How much time do you spend writing vs. recording?
I spend about 15-20 hours per week recording my own material. Some weeks I spend more time in the studio either recording other people or as a session drummer - in those weeks I may be in a studio (mine or someone else's) as much as 30 hours per week.
I also try to spend about 10 hours a week working on my chops (I play several instruments - so this time is spread out over various things, mostly guitar and piano). While, some of this practise time leads to song ideas - I find I don't have as much time to "really" write as I would like (actually the writing is not what takes all the time, it's the re-writing). I may spend 1-2 hours per week actually writing/re-writing
I manage to write about 5-10 songs per year (I write more than that, but after I filter out the pure crap it gets narrowed down). I normally do a quick, basic recording (maybe 2-3 hours, just to document the melody, chord progressions, general arrangement, etc) and then decide if the song has enough commercial potential to commit more time to record properly and bring in a singer (to be submitted to a publisher). To get a final product good enough for my publisher often takes 10-15 hours of tracking/mixing (trying to decide on a good arrangement takes a lot of that time....recording different guitar parts, etc). I'm not gifted with the ability to hear the whole arrangement as I write (or rather the arrangement I hear rarely works well - so I have to spend a lot of time recording different parts, etc.)
I put in a lot of time on my music, but it seems my finished body of work does not reflect the effort. I've cut waaaay back on gigging because when I gigged alot I didn't have enough musical energy to commit to writing/recording. If only the wife didn't expect me to hold down a day job
So.....what's your story????
I spend about 15-20 hours per week recording my own material. Some weeks I spend more time in the studio either recording other people or as a session drummer - in those weeks I may be in a studio (mine or someone else's) as much as 30 hours per week.
I also try to spend about 10 hours a week working on my chops (I play several instruments - so this time is spread out over various things, mostly guitar and piano). While, some of this practise time leads to song ideas - I find I don't have as much time to "really" write as I would like (actually the writing is not what takes all the time, it's the re-writing). I may spend 1-2 hours per week actually writing/re-writing
I manage to write about 5-10 songs per year (I write more than that, but after I filter out the pure crap it gets narrowed down). I normally do a quick, basic recording (maybe 2-3 hours, just to document the melody, chord progressions, general arrangement, etc) and then decide if the song has enough commercial potential to commit more time to record properly and bring in a singer (to be submitted to a publisher). To get a final product good enough for my publisher often takes 10-15 hours of tracking/mixing (trying to decide on a good arrangement takes a lot of that time....recording different guitar parts, etc). I'm not gifted with the ability to hear the whole arrangement as I write (or rather the arrangement I hear rarely works well - so I have to spend a lot of time recording different parts, etc.)
I put in a lot of time on my music, but it seems my finished body of work does not reflect the effort. I've cut waaaay back on gigging because when I gigged alot I didn't have enough musical energy to commit to writing/recording. If only the wife didn't expect me to hold down a day job
So.....what's your story????
