for me its about once a month at the max

cloud9mission said:

I turn them out after I've shown them how to collect money from the John, avoid the police, and the secrets of true lovemaking.

Oh. No. Wait. That's "How often to you turn out a Ho".

It really varies a LOT. Sometimes, I'll spew out 5 good songs in a weekend. Not lately mind you, but it's happened. Most times, one FULLY COMPLETED song a month seems about right, on average. As far as ideas for songs - I'm in the studio every other night discovering JUST HOW MUCH my talent is drying up.
[This message was edited Fri Mar 5 5:44:11 2004 by otan]

At least one a day....










Jshua

I take you are talking about writing songs, not recording them. Recording them takes FOREVER!!

I always thought Prince's claims of writing a song a day was awesome if slightly unbelievable.

One day I was feeling blue about it and went through a bunch of old tapes, set lists, etc. to see just how many songs I had written. I found over 120 separate songs over the previous 10 years at that time. That averages to about 1 a month for a decade.

I decided that was good enough. And long enough. So I don't worry about it any more. Like some people have said sometimes I do 5 in a weekend, then nothing for 6 months. It doesn't matter.

As a hobby/local musican all you really need are about 3 albums worth of GOOD material and you're set. We don't get to put out an album a year!! I've got almost 2 albums worth of top notch stuff so I'm getting there. There's still room for some more tight jams, though!

And for myself I find that I write a lot more when I DON'T have a band. As a band leader a lot of my energy goes into that- scheduling, organizing, booking, auditioning, etc. So I guess if I really want some more songs I just need to fire the band for awhile!

Has anyone else noticed this?

Definitely. I think there's a spark of creativity when you think you're writing for a new project too.

In my youth I would write 3-5 at a session, but now I actually try NOT to write as many at a time. I like to let a thought marinate a little more nowadays. I find that it's not about quantity but quality. I am always searching for the Holy Grail of songs. That Purple Rain if u feel me. I aim to write stuff that will stick with u. That is always my intent.

its been 3 nearly 4 months since I could record something

krebsne said:[quote]I take you are talking about writing songs, not recording them. Recording them takes FOREVER!!
quote]


Actually, no bro....

I generally knock out 4 to five in a weekend...


Otan, is right--it's the spark of creativity that does it, for me anyways....




Jshua

Styles said:[quote]

krebsne said:

Well cool for you, man! I agree, when I actually get to doing it I can do 4-5 in a week myself. But it seems to take forever to get everybody lined up, the studio and gear issues co-ordinated, etc. I have so many songs that aren't properly documented. Or not even documented at all!

But that's just my experience!

krebsne said:

GAWD, I know that's right! Especially since I don't know what the heck I'm doing when it comes to recording, mixing and producing. I've been trying to complete this album for years, and I have purposely closed off my creativity it seems. I keep telling myself "No more new songs! I gotta finalize these!" Maybe that's not a good idea. I just need to find someone with good production skills who I can trust with my music.

krebsne

also said:

There is some interview/ documentary thingy from ABC when the symbol album came out and Levi is talking about how Prince would come in with a boom box and play a tape of an idea he put down. He said they would create and record a song based on things like that in a very short period of time. I want to say it was 10-15 minutes, but it could have been a few hours. Either way, that's pretty amazing, but he's been doing music and ONLY music for years.

he also

said:

True. Everyone has their own pace and their own creativity to explore. Sounds like a month is the norm. Sometimes I work on more than one song at a time. That's helpful when the baseline is just pounding in your head and you can't see the forest for the trees, or the rhythm for the drums, like Sting says.

Then there are those magical moments when you get a whole song ALL AT ONCE. When that happens you don't even feel like you did it, you just translated it and made it available for others to hear. That has happened to me once.

Then there are ideas: a lyric with melody that stays with you for over 5 years and one day, you hear a baseline for it! As long we are being creative, that's all that matters. How much you do or how long it takes you shouldn't minimize the fact that you are a part of this wonderful creative process.

Boy, did I NEED to hear THAT! Why do I feel like I'm in group therapy right now?

krebsne said:

Two Words: Home Studio. The new Tascam 2488 - 24 Track Digital studio with CD burner: $1200. That's right, $50 per digital track. I'm selling my ass to get one right now.

Why mess with a real recording studio to knock out demos?

But - I'm speaking out of my ass - it's easy for me to knock it all out at home cuz I play everything. (NO, I did NOT say I play everything WELL). So, as far as knocking out ideas, it's open and shut. Getting a full band to record? Sure. That takes months. Frickin drummers...

otan said:

Funny you should mention that...

Getting people together was actually one of the reasons why I started doing everything on my own...What I found was: It was hard to get musicians together, even harder to synch up personalities and even harder still to try and translate what I was looking for (especially since I can't read music)...

So I figured that, since I knew what I wanted to hear from a certain instrument, why not just play it? So, what I find now is that I'm a lot more effecient in building songs from the ground up and it's easier for real musicians (which I wouldn't put myself in the catagory of) to interpret style and feel by seeing the whole musical canvas...

I think everyone has their own spin on how to give birth to a new tune and we just go about it in different ways....But one thing's for certain, its really interesting reading everyone's thoughts on subjects like these in this kind of atmosphere!

Keep the tune's coming folks cause' you're all very talented and you're influencing me quite a bit!






Jshua

With 2funkE we do something like one song in a month. When I am working on my own I seldom get to finish the ideas I put down.

Styles said:

Same here! It was hard coordinating schedules and besides, I have fun playing all the instruments myself. Gotta say too, that my rhythm has really improved since I started playing drumz.

BAck to the song thing though, I can turn out a tune a day easy. Not saying they're all fantastic, but they're usually not bad. I usually just sit down and do a demo with just voice and acoustic guitar and then I pick from there which ones I'm going to fully flesh out.