Songwriting Instruments

[blue_meanie]

I have actually used my ukulele to write a blues composition and it worked fine, different, but still a way of writing.

[jimk]

Sometimes I use an acoustic guitar, sometimes I use a banjo, and sometimes I use a computer. The lyrics tell me what to use.

JimK

[jingle_jangle]

Glockenspiel and autoharp.

[jps]

Add Tympani to Paul's list.

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

Just missed a perfectly good autoharp on Craigslist for $30...Doh! " pushing through the market square..." !

I'd love to have an autoharp in the mix.

[karl_teten]

I no longer write on electrics. The song has to pass the "acoustic test" first. If the song sounds great acoustically, including lead work, it transforms fabulous electrically. Doesn't always work the other way around. I keep a Martin Backpacker up at work. At home I write on my Gibson J160E or Martin HD-28V.

[jimk]

The song has to pass the "acoustic test" first. If the song sounds great acoustically, including lead work, it transforms fabulous electrically. Doesn't always work the other way around.

Yup, suspected as much. I don't have my RIC yet, but I've been fooling around with old Byrds hits like "Feel A Whole Lot Better When You're Gone" and it works on an acoustic guitar all right.

JimK

[kenposurf]

Each instrument can inspire in it's own fashion as can effects...want to write a Byrds like tune..pick up the Ric 12 string and plug into the jangle box..blues..strat and a tweed or blackface Fender...psych...fuzz and rotovibe...surf...reverb on 10...acoustic guitars are good also!

[jimk]

blues..strat and a tweed or blackface Fender...

...or a Gibson (Lucille)

But I'd be weird a play the blues on a RIC 360 6 string with hi-gains through a Fender tweed.
JimK

[kenposurf]

Paul W can do it...he sounds like Michael Bloomfield..sort of!

[charlyg]

I prefer writing on my custom xenophobe. I mean cellophane, I mean xylocaine, I mean jew's harp, uhh, oops, lamellaphone!

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

I've written probably 95% on acoustic guitar, the rest on piano. Although ideas form in my head, and sometimes the songs get written quite a long way while driving or walking or showering, it always coalesces with an instrument. Never wrote a whole song without playing something.

[karl_teten]

Once in a while I write on bass. It leaves all further instrumentation wide open. In the first stages, writing on bass can help build a nice melody without full chords getting in the way. Write chords last.

Then the song has to pass the "acoustic test".

[sharkboy]

I have written songs on numerous instruments. As a friend would put it, I play piano like a hoofed animal and I was a wreck at Chapman stick, but I have written songs on them. I'm more comfortable on bass and more yet on guitar, but with similar tunings on a fret board they have a tendency to allow me to fall into familiarity zones. I write much differently on different instruments.

Charly, I think some people think I write my songs on a Cacophone.

For me, a song isn't a song unless it does pass that acoustic test, however. I'm not used to being like other people. Hmmm, maybe I should go back to making them pass the chainsaw test or the Rorschach test or the Wonderlic test.

[leftybass]

For me it's (usually) an acoustic...either a Baby Taylor, my old Takamine Martin D18 copy or a Martin D-12-20 from about '71-'72.

Funny, but being a bass player, I NEVER start out a song with writing a bass part unless the lick is the predominant thing on my mind....bass parts are usually last with me.