CommanderMeaty

or let the bandmates change de song.
Because there happens to be song that I writes alone but when bringing it to the band, I have to translate it into the band so it could have keyboards and etc. is it better if I do it my way or let them influence the song. what makes the better.

Andalus

Personally, I write all the parts for a song and have my band play it almost exactly as I wrote it apart from stuff like drum fills. I do this because as far as I am concerned, I wrote the song, and I like it being played the way I wrote it. The band has no influence on the song, really.

Or you can take the other approach and bring a song to the band, then have them make suggestions on how it could be improved and let them do what they want. If your band have a lot of creativity and you don't mind your songs being altered this is a sound strategy. I don't do this. Everybody in my band plays what I tell them to because it's a tried and tested formula that works for us.

The final approach is to write as a band. Never done it, never will so I don't know the advantages of this.

Do what you like, but bear in mind your bandmates may not like it if you let them have no influence over the songs. In my case everything is preconceived before I bring it to the table. It works for me, it works for my bandmates and it's worked for many other bands. All approaches work, to be fair.

LiquidSkies

It completely depends on your workflow and style of music - and the size of your ego.

A song only really needs the basic chord progression and melody (and maybe the basic underlying rhythmic pattern) to still be the song that you wrote, really.

Everything else is just colouring.

The song should be the most important. It's all about the feel, vibe and mood of the music, not who wrote what. That's way of thinking is the main difference between being a professional and a beginner.

In other words: if the best version of the song just *happens to be* exactly like *you* arranged it - well, song is done. Thank you, next song! But if not, it's never wrong to ask others of their opinion.

That being said: what you wrote leaves room for speculation. It sounds a bit like you have a song that was written for a different set of instruments than your band has, maybe even for just guitar + voice. (or why else does it need to be translated into the band?)

mdc

No. You should write what's in your head.

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Sweet

Usernames sucks

Has alot to do with the members (level etc). But if you have a good song, they dont have to make anything new, just for the case of it.

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CryogenicHusk

In my old band sometimes a member would come up with a riff or two and the others would expand on it and we'd complete a song.

Sometimes somebody would write an entire song themselves and tell others what fits and we'd keep it, similar to the first approach you mentioned.

And sometimes we'd kind of modify each others ideas so they'd fit better with the band's sound.

It's just better to be democratic about it, unless you're a much better musician than they are, or unless it's supposed to be your solo project, in which case it only makes sense if you just write what's in your head and they should leave it untouched.

MaggaraMarine

I would maybe ask if they have any ideas for the arrangement. Maybe some chords would sound better or they could tweak the melody a bit. If you like their ideas, use them, but if not, say that you prefer it the way it is.

But I find writing with our band's guitarist very inspiring. We add parts and ideas that come to our mind and it seems that we can write pretty fast that way. I might tweak some parts after we have finished the song. And I tell him about the changes I have made to the song. If he has some ideas, I listen to them and if it sounds better, we use them. We write all of the songs that we play (the other two don't really want to write their own songs so we just tell them what to play).

I have made some changes to our guitarist's songs that he has liked. He has also tweaked some of my songs. And the final version is heard when we play it. The song kind of tweaks itself when everybody starts playing. And we don't get mad to each other if somebody tells you to play something. We listen to their advice and try it.

Writing alone might not get you anywhere. I usually have a hard time coming up with something alone but every time we decide to write with the guitarist, we come up with something new. Some people like writing alone, some don't. And sometimes it's cool when you have written and arranged the whole song by yourself and it's ready when you start playing it with your band.

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