Most important musical concepts for writing songs on acoustic guitar?

Question

I want to be able to write catchy/"cool sounding" guitar parts for songs. I am currently studying music theory extensively. I am just wondering, are there any guitar-specific musical concepts that I should look into to be able to write good songs, or is it mostly just feeling? I've been told that formulating a song with an emphasis on sound musical theory can make it sound sort of "manufactured". Any answers would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Everyone who has written music that anyone might have heard of has at some point referenced somebody else. We can only step on the shoulders of those who came before us.

That being said...

So let's say you want to write a cool song. Listen to cool songs. and find out what is it that the guitar is playing. 9 out of 10 is something simple and catchy. lear to play that and change it a little bit. Make it yours.

The more you get in the habit of listening for cool then you can deliver cool, and remember it's all subjective

Answer 2

If your main worry is overusing effective theory to extend your song, then I say just don’t worry about it. It sounds like you already have the ear to pick up on when people may call a progression too “manufactured,” which I think essentially just boils down to its predictability compared to unique elements.

If you have specific artists that maybe be models of your composing aspirations, it can be as simple as taking something from each of them: rhythmic pattern, note choice, tone, speed, etc. that you personally find fun to play. While you could be looking for any number of techniques on guitar dependent on what kind of music you are looking to write. Understand whatever/everything you can about theory and then keep doing the opposite until your hands fiddle something fun :)

Answer 3

Although everyone in the band (except the drummer) is free to reference the same chords and scales to compose their parts, each instrument has advantages as well as disadvantages that encourage certain instrument-specific shortcuts.

For the guitarist, o discover the shortcuts, you want to expand your knowledge of theory and the instrument in order to, say, start an idea in one place on the instrument and finish elsewhere passing through sounds that enrich the chord of the moment by implying harmonic movement and chord extensions that would otherwise be difficult to play. Larry Carlton is a master of this concept in that he uses simple triads and triad movement to imply very sophisticated harmony.