Writing a New Rock Song
A couple of years back when I was in the studio working on a new rock song, the lead vocalist wanted to have some additional lyrics added into the mix. We had already written the whole song and he just suggested a few more that could add some spice to it. I let him have a go at it and we wound up coming up with this great track called “Blues.”
The lead vocalist’s idea was to add some keyboards to the song to replace some of the acoustic moments. I liked the idea and I asked him if he knew anyone who could play keyboards and sing. He said there was this young guy in his high school who was great at playing the keyboard and he also had a voice too. So he came over to my place and tried to learn how to play the keyboard and sing some of the new rock songs that he had written. We wound up finishing the song in about an hour and a half.
The result of this effort was “Don’t Take Me Alive.” This was actually my first time trying to write a new rock song and the song took about an hour and fifteen minutes total to write. It was very easy to write because all I had to do was play the keyboard parts and sing it to me. Playing in this way is a lot easier than trying to write a conventional melody.