just curious how most people get the inspiration for their songs

I don't know about other people, but most of the time I either get really weird inspirations or just think of a song. :P Seriously, I was in music theory class a while ago, and my teacher was teaching us about Db major triads, and I made a REALLY cool piano peice when I came home that day. :D

It's really hard to come up with songs without inspiration though...I had to stare at a blank screen on finale for about 20 minutes before having a good idea roll through my head. XD

Whenever I have time, I just improvise on my clarinet. The ideas seem to flow as I improvise.

I also arrange pieces for instruments in order to give myself a different perspective on pieces.

I do random things on a piano and try to make some sort of chord progression... which is usually involving suspended 4ths and lots of dissonance. XD

I want to create music that isn't clear cut major/minor/major... but end up having to go back to the basics to achieve what I want. Usually I've have an idea for a motif (never a melody) and then expand on that.


The craziest inspiration I had was trying to create a chord progression based off lyrics from a song...
"I heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord,
But you don't really care for music do you."

So ignoring the description given in the next stanza, that became the ending ending of my two movement woodwind piece "Heavenly Ghost"... with a very "interesting" chord progression. In fact I wrote the ending first and composed the rest of the two movements to lead up to it.

First, I usually reflect on myself, humanity, and wonders of the universe. I hypothesis why things are the way they are, why people act the way they act, and then come to some conclusion. The emotions I experience while going through this process I try my best to express in my music.

Oh boy, I rarely even write anything anymore just due to personal reasons of motivation and also the use of time it takes me to write things.

I seem to get inspired by mythology quite a bit. I like to improvise on stories and I love the use of liefmotivs in music, so I'm inspired by stories. You know, I'm almost inspired to write opera in the last few months.

Really, almost anything can inspire me, just has to be the least bit intriguing.

I just think of something beautiful and let my imagination guide me measure by measure.

I'm inspired by my feelings toward things, and others but I just don't know what. @_@ (quite yet)...

lol...its really easy getting on top on my house so i usually just go and sit down on the roof (in the shade -theres a big tree by my room so, lol yeap- -_- dont need to get any more browner -_-) and just lay down and just start to hummmm some random stuff ^_^...sorry if it sounds weird but yeap, usually those are how it starts for me ^_^ but now that its WINTER -_- i guess ill wait for next SPRING HAHAHAHA!

Seriously, I get on my piano and I pick a key. Then I pick out a few notes and make them into a melody. Then I find left hand arpeggios to match.

That's just for if I'm bored. Sometimes I'll get inspiration by thinking about the sounds of the world. If I'm writing for someone, I pick out a few chords that match his/her personality and play with broken versions and inversions. So, yeah...

I go to my mom's room upstairs and stare out at the city, at the sunset, at the trees, the birds, the mountains, the harbor... anything that catches my attention. Then I let it speak to me, and I listen to the melody. Sometimes, I just go on a listening spree and listen to a bunch of pieces by a bunch of composers in one sitting. I might just even lay down on my bed and just think about the world. I get inspired by life.