song a day

[spy said one]

a local musician challenged herself to write and record (however simply) a song a day for as long as she could keep it up. i think she only went six or seven days, but that's still pretty impressive to me. (porlolo: the last couple songs are still up)

i know of at least one other guy around town that writes at least a song a day. has anyone here tried working like that?

 

[SEDstar]

I have heard/read of the Beatles at one point just CRANKING out songs at an insane pace during one early period in their career, so no, its not unheard of.

I get in periods wher I make something nearly every day, or make something one day, then spend another day off and on rying to see if it polishes up into anything remoely useful. But... think "track" for me, not "song". I'm usually not much of a lyricist.

If I make 3 instrumental ideas in 3 days, thats a pretty good "run" for me. I'm (hopefully temporarily...lol) out of work now, and that allows me to work more on music. But even at that, I simply cant crank them out one per day. Plus, I need to take breaks. Mixing-wise, your ears shut down or attentuate whole blocks of frequencies when you "push it". I wanna remember the advice was at least 15 or 20 minutes break for mixing out of every hour, minimum.

I suppose doing lyrics and simple melodies, trying out a few chord change patterns, working like THAT one could really go on for extended periods, several days in a row. *shrugs* I dunno.

I know if i FORCE myself to keep up some pre-set pace, I crank out a lot of "formulaic" stuff. Its weird. Sometimes I have to MAKE myself sit at the computer and start noodling around, then suddenly something cool happens... other times, I have all the enthusiasm necessary, but I am just "cutting cookies" out (formulaic stuff...)

*shrugs*

its a great thing though in one respect. writing anything is like buying a daily lottery ticket I think. Sure, you can win 500 bux just by playing one here, one there... but usually you have to buy religiously to "up your chances" of landing a winner.

"winner" here being something truly good, I'd say its like buying more daily number tickets. You gotta put numbers up on the board, the touchdowns will come. I suppose as your skill set gets higher and your more experienced, you get less throwaways though.

I probably made my best stuff on days I didnt THINK I could, so... there's definitely merit to the system.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

I think there was an article in Tape-Op (whoo free magazines!) a few months back about a guy who wrote and recorded one song a day for a year while on tour.

If I take the time to actually sit down, practice, and write songs, I can churn them out pretty quickly. I'm just generally not motivated enough to do so.

 

[JordanD]

i've made on average about 2 songs(some instrumental) a day for the past 5 years(since i was 17)when i was 15-16 i was making music everyday, but not really full blown songs). when i set out to make an album i usually do 10 songs one day, then 10 songs the next day. its the best way to work. its my job!

 

[mikeh]

As I get older and wiser I am more selective on how I spend my creative energy. To write and record a song a day - just for the challenge seems like a lot of effort - and it is likely the comparitive quality is suffering, simply to achieve quantity.

I do spend some time and energy each day - trying to create. It may be simply doodling at the piano until a chord sequence developes or pickin' at a guitar until a riff developes, etc. - While this could be considered writing at least a partial song - I consider it sifted through ideas to sort the crap form the material I would choose to spend more time on.

Eventually, I determine which progressions/riffs I want to develop - and I then start to actually write a song.

This results in only a few completed songs per year - but the songs I complete tend to be of a higher quality than in past years when I perhaps wrote a lot more songs.......but only 1 out of 10 were "good songs".

 

[spy said one]

personally, i think it'd be good practice. i think it'd help open your mind to a way of thinking or working creatively. momentum, maybe, is the word for it. just like if you play your guitar every day, you'll be better at it than if you only noodled once in a while.

 

[up-fiddler]

In 1988........

..............I made a New Years Resolution to write a song per day for the year. I made it from January 1st until March 27th. The last three weeks of March that year everything I wrote was such trash that I stopped. It was useful in that it got me writing daily.......a habit that I still have today. I may not get a song out of it each day but I never miss a day of writing something creative. Either music, prose, or one of a couple books I am working on. Musically, I spend much more of my effort rewriting now and am happier with the results.


I read a Neil Young interview once which stated he writes three songs a day and that most of what he does is pretty awful. The gem that he comes up with every now and then more than makes up for it though. Kind of a shotgun approach. In the end we have to do what works best for us personally. The product is more important than the output.

