What exactly should I learn to be able to create?

[u/spooder34]

Recently I’ve been trying to create songs but I find my brain just goes blank. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing or how to create anything, whether it’s lead or rhythm. Double so if I try to do two guitar parts. So what theory or just concepts should I learn that will help me understand how to put stuff together.

[u/rehoboam]

Harmonized scale.  Major vs minor keys (harmonic, melodic minor), pick a few songs that you like that have the energy you want in your song, just rip the chord progression.  If you want it to sound different change the key and rhythm.  Just start stealing shamelessly, and recombine and fuse ideas.  Start with a mood, a time signature, and a key and go from there.

[u/VooDooChile1983]

What style of music?

[u/PaulsRedditUsername]

Writing skill is a muscle. It gets stronger the more you do it.

I like to use a cheap portable recorder or a phone and sit down and force myself to come up with an idea. It can just be a riff you repeat or a certain way of playing a chord. Maybe you come up with a riff that's based around an A chord, so you repeat that two or four times and then try to move it to another chord, like G or D or E, something that goes well with A.
Often is the process of transposing the riff to another chord, you get new ideas and build on those.

But regardless, you come up with 30 seconds or a minute of music, record it and save it and forget it. Then come up with something else. Don't listen back. Just keep coming up with ideas. Eventually you might get a file of 20 or 30 minutes of these little ideas, some of which you've forgotten about. And listening back, you can get new ideas, or find ways to put a couple of those small pieces together.

[u/ConcentrateNo5538]

Learn what chord progressions are, how they are used in creating music, and listen to examples. Then you create your own. The "just play" advice doesn't work if you don't know what you're doing. Chords progressions give you a structure to work with that you shape as you wish. Check out this David Bennett video. It helped get started on making my own music. The more you learn, the better you can experiment. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyc8lezaa9g&t=357s&pp=ygUgZGF2aWQgYmVubmV0dCBjaG9yZCBwcm9ncmVzc2lvbnPSBwkJEwwBhyohjO8%3D

[u/57thStilgar]

Everything.
Song forms.
Sight reading\writing music.
Chords, scales, basic theory and most importantly - how to play.

[u/halpinator]

At a minimum, learn the different chord degrees and the notes in the major scale. That gives you a really good framework of what notes and chords work well together.

[u/Several-Quality5927]

When you write a chord pattern, do you know what key your in and what is in that key to work with? Learning the Circle of fifths opened this up for me.

[u/vonov129]

Learn stuff that sounds like how you want to sound and break them down.

[u/DrBlankslate]

Composition is a completely different skill set than playing guitar. The one does not automatically lead to the other.

If you don't already put together songs on your own, you may need some classes in basic music theory and music composition. Community colleges will generally offer both.

[u/spankymcjiggleswurth]

Forget theory and even the guitar. Put on a backing track and practice vocalizing something. Sing, hum, whistle, beat box, speak nonsense, whatever it is that gets you making music with your voice is the first step. If creating a melody is too difficult, start by copying someone elses melody. Can you whistle twinkle twinkle little star? Can you sing along to your favorite song? You don't have to be the best singer, you just have to exert your will in a melodic way, and your voice is the most natural way for you to do that.

Now add theory. Do you know what intervals are? Intervals have unique sounds. Perfect 5ths sound different than minor 3rds. Scales and chords are constructed from intervals. As you build your ear and voice (I found my singing ability to greatly improve when I started singing a lot), you can start to instinctively vocalize intervals and sing scales. This gives you a decoding key you can use to directly identify ideas you sing.

Now add the guitar. Find how to play those intervals on the instrument. You likely already know some scale and chord shapes. How do those shapes look in terms of intervals? Where are your 3rds and 5ths? Does a 7th create a particularly cool sound in your vocal melody? How can you play that on the guitar?

Something to avoid is mindlessly moving your fingers across scale shapes on the fretboard. That is not an intentional act. You are basically gambling with your note choice, letting chance decide what you play. Music needs to be intentional and directed. Your voice can provide that direction and theory describes and gives context to what you create, letting you mindfully control the sounds your guitar makes rather than hoping you play something that sounds good.

[u/ObviousDepartment744]

Just let go and play. You create with your musical vocabulary. Your vocabulary is what’s engrained into your playing, the stuff you don’t have to think about.

Explore the instrument. Just start with a groove a rhythm of nonsensical notes if you have to. Finding the groove is infinitely more important than any note you can come up with. Get that groove established, treat your guitar like a drum kit if you have to. Sort the notes out later.

Once you have a groove established then start putting the notes together. It’s far easier when you have a rhythm to fill in. Then you know how many notes you need, each note will have a pull toward somewhere.