How to deal with writing a crap song

A

adamangler

New member
So today i wrote a song, spent above 3 hours on it...it seemed great in my head...went to record it and blah, crap, i hated it chorus sounded bland as hell, lyrics were nice but i dunno it was just crap overall lol.

anyone ever done this?
it was like why am i bothering to keep doing this...im new to recording/mixing etc so i still sound amateur at best, i just get that i wanna quit feelin at times like this you know...:mad:

anyhow anyone ever done this?:)
 
Just gotta run with it - do what you can then shelve it. Before you do though, post it so we can have a listen.
 
Yes, that's happened to me loads of times over the decades. Still does.

Of (I estimate) the 800 songs I've written, 600 have been forgotten, 200 remain, and about six to ten of those are any good (at best).

There are lots of bits of songs of mine that are "good", I feel but not many complete songs. There has been a lot of heartache along the way.

Still love songwriting though and couldn't stop if I tried. I know that, because I have tried to stop, and can't! :D
 
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Writing crap songs is part of the process of learning how to write decent songs.

Much like Frankie Rage, I've written hundreds of songs (about 200 of which survive and the rest have been lost through the faded memories of time).

Of those 200 I think about 10-20 are decent and maybe 3 or 4 are really good. But I had to write a lot of crap to find my way to the good ones.

The fact that you recognize that your songs are crap is a good indication that you have good songs in you. Too many writers write crap and don't even realize it's crap.
 
Crappy songs happen. You never know what people may like and your crap mining may take you places you never wanted to go.
 
It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Just write songs every time you can. Some will suck, some won't. It doesn't matter.

There are very few people that write good songs over and over again. Most of them are professional song writers, and most of their songs follow the same formula. So, they are really writing the same song over and over again.
 
IMO there are no crap songs. What one hears as crap another hears as wonderful. When you do the song, if your heart was true, then it is a great song. Most people get completely overtaken with writing songs that sound just like the hits they consider gospel. The music industry wants songs that sound just like the hits before them. They are into for the quick sell, minimal work, and creativety really doesn't enter the mix. Once a person gets into this arena, creativity is really not in the mix because you will constantly thinking instead of expressing. The industry talks creativity, but in reality, to them a song is just a very methodical creation that is aimed to sell. If you can detach from this, the world becomes an ever flowing song. Every minute a new one is in front of you if you open your soul to it. Will people like it? If that is your concern, then what I have written will never touch you. I do it for me and what happens after that is of little concern. Walter
 
If you don't like the result consider the small matter of three hours as warm up for the next one. Shelve it, come back to it, steal bits from it, use it as a benchmark - as someone said once, "Songwriting is not meant to be easy, my child, but take courage it can be delightful." Apologies to G B Shaw & M Frazer.
 
Awwright! Awwwright! Step aside...let someone through who has long experience on the matter!! I'm a proffessional! outta the way!

I write crap and I love my music...I'm my biggest fan! I'm my only fan, I'm the only one in the band, man. And that's the plan.

I write because I have to. I'm compelled to, and it sucks. Because I write crap. I'm like a zombie craving brains, to look at it sickens me, but I love the taste.

I listen to my music because I love it...even the cra-AAP tracks, sometimes. I relate to myself in a way I've never related to any other band. Just about every song, I find myself thinking "this song is so me, man. It's like they wrote it about me!"

You see, I've got to like my music enough to want to make it better, that's why I love my music so much.

LS
 
I want to re-emphasize Rayc's point. You are absolutely on the right track with having to get a song you just wrote out of you and recorded. Keep that recording, let it hang out on your hard drive for a couple months, and the next time you have a really dry spell, come back to it (and the countless others you've recorded by then) and listen to everything you've done that you thought was crap. I've found so many old songs that I hated when I recorded them, but that ended up being either minor fixes or having stellar parts I could use in other songs. You just have to let yourself forget about writing and recording it. When you rediscover it, it'll be a whole new song.
 
Do a take

happens to everyone I still put the notes on and do a take you will be surprise sometimes you come back to them or steal parts for others. But always keep a record of it there have been plenty of times when I remember playing something a long time ago and then spent hours trying to bring it back. ( this could be my old age kicking in)
Good luck Tim
 
The Cancers said:
I want to re-emphasize Rayc's point. You are absolutely on the right track with having to get a song you just wrote out of you and recorded. Keep that recording, let it hang out on your hard drive for a couple months, and the next time you have a really dry spell, come back to it (and the countless others you've recorded by then) and listen to everything you've done that you thought was crap. I've found so many old songs that I hated when I recorded them, but that ended up being either minor fixes or having stellar parts I could use in other songs. You just have to let yourself forget about writing and recording it. When you rediscover it, it'll be a whole new song.
Click to expand...

There is merit in this. I too have rediscovered old songs that are better than I originally thought. And once, I left an old reel-to-reel tape running on by accident after the music on it (Charlie Mingus) had come to it's close... and I heard a song that I thought was maybe off the radio or something, it sounded ok anyway... after a few seconds I was shocked to realise it was me singing with an old song I'd discarded probably twenty years ago! It's a very old tape!

Anyway, that really happened and I've since resurrected that song and put it on the 'maybe' pile!

Fx
 
adamangler said:
So today i wrote a song, spent above 3 hours on it...it seemed great in my head...went to record it and blah, crap, i hated it chorus sounded bland as hell, lyrics were nice but i dunno it was just crap overall lol.
Click to expand...

hey, at least you only spent three hours on it.
that's a comparatively small amount of time to expect a masterpiece.
i once spent almost a month writing a song and one of the guys i worked with hated it so much he refused to play it.

one thing i've definitely learned over the years is just because i like something doesn't mean it's good. in fact, more often the opposite is true.
 
dealing with "crap"...

If you are going to learn how to wrestle, grapple, box, *whatever*?

The formula for getting good is... You pretty much get the holy crap kicked out of you, the rest of the gym giggling at your early attempts... *shrugs* this is normal.

where do the really GOOD grapplers, boxers, wrestlers, *whatevers* come from? They sucked JUST as much at first too... they just KEPT coming back and asking for more punishment. They simply didn't care. Why did they keep coming back religiously? Who knows. It doesnt matter *why", its just critical they DO.

the fact that we are talking about making original MUSIC us absolutely no different... so, you made a crap song. Good. make a couple hundred more. In the end, when you get your ON BIG ONE made, nobody will at all remember that you made a whole bunch of crap songs learning how to do it... all they will remember is your one BIG one.

eh?

what any fighter, or musician is REALLY doing up front, is confronting failure, and getting "over the fear of it". A fighter has to get over the fear of getting hurt. A musician has to get over the fear of making a crap song....

the best thing is you havent lost your sense of humor about it, LMAO
 
Funny thing about crap. We all got it, and it seems to come out on a regular basis.

I have been doing this for 8 years now, and I am still fighting against a sea of crap. I honestly cant tell you how many times I have run out of HDD space, and then went through and weeded out my worst, and least touched projects. My most liked stuff are things I have created within about the past year, and that's only about 4 songs. So, have I thought about quitting? Every day I wake up, but I don't. I keep at it. You want to be a musician, or a rockstar? Then just be one. Keep working at it, don't ever give up, and remember things don't ever just happen to you. YOU make them happen.

Now, go make it happen!
 
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