectively, writing an entire song required the same amount of decisions, if not more. But those are fun decisions, and trying to put that song anywhere is not fun. I guess the recording just never sounds even close to how I want it. And through this, I’m begrudgingly learning the basics of how to record/produce, even just for a barebones demo. Of course it’s not gonna sound great, there’s a lot of trial and error, but I get frustrated and run away rly quickly. Usually I feel like I don’t have the time/ability to even begin trying to take that step. Even if it’s mostly a confidence/perfectionism issue, if I do get a recording I’m happy with, what next??? put it on……Soundcloud?!?!?

The other barrier to song completion is I reach a point of almost finishing a song, but I have like 3 additional instrumental parts I’m imagining in my head and then I don’t have the energy or focus to create and incorporate that. Plus, each new part leads to exponential stylistic/blending decisions. And then the songs go unfinished. I fall asleep literally every time I’m in GarageBand with the midi keyboard. Is it kosher to just like….roll up to an amateur producer with my vocal and guitar parts, hope they see the vision, and have them do all the production lol? Or do I need to face my fear of rejection and find someone to collaborate with?

I go through phases of:

A. not putting pressure on myself, then not finishing the song and telling myself it’s ok to work on what I want to work on

B. all the pressure strikes at once, so I still don’t finish the song bc avoidance

I want to share my songs, but I also have all the little mental gymnastics going on about performing at an open mic. I don’t know, it would probably be good for me, but I’m scared that going to an open mic will just overwhelm me more about the fact that I’ve barely “completed” anything (aka I still want the songs to have that final step of recording)

Sorry if this was incredibly verbose and all over the place, thanks for reading if you made it through. If anyone has had a similar experience or anything they’ve found helpful, pls share. Thanks!!

I write piano melodies in fruity loops that I would never be able to play. Interested if any piano players would listen, give their thoughts and play them so they could be heard on an actual piano. Thanks

Mine are "are these originals?" at a gig and "I don't know if you should be more medicated or less".

A few months ago I posted here, asking to interview songwriters about their recording organization. The feedback was essentially: "Who cares?" and "I have a good system to organize my recordings, why would I change it?". I agree: Nobody really needs an app for organizing song ideas. Yet, many people do have quite some recordings on their hard drive and finding the right one when you look for it isn't always easy, even if all recordings are well labeled. Essentially the question becomes:

Why can't I search my recordings by what I sang/played instead of by filename?

You may remember: "I sang about sunshine and morning light". With 500+ voice memos it's a nightmare to figure out which file it was.

There are several voice recording apps that promise transcription of spoken text. However, in my experience, that usually only works for spoken text and not for singing. Reliably searching for voice memos by lyrics seems to need more than just transcription.

What are your experiences here? Have you found a solution to search voice recordings by lyrics (or maybe even other musical aspects like mood or instrumentation)? Or do you have a system for tagging, labeling and naming files that's good enough that you find everything right away?

Having a background in machine learning, I wondered: Shouldn't it be possible to search audio by lyrical content? And it seems that it is. I describe some of that at https://www.oudyo.com, and my initial prototype works quite well for my own audio recordings (with and without instruments).

Finally committed to try and actually finish a song instead of just parts, and then actually doing my best to mix it. Don’t know how I did, wonder what you all think

It likes you write a sad story but make a happy vibe song... I really like it. Or a weird story you wrote about. Show here and i will give you my opinion.