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Kibes37

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I was just wondering how many people write their own songs? I’m really interested in learning instrumentals and having the Uke ideally sing for me. However, as I’ve been strumming I’ve started fooling around with some songs I wrote ten yrs ago for fun. The songs were rap tracks, but they are a surprisingly funny contrasts. The reason I ask about originals is because they make it super easy for me to contort them to different chord/ picking arrangements I improvise. Due to the fact I know the lyrics like the back of my hand. I’m thinking it’s going to accelerate my ability to cover other songs. I have been struggling strumming and singing like most at the start. I wonder if writing your own songs right away and experimenting with easy chord transitions is a fast way to combining the two skills. Anybody have experience with this?
 
I've done my own piece. It was really fun and I'm really pleased with it. It's no masterpiece but it is *my* masterpiece.

Have fun playing around and seeing what evolves from it.
 
I've written 2 chord melodies. One of which is a song for my recently born great niece, so it's very special to me. Both are short and not terribly complex, but were fun to figure out & enjoyable to play. Bill1 is correct when he says write them down as you go. I spend time figuring them out, and it takes about 2 seconds for the stuff to fall out of my brain if not written down immediately.

I was fortunate to attend a weekend workshop with Kimo Hussey last year, and putting these chord melodies together got me using many of the concepts he taught about melody, transitions, resolution, and chord progressions.
 
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When I first picked up the uke back in the late 80's I only played my own stuff, mostly simple 3 chord speed songs. As I got more into effects that drifted more into free form jamming. For the most part that is still true today though just acoustically. I learned a few songs when I was taking lessons but I'll admit I have a hard time with it. I'd much rather borrow stuff and make something of my own out of it. I might progress faster if I could learn to play stuff other people wrote (especially jazz standards). Or I might just get bored and quit :) Since I'm always coming up with bits and pieces of things what I'd most like to be able to do is stuff like Mike Dawes does when he layers parts. Maybe with some more time and practice...

John
 
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When I bought my first uke, back in 2005, I didn't even bother to get a chord chart. A song just kind of happened....3 verses of lyrics and all. It wasn't until 2017 that I bothered to sit down and figure out which chords I had been playing for nearly 10 years.

Recently, another song has been slowly evolving but I'm afraid it's a little too similar to tge first one :rolleyes:
 
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