what inspires or motivates you in creating a song?

[Gravity Jim]

I'm in the same boat as lyricist Sammy Cahn, who, when asked the ancient question as to which came first, the words or the music, always gave the same answer: "Neither. What comes first is the phone call."

[Nublu]

im new to logic pro and being a composer as well..im young

so my question is, when you guys are starting from scratch..whats the first thing you guys do?...

When I was young and new to composing ... what I did ... ahem... well.... I just started blabbing. Lots of blabbing. Then some more. I got lots of these..

My friends helped me take the uh...er... substance of it and shape into something. They also encouraged me to not over judge myself and just do it.

The first thing I do now is relax and get set to enjoy the ride.

[JanOriCab]

As far as I can remember, I started writing a song way back high school, though I did not let my classmates nor anyone hear my songs- cause they were typically brought about by 'desparation'.. Whenever I feel bad , sorry, depressed, I turn to my guitar and let my emotions 'cry over' the guitar's tune..
As the years went on, 'inspiration(s)' motivated me to compose friendly, and inspirational songs..but since life never gets too smooth and savy, i still compose songs motivated by depression , loneliness, and desperation..
During the times when I miss my friends, or have heard that there are quarrels going on between them, I make songs 'wearing others' shoes'..
Right now, I still create songs from those reasons, but I am now more inclined to add technicalities / music theories..as I wanted to apply what I learn and still learning 'theoretically'..

[Beer Moth]

Edit

[shivermetimbers]

Edit, edit, then edit some more.

Write, write, then rewrite some more.

Unless a song flows out of you in the first five minutes, then treat everything as a collection of ideas to be worked on at a later time.

[rainstick]

[hopper76]

When Im stuck staring at a screen the first thing I do is load a ghost track, a track I really like the sound of and try emulate it and, it always evolves into your own track after you change keys and even get ideas from the arrangement etc, but you can always be sure it will be your own original when its finished, its really just to get your creativity going when stuck in a rut.

[basils]

Get rid of your filters.
You know the ones that tell you what song should be, how it is structured, and what it's purpose is.
(The best piece of advice that was given to me was in art school.
"You don't need to create pictures for walls")

The freedom and power we have with the tools that are now available to us in order to create sound is staggering.
Pick up that brush and make a few strokes. Don't anticipate an outcome, or in literary terms, let the characters determine the plot.

"Put all your fingers on the black notes
Anywhere you want to"

Then and only then, put the fish paste in the toaster.

[BakerOrtiz]

I'm a new user of logic pro and I'm quite happy that I was finally introduced to this technology of making good music. When it comes to creating songs, I must say that when I feel depressed, that's the time I can create good songs. It's my way of expressing my emotions because I don't really have much friends to share my feelings with.

[efiebke]

Banging out an 8 measure melody or chord progression off the top of my head. Inspiration for a basic theme is usually the easy part. Finding the time and mental-focus to develop, write down and sequence the tune is another matter.