Song Transitions/Coherence

[Eryalus]

Hey all,

Lately I've been seriously considering investing in a modest setup so I can record/mix my songs, but as I go through all my WIP's, I'm distinctly aware that my songs sound more like spastic riff mashups. In a way, I like the disjointed nature, but at the same time am dissatisfied with it. For example, one thing I made up the other day starts with a kind of dark death metal vibe, switches into a weird djent/psycroptic hybrid, and then goes into a tapping lick haha. When I come up with it, it all kind of makes sense, but when listening back to the GP file, I'm not entirely happy.

Long story short, what do you guys do to better blend riffs and transition in your songs?

 

[Basti]

Honestly just try planning it out a little bit. So you have a riff you like? cool. What does it say? How does it feel? What's its purpose and where does it fit? What follows from that is the continuation of that thought created by following it up/preceding it with a part that contrasts it, develops it, alters it, etc.
I know some people actually go about songs by writing a whole plan beforehand so that they have a proper story-line to follow, but personally i find that it forces things a bit.

 

[Eryalus]

Thanks, I try to do that but it's like either come up with a cool riff out of nowhere, or sit down with an idea and get nowhere haha.

 

[Basti]

Yeah I mean honestly there's no way I'm any more experienced than you so it's all pretty theoretical

But also listening to songs and trying to distinguish the different parts and how they relate to each other helps a lot! If like me you listen to a lot of Tech Death then you're in for a helluva challenge, but it's still worth a shot.
For instance, Viraemia sound crazy and all over the place but the structure is relatively straightforward with a finite number of parts to it.

 

[Discoqueen]

Sometimes I think all that is really needed to add coherency would be the rest of 'the band'. Maybe if you start programming drums it would help reinforce the transitions. I find my riffs can always seem disjointed, and upon reflection I've decided that that sort of writing is more based on intuition. The piece you are missing is possibly everything else that goes into the song.

 

[rastachild]

also it's ok to realize that you may have multiple ideas that don't necessarily relate to each other or 'fit' together. that just means you have the potential beginnings of multiple songs and you should work on them separately. if you're hellbent on making them work together and it's not flowing the way you want it to, maybe you put it down for awhile and work on something else and then come back to it a few weeks or months later. you'd be surprised how a fresh perspective can be all that's needed to break through writer's block.