Songwriting Tools

[swarfrat]

I'm working on a tune, and i have the basic lyrics down and an initial sketch. Now I'm wanting go go  through and tweak words for structuring emphasis on beats, etc...all the hard stuff. I normally would use paper and pencil (and a few cubic feet of erasers), but I thought I would ask about apps.

i see people do a lot of stuff just in a spreadsheet, but on a tablet I find traditional spreadsheets clunky.
(no mouse, no 3rd button) I'm thinking this is basically lead sheet editing, but a quick search didnt lead anywhere. Do you just do all your songwriting with the recorder? what do you use when working on structure?

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Look up the demo's on Youtube for Harmony Pro, for the iPad.

It's nice in that you can come up with all kinds of chord progressions on your own, and then take a chance at drawing a randome line that can be interpreted as a melody.  It's really quite a nice app.  While, it wouldn't be my "go to" tool for all songs, I can see it being a "secret weapon" to be used on the rare exception that you're stumped for a melody.  Best of all, it's free.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/harmony-pro-jazz-contemporary/id877455163?mt=8

 

[Cagey]

It's probably just me, but I can't see an "app" helping with that. Computers are good at spell-checking and grammar rules, but past that? Not real creative, inventive, natural or intelligent. My guess would be that you'd get better results from collaboration with another human. They know the language, it's interpretations, emotions, cadence, metaphors, etc. Tough to get any of that out of a machine.

 

[swarfrat]

What I was really after is more of a beat/structure aware text editor. Rather than erase a whole verse on paper to change a few sylable / beat alignments. Still very much a manual process, just something to deal with ideas as words and notes and not just graphite on paper that could be a word, a note, a shopping list, or a doodle.  I am very much a Luddite, but I'd rather not write music in a paint program, which is kinda what you're doing on paper

 

[Cagey]

Well, I'm not going to say no such thing exists, but I'd be mighty curious how such a thing could work. You're sorta asking for something that can hear and interpret artistic intent. Like, finding a recipe editor that takes smell and flavor into consideration.

A good sense/mix of timing, impact, rhythm, poetry and storyline are the hallmark of a good songwriter. It's not a common talent, but it's something that does often benefit greatly from sharing/collaboration. Look at the Beatles. Lotta stuff written by Lennon/McCartney, not just one or the other. Maybe publish your rushes and see what others can contribute. What's the worst thing that could happen?

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

That would be interesting, if such a thing indeed does exist.

For lyrics, or any literary content, MasterWriter is a good tool.  Helps with rhymes, synonyms, antonyms, etc...

 

[swarfrat]

The real reason is actually the tablet. Rather than have notebooks that get left at home,  it'd be nice to be able to get access to it any time I wanted.

I do think you could do some basic but useful tricks by laying out structure. Just knowing the verse is 16 bars, the chorus is 8 bars, and the song is AABABB I think you could do some useful stuff. But I guess that nothing exactly like that exists already. I want something to take some of the druge work out of:

once up PON  a      MID night DREAR ee
while i  PON tif a cated derd WEAK and WEAR ee