Should I give up on the idea that I can write originals?

[Sinistas]

What's the problem here, aren't the 80s coming back anyways?

[Shawn Lutz]

no...write in the vein of musical style that your comfortable with. Keep pluggin away.

My problem in writing is I lack the ability of knowing when enough is enough as far as arangement goes. I havbe no pronlem comming up with parts, hooks, solos & rhythms....I just need a writing partner to say enough already

[Fragle]

my main problem is that i tend to think of my riffs as "too common" - even if it's total bullshit. combine that with my urge to make things as complicated as possible and you might understand why i also have a hard time coming up with full songs.
what really helps me is a creative drummer and someone who listens to me jamming away, telling me when i accidentally hit a killer riff that happens all the time when jamming with my other guitar player. he'd play a riff and i'd say KEEP THAT, IT ROCKS, just to find out that it's actually pretty basic and easy to play.....strange world.

my writing style is quite different from 80s stuff, though. i like to think of is as a mix of hatesphere, illdisposed, testament, kataklysm, and the haunted, combined with some opeth style chordal stuff.
if you think that would be a fun mix you're right, but just try to write a song combining opeth stuff with groovy hatesphere death/thrash riffs

btw, this is a band with clean (non operatic/nightwish style) female vocals

[khabibissell]

That's the thing... I like simple stuff for the most part, especially when it comes to the song itself. Though I appreciate prog-ish bands, the musicianship has to be of a really high caliber to pull it off, and I'm not that guy

I posted this topic after writing a song the night before. I always bounce stuff off my brother, and he responded with "Well, its a happy 80's metal song..." I was like WTF?! I'm always getting that response from people. The verse has an A Phrygian feel to it (flat 2nd. It sounds kinda similar to the rhythm underneath Becker's "11 Blue Egyptians", though it wasn't intentional), and the Pre chorus and chorus move to A minor. I'm trying to figure out whether it is the tone I use, the key choices, or just the feel in itself. Maybe I need to tune lower? My old band was tuned to D standard, and I didn't really like it. I like Eb best... Drop D is cool too. I play differently in the drop tuning than in D standard.

[VoiceX3]

Here's something that helped me a bit....Vocal melody/structure ideas. Think of "Today's" style of vocals....listen to a lot of stuff you like without paying much attention to the actual music, but just to the melody style (barking, singing, screaming...etc) and vocal structure. This will help you with chord structure and overall feel. The whole feel is actually 90% of whether it sounds "dated" or "modern".

[sl2lover]

Whos gives a fuck what era it sounds like!! See that's the beauty writing your own shit!! Nobody can tell you it's wrong! Granted when you add a bass, and drums you might have to change shit some, but its endless what you can do yourself! To me it's the best feeling when I stump my drummer/bass player with something odd that I came up with!!

[Top Jimmy B]

play what's in your gut. Dated or not. Things are cyclical, and if whatever is coming out of the speakers sounds good, then it's good.

Good advice right there. As Dimebag, poet laureate, once said..."trendkill." You are a good player, Steve, and I think you could probably write some killer stuff if you committed the time to it. My issue with coming up with full songs has always been the time issue. I bet you've got enough original riffs to drive yourself crazy but haven't taken the time to arrange them.

[horns666]

Steve will be out of his "rut" in no time..

Right Steve!!