Can you just write down the notes from guitar then use them?
That’s how I used to do it, I pretty much know how to find the same chords on piano nowadays.
Depends what you sequence with too. Everything’s easier using a grid based device like a Hapax or a Deluge, much easier to write melodies that way.
This works for me too and keeps things moving.
I think there’s value in the translation process though too!
Oh totally, though I think if you have a layout you’re generally going to imply what’s going on in the core idea even if you deleted the original piano recording and don’t directly plug the notes into another box. Say you get a techno bassline going derived from the chords, you can probably mute the original idea at that point and use that as your new “jumping off point,” especially if you have vocals going too. For me personally, I find being less precious about it gives a bit of a buffer where I get to be a bit more intentional about how I want the end result to sound. “Do I want to strip this back more? Make it more dense? How should this be presented in the final product?” Trying to directly translate an idea across mediums/formats definitely yields its own results though and can 100% be worthwhile!
Another helpful tool is in macOS, Voice Memos is now a desktop app that syncs with your iPhone so anything I record on my phone is sitting there waiting on my laptop. Now when I drag that into Logic, it will create a tempo map around that recording so I can build up the song around it using Drummer, etc. and I can add bass, guitars (the amp sims in Logic sound pretty good to my old ears) and vocals at my leisure. What’s ironic is even with all of these new tools at my disposal, I still wrote and recorded more songs when all I had was FL Studio 4 (no time stretching or warping whatsoever back then), a crappy Tascam US122 interface, one guitar, and a Shure sm57- that was it. What’s up with that?
I think so too. There should be potential for a lot of good discussion and sharing of techniques. Glad to see I wasn’t alone happy to see the thread revived.
I believe so too. There are many great kinds of songs, but I don’t expect to see many Bacharach or Jobim-esque songs generated from sequencing. 
I had a listen! 
Sounded great. I used to listen to a lot of Wilco, Jayhawks etc back then.
I forgot who said it/wrote it but I read just the other day someone say that the hazard of today’s technology is that we might fool ourselves that mediocre ideas are actually good, just by the limitless possibilities to “polish the turd” with the tools we’ve got.
Agreed, some songs we might produce just in order to learn something and to build skill. My goal is to fuse what I learn in sound design with the singer/songwriter-songs I write on guitar.
Yes, foreign instruments bring out something new in us. I remember Neil Young talking about about buying cheap used guitars just for the songwriting. More often than not he would find a song or two in a guitar. I think he made a point of the guitar having been used and acquired some kind of soul too.
That’s pretty much what I do. I decide on a bpm and a key, set up a basic drum beat in Ableton and lay down a scratch guitar and a scratch vocal. Then I go into the set and label the different sections - intro, verse, chorus etc - so I can set loop brackets and improvise with external gear.
Wow! Doh! How did I miss that! This will make things a lot easier. I sample with my phone all the time. If they could fix some easy labelling system or folders for voice memos that would be great.
I’m not sure if I grasped the theme of this thread entirely, but I would say for my two penneth, that the aspect of musicianship that I find the most remarkable/impressive is an ability to create pure pop melodies.
I always find it puzzling or even laughable, how fans of ‘proper’ music can often sneer at pop music, usually citing an apparent simplicity as a detriment.
But for me I see far more genius (for want of a better word) in an irrepressible hook or top line melody than I usually do in demonstrations of musical virtuosity.
It’s like when you see somebody playing an instrument to a high standard and my instinct is ‘well they’ve practiced a lot’.
But that’s not really magical to me.
Watching the Beatles doc on apple the incomprehensible thing to me is how Paul McCartney (as much as he seems like a prick) appears to be able to just shit out a melody at a will that will almost indelibly permeate the human consciousness.
How the fuck?
I could, and I can even play midi from the guitar into a Digitone, or Ableton. But the guitar voicings often sound bad with other instruments.
Maybe I should look at recording chords with the guitar as a basis for the songs
I might not have done either. I believe I just wished to find a thread focused on songwriting which lead me interpret it that way, especially with the videos attached. I can see now that it actually started as a survey or invitation to reflection. I hope the original poster @mokomo doesn’t mind.
Yes, when the performance is over you are left with what you can remember to whistle.
I always sit down to create a song or to work on something in progress. Sometimes when it’s hard to get started, I’ll just fool around, explore til I get some sort of seed that excites me – then I’ll try to turn that into a song. It’s usually a good strategy whenever I feel (temporary) writer’s block – I just practice, learn, experiment. Something will come out.
