How Logic Pro X Changed the Way I Write Music
Photo taken by me. Paul Roessler working in ProTools at Kitten Robot Studios during the recording of Kittenhead’s We’re Here.
This is the first of two parts on the drastic changes I’ve made in my creative process. This will be focused more on practical matters, with the next being focused on a more philosophical approach.
First, some history.
When I first started playing guitar in 1991, I think I was like most guitar players at the beginning, I was enthralled with the great players: Eddie Van Halen, Slash, Eric Clapton, etc. In order to play like those guys, I knew I had years of work ahead. Being the typical kid, I was always looking for songs I could play. I wanted to see the rewards of my effort quickly. I learned “Louie, Louie” and other tunes but I needed something contemporary, something that felt like me.
And all of a sudden, here is “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.
The power chord. A single shape you can move around. I just had to learn the notes on the neck. Easy enough. I was off to the races and was writing songs almost immediately.
I spent the next twenty-eight years pretty much writing the same way. The biggest change I made was switching from a notebook and pen to Microsoft Word. Word made it easier to move things around, delete and re-write, etc. Plus, as I typed more at my day jobs, my typing got better and my handwriting worse. I constantly studied songwriting in every form I could. How artists were inspired. How they wrote. I even once broke down all of Matchbox Twenty’s hits in every conceivable way, looking for patterns, trends and things to implement into my songwriting to make it better.
Then, COVID.
I always loved being in the recording studio, but I never wanted to be the guy behind the glass. I even prided myself on having all my parts worked out and coming in and nailing every guitar part in less than three takes. However, after being stuck inside the house for however long, I started playing with GarageBand just for something to do. Pretty quickly I was buying USB cables and mics, dusting off my daughter’s keyboard and playing with it all the time.
It didn’t take too long to realize, I’m really taking this seriously and I need to upgrade my computer, get Logic and do this right. And right off the bat, because I could record, I got inspired and I was writing all the time. I was a bit rusty at first, but it all served a purpose. I wrote I’m Not Enough & That’s Okay in the traditional way, but as I was recording it, I started wanting to add different elements to it and that’s when the light bulb finally lit up for me.
How I Do It Now
It really happened organically, but suffice it to say, the limitless sounds of the included plug-ins were just fun to play with. The one thing I did want to do purposely was change things up rhythmically. When you’re strumming chords and writing lyrics, you tend to do things the same way over and over. I wanted to start with drums and instruments without any thoughts to lyrics in order to get different feels and to get myself to play differently.
I do this is a few different ways that multi-tracking as a songwriting tool makes easier:
· Inspiration from a Particular Song – I might like the feel of a song and start with the same BPM. I might take the chord progression I like and speed it up or slow it down, change the instrumentation, etc. and then improvise from there. Or if there’s a song that opens with something in particular, such as vocals over bass and drums, I’ll start by forcing myself to write a bass and drum part that is catchy on their own so that other instrumentation isn’t needed.
· Starting with the Drums – I can’t play drums. But I can work a drum machine or manipulate the AI drummers in Logic. I’ll loop a good drum groove and then I’ll grab a bass or guitar (I try to grab the bass more if I can, more on why in a minute) and try to write to the groove rather than find a drum sound that matches the guitar. I find that I strum less, play less notes, but that less does more.
· Starting with the Piano – I’m not a great piano player. I’ve gotten serviceable since I started this, but being self-taught, I do things that feel right rather than things that make sense (there is an exception to this, more on that in a minute). I start reaching for notes I wouldn’t think about on the guitar, or because of the layout of the keyboard, I come up with progressions a little differently than I would on the guitar. It is a huge help that Logic will tell you what chord you’re playing if you don’t know.
· Implementing Music Theory – Sometimes I hear something in my head that I can’t make my hands do on one instrument alone. Having one instrument playing a major chord, while another is playing a note that turns that chord into a major 7th or a sus chord gives the song the flavor you’re looking for in a different way than it would if you just played that chord on the guitar. Or, you could play a note that technically doesn’t fit, but sounds right. If you want to know how to do this fantastically, study Radiohead. And, sometimes, you have something, but something is missing, or you don’t know where to go next. You can loop this and then go to your music theory tool box and try different things in a more practical manner until you get what feels right.
· Playing with Sounds – The limitless options to the plug-ins can turn your guitars into almost anything. The synthesizer sounds in and of themselves are limitless. Sometimes, just sitting down and having fun with the sounds will lead you to, “this sounds cool” and then, from there, you find yourself constructing a song without any intention to do so other than you’re excited about doing it. This works in reverse too. If you have the song, but you know it needs something else, there are so many options to add the flavors you’re looking for, or perhaps better, the flavors you didn’t know you were looking for and you’ve turned your song into something you never knew it could be. It’s the next best thing to having a collaborator to bounce ideas off of.
None of what I’m saying is revolutionary, but it’s important not to rely on this technology, just get the most out of it as a tool. There’s no substitute for a great lyric, arrangement, melody or performance. Great songs are great songs on a single instrument, but that doesn’t mean you have to write them that way. As the old expression goes, there’s more than one way to skin a cat and there’s nothing better for the artist than to continually force yourself out of your comfort zone.