I would never listen to half the stuff I write

Layla Nahar

New member
I would never listen to half the stuff I write but, it may not be such bad stuff. Just not my taste. I like cheap international dance music (Bhangra, Arabic pop etc) or alterna stuff like RadioHead (kid A) Neutral Milk Hotel) or nasty RnB/Hip hop

I write stuff that would be great for a solo singer with a guitar (too bad I can't play guitar) or would make pretty good country music.

Just curious if anybody here has the same 'problem'.
 
a great many people don't write in the style they most appreciate due to a deficit in their own musical skills. (ie, I can't really play drums or scratch records, so bang! I'm a singer-songwriter!)

It obviously takes practice and talent to write good alternative stuff or R & B. I'm sure it also takes time to program and sequence weird freakout dance music. :rolleyes::D:):D

The problem here sounds like you're too lazy to learn how to create the music you enjoy. If you learned to play at even a rudimentary level, you might indeed begin a path towards creating the music you appreciate. A true artist/songwriter likes his or her own music better than anyone else's, regardless of style. (Damn, man! I bet I can write a better polka than Frankie Yankovic! etc...)

Push yourself to do something great. You may find that you like different things after you've spent some time creating it yourself.

Stone
 
Alot of the time I feel like that too. It's hard to evaluate your writing without getting feedback from elsewhere. Also, I have always thought that it was a common mistake for people to list their musical influences as artists they grew up listening to, that does not really mean that is whol they sound like.
 
stonepiano said:
The problem here sounds like you're too lazy to learn how to create the music you enjoy. Stone

not too lazy. not too lazy, just way way way too intimidated. I practice my percussion like an hour a day, and i've recently started doing eartraining about 1 hour a day

I just ---- don't have enuf experience playing with other musicians to be able to play with other musicians :(

Seriously, I really don't know what to do about this. I KNOW so well, if feel it in my bones --- like a cold wind -- that the one thing I need to do to improve as a writer, is to play with other people. But who would put up with a beginner? Especially one who is terrifed to make mistakes

Iis a real awful problem for me - one that I have been stuggling with for ... I don't want to tell you how long.


(narf)

ps: interestingly, because I play by myself (well, with my metronome) I'm kind of a human metronome, with all that that implies - I never go off the beat - in other words - I cant make anything up, I can't bring any individuality to my playing and if the other musicians go off the beat, i can't compensate and follow them very well.
 
I have the same problem. Out of 75 (or so) songs, I only have about five songs that I even consider "decent". The rest, if I heard 'em on the radio, I'd change the station. :p


WATYF
 
you can wait forever and never be ready.

you will fail and stumble along the way but thats just part of life. everyone fails.

jeff mangum (of neutral milk hotel) was not any kind of accomplished singer or guitar player. but he put passion into what he did and he wrote from the heart.

do the same and you will be just fine.

-vw
 
I'm just the opposite. I can't find enough music I like so I write it.
Don't get me wrong, I like almost all music. It's just that I haven't
found anybody writting music like mine, so I've gone to the trouble
of figuring out how. I probably love my own music way too much. lol!

jef
 
Don't worry too much about that!

Worse is writer's block brought on by
your own personal criticism of your work.
I've come to realize (from my own experience, and reading about others) that a good method is to do writing (or any other creative endeavour) in phases:

1 - (Brainstorming phase) get an idea, write it out, record it,
save it somehow, and keep it around.
(This part I find easy - tons of song idea snippets laying around). No being critical - just get it down on paper, tape, whatever. Whenever the idea occurs to you, stop what you're doing, and capture it.

2 - (Hard work phase). Set time aside to work on material - and dig in to your idea pile and look for the gems in the pile of ideas. Take a promising sounding one and work on it. Put that verse/chorus pattern together, try to add that missing guitar chord, push it thru to completion. This might include doing a rough cut demo version, or just simply a complete set of lyrics and acoustic guitar chords written down. Only work on the ones that really do something for you, unless you're stuck, then work on the less appealing ones - you never know what will come of it.

3 - after a while, you hopefully have a folder full of more or less complete first draft songs. Search these for the ones you love most. Take the "best of" songs and polish them up as much as required. If you don't love them, just keep them in the folder as raw material for new songs. Only show/record/perform the songs you really love - if you don't love them, they
won't likely come across for anyone else either, cause your performance won't shine if you don't like it!

Bottom line is to write way more stuff than you need without any thoughts of being too critical, then put on the music critic hat and dig the good stuff out.
 
Free advice

G'mornin Layla,
3 smidgens of free advice (1...It's worth what ya paid for it)

2) Try reading "Zen Guitar" by Philip Toshio Sudo. It's great bathroom reading (short chapters) and required reading for anybody that asks me for guitar lessons.

3) Watch out for the "3 P" syndrome;

Perfectionism leads to
Procrastination which leads to
Paralysis

For what it's worth. And, after all,
what do I know?
Bill
 
you may want to consider just being a song writer. theres lots of very tallented musicians who'd be able to turn something like you wrote into a masterpeice of energy and emotion.... unfortunatly no one idolises the song writer. People are shocked when i tell them elvis didn't write those songs.
 
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