How many songs have you written?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Whyte Ice
  • Start date Start date
W

Whyte Ice

The Next Vanilla Ice
How many songs have you guys written? Not counting incomplete ones or throwaways.

How much time (months, years,etc.) has it taken you to write ___ songs?
 
Good idea, Whyte Ice. Its not a bad thing to think back and look at the sum total of what you've accomplished so far.

Last time I counted, about 5 years ago, I think I had 56 songs. The 10 or so at the bottom of the list will probably never see the light of day again, but they still have merit as songs. There were 12 or so songs that were nixed off that list that were just not mature songs.

Let's see, I've added 8 more since then, I think, and there was about a 4 year dry spell that ended last spring.

So however you want to figure it- 64 songs in 14 years including the dry spell or 64 songs in 10 years without the spell. Currently I have about 30 solid songs that I'd put on CD's to sell.

If you want to add instrumentals we can tack on another 4 for the electronic stuff I've written. Fun stuff but not exactly "song" writing.

Take care,
Chris
 
I've registered copyrights for about 150 songs and have around 100 to go not counting co-written work or instrumentals.
 
id say at least 100...ive only kept track of the recent ones and a few of the early ones.....i would guess that about 30 are copyrighted.....
 
For each song you write, do you write down the music for all of it?

All I do is write the words down and just remember the music in my head. I should write it down but I have too much and it'll take too long.
 
Ill write out the words and the chord changes....ill make a basic recording to remember the melody.........
 
Hmmm...I don't do nearly enough writing of things down. I do when I write it, but I'll be a miracle worker if I can find the scrap of paper that I wrote that song on 12 years ago....

I have copies of most of the songs that got onto tape, but really, I would be pretty hard pressed to remember some of them in detial.

Hmmm...more good stuff to think about.

Chris
 
Well, if i do count 'throwaways'

It would be in the 200 or 300's category.

I try and get one new song started a day, but with editing and refining, maybe 1 decent idea a week, maybe one REALLY top-notch (by my pathetic standards) song a month.

'Finished' songs is also a tough one - 50 maybe?
In my garage-band punky days, we had reams and reams, but only a few I would consider any good now. Only about 5 I can really remember.

Maybe 10 songs from in between years that I can remember, when I was fairly busy having a fairly non-musical life.

I have 15 or so really good songs from my last band, but I have pretty much retired those songs, as the whole band made them good. Now there's no band, so I feel better abandoning them for the time being.

And right now, about 30? Some are ideas that I haven't quite filled out, many are in various stages on my computer, somewhere.

I don't call them really finished until I have at least a bass/drums/guitars demo that I think at least gives the song a decent sketch.

And NO song is done if it doesn't stand up on it's own either on acoustic guitar, live on one keyboard, or acapella.
 
Not counting any of the stuff I did as a kid, I'd say I have about 30 complete songs. I've only been writing seriously about that last 5 years or so.
I consider a song complete when I have it fully arranged, a complete set of lyrics, and a recording good enough to remember them both by.
Aaron
http://www.aaroncheney.com
 
I've written somewhere in the 150-200 song range.

Now let's ask - Of the songs you've written how many do you consider to be good?

In my case I consider maybe 10-15 of my songs to be "good" and one was "very good" - whatever that means!!! Even though I try very hard to write "commercially viable" yet intellectually valid material - I still consider the majority of my material "self indulgent crap"

Ironically, the material that has actually generated some cash flow all falls into the later catagory (basic melody, limited chords, etc). Go figure!!!
 
I've been playing music for many years, but I've only written about 30 songs. To me, a song is finished if its structure is defined, has an ending, and has complete lyrics (unless instrumental). I don't free associate when I write, which means if it doesn't grab me in the earliest stages I drop it and move on.. On the other hand, actually forcing myself to commit to finishing a song is often a challenge because again I don't settle for something that doesn't flow with what I've written.. the result is it takes me a long time to actually complete a song..

The plus side is that of the 30 I've written, I would easily consider 28 of them worthy of full production.

Cy
 
I submitted five songs for copyright in 1989. This was a year before my Fostex was destroyed by my brother.

All of my other songs (which are about a meager 30 in total) I consider unfinished until I shred them to something.

So, I have five completed and 30 or so works in progress that will never be "completed" until I get my act together and finish my all digital studio.

I'm such a lazy bum!

Carl
 
In the last two years, which is all that I've been recording seriously, I've made about 10-15 finished/acceptable tracks and 10-15 semi-completed/roughly produced songs. Not to mention hundreds of little dittys that are floating around taking up space.


Laj
 
I have seven completed songs and around 10 in various stages of creation/production......

I am a rookie....I started writing and recording in May 2001
 
38, complete songs...

I've been recording for quite a while, but I just started getting serious about the "Voxvendor" Project in the past few years....

Normally one would write about 20 songs for an album, and then pick the ten best.. but My way is sort of backwards to that.

I only completely write a song If im sure it is keepable and I like it... If I come up with a neat riff and some cool words, but for some reason it doesn't agree with me, I don't go any further....

Thats probably part of the reason I don't have many songs...
 
I lost count of how many songs I have written, but over the last two years, I have been working on about 22. Most of these are copyrighted.

To register the copyright, I submit the sheetmusic. The process for writing the sheet music is not that difficult since I use a software package "Finale."

What I do is play the basic melody into ProTools LE and capture it as a midi file. Then I import the midi file into Finale and it generates the sheet music. Then I go in and use the chord utility to plug in the guitar chords.

I always play back the sheet music to make sure that the melody is correct. Finale will play it back for me through my midi keyboard, but I do like to play it myself.
 
I only have three complete ones but about 10 or so works in progress. I have been writing for about one and a half years.
 
"Even though I try very hard to write "commercially viable" yet intellectually valid material - I still consider the majority of my material "self indulgent crap" - MIKEH

LMAO!!!!:D :D :D

Very refreshing to hear some humility among this mass of egos!
I've forgotten most of the songs I've written, and only concern myself with the more commercial ones (Few and far between!)

Bob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top