This is going to be a short article about how I compose my songs. I'm not going to get into much of the recording and mixing methods but rather talk about how I put the melodies together and decide on the tempo, scale and overall structure of the songs. Of course, the technologies and recording process heavily influence the composition, but I will try to stick mostly to composing rather than recording.
How Do I Start?
Well, it starts with "I wanna record another song" and this thought leads me to grab my guitar or turn on my laptop to start the fundamental structure of a new song idea. I don't really remember the melodies that come to me unfortunately, and when I start to build a song, it starts with thinking about the scale first.
I first decide on the scale. The first scale that comes to my mind is E minor and then sometimes C minor. Usually after this, I instinctively want to switch to a scale that I don't use too much such as G minor or D# minor.
If the song's going to be acoustic, then I don't overthink about the scale and stick to A minor or E minor to get that well-known acoustic chord progressions. This leads to picking the right chords. But before that, I switch to writing the lyrics so that most of what I record has lyrics in it.
In short, I first pick the scale, then write down the lyrics, and now the next step is to choose the right chord progressions for intro, verse, bridge, and chorus. My lyrics generally don't fit my desired chord progressions and tempo, and that's why I mostly turn my songs into an experimental wasteland. Not many people listen to experimental songs, but it just evolves into that when I compose.
Fundamentally, this style comes from not being able to put together a song as I desire. It is the harsh truth, but I don't really have a problem with that because it creates unexpected music and I like to do that. Of course, I would love to be able to sing correctly and know more music theory about jazz scales and chord structures, but I rarely dig deep into theory as I like to experiment with music. I already follow a ton of strict mathematical rules in computer programming, and music becomes the land of the free.
Of course, I will study music theory more seriously at some point, but for now, I like the way things go, and that's why I do what I do.
Then What?
Let's continue talking about the music composition process. After I write down the lyrics and when it comes to the chord progressions, I generally don't experiment on the fretboard or keyboard to get a tone I like to build the song on. I used to do that, but these days I prefer using Google. I search for chord progressions for the scale I chose and arrange them in a way I like. This way, I don't need to worry about getting too experimental and easily have a fundamental scale for the song.
Now after this, things generally get quite experimental. Yes, I record the rhythm guitar quite usual but after that, when it comes to either writing a riff/main melody on the guitar or digitally on a DAW with the laptop keyboard or my MIDI, I generally get VERY experimental with that. This leads to non-consistent vocal melodies (because I can't really sing and this leads to an unusual melodic structure) and either the vocals get inspired by the riff, or the riff gets inspired by the vocals. Either way, the song becomes quite experimental because of its unusual and inconsistent way of adding these elements together.
-Yunus Emre Vurgun
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