 

[gecko zzed]

There's an old anecdote about Lieber and Stoller being commisioned to write an album's worth of material for someone famous. They were flown to New York (or somewhere else. You can see I've got a good grip on the details!) and put in a swanky hotel. They thought, "this is alright", and spent the whole week living it up on the town. By Sunday night (six days later) they had written nothing, and had seriously wasted themselves. Sunday 4am they started writing, and delivered their album's-worth Monday morning as required.

I've not deliberately set out to make myself write songs at any particular rate. Sometimes they are there, sometimes they are not. In my younger days I could churn them out quite easily, but they were all pretty awful. These days I wait for the inspiration, and let it happen when it happens. This is ok for me, because I don't depend on these (nor am I likely to) for a living. I haven't written anything new for about a year.

I figure there are three factors needed to create something useful: inspiration, opportunity and motivation. In the past I would quite often have the inspiration and motivation, but because these ideas popped into my head while driving, not the opportunity. By the time I got home, I had the opportunity, but sometimes lost the motivation, so I watched TV instead. Or I had the opportunity and motivation, but couldn't rekindle the inspiration.

For me, it is the inspiration that helps me stay away from formalaic songs. The dnage of having movitation and opportunity without inspiration is that you turn out characterless material. However, on the few occasions when I've been asked to write something, the adrenalin and incipient panic of a looming deadline always seems to connect a few synapses, and something pops out in the end.

For others, having a regular writing regime is often useful. It keeps you mentally alert, and is a good way of honing your wordcraft.

 

[DAS19]

Fun fact:

The dave matthews album "everday" was written like that. A song everyday. They came into the studio with a bunch of material but dave decided to rewrite the whole album in about 12 days with producer glen ballard. Pretty amazing the album is pretty kick ass and im not a huge dave fan I just read an article on this and was interested so I purchased the album.

 

[up-fiddler]

The danger of dnage....

The dnage of having movitation and opportunity without inspiration is that you turn out characterless material.

I have come to rely so entirely on the info that pours from the gecko zzed fount that I spent 10 minutes researching the word dnage. Shame on you for having that degree of power over my puny mind! Shame on your editor for letting the typo slide through unnoticed! BTW- DNAge is a skin creme brand acronym implying DNA and aging can be reversed when buying a tube of their product.

 

[mikeh]

I have come to rely so entirely on the info that pours from the gecko zzed fount that I spent 10 minutes researching the word dnage. Shame on you for having that degree of power over my puny mind! Shame on your editor for letting the typo slide through unnoticed! BTW- DNAge is a skin creme brand acronym implying DNA and aging can be reversed when buying a tube of their product.

Seems to me...............those with the motivation and opportunity to use a product like DNAge to try to artificially reverse the aging process, would in all probability turn out to be made of characterless material.......................so it still applies

 

[up-fiddler]

Seems to me...............those with the motivation and opportunity to use a product like DNAge to try to artificially reverse the aging process, would in all probability turn out to be made of characterless material.......................so it still applies

Indeed! (up-fiddler strokes his chin and pushes back his wrinkles)

 

[jpenns]

i've made on average about 2 songs(some instrumental) a day for the past 5 years(since i was 17)when i was 15-16 i was making music everyday, but not really full blown songs). when i set out to make an album i usually do 10 songs one day, then 10 songs the next day. its the best way to work. its my job!

Yeah and they all suck!

 

[up-fiddler]

Yeah and they all suck!

Typically we behave nicer than that in this forum. We often joke but rarely do it with mean intent. This forum has been very helpful to me personally over the last couple years. I also feel that I have contributed what little I have to offer whenever I thought it would help someone get better at their craft. There are places other than the Songwriters Forum for us to express our personal views and criticisms of each other. We should do what we can to keep this forum for and about the songwriting process. The last couple of threads are disappointingly far awayfrom that ideal. jmho, Dave. (aka up-fiddler)

 

[gecko zzed]

Indeed! (up-fiddler strokes his chin and pushes back his wrinkles)

I type very fast, but very inaccurately, in my attempts to transfer a thought from head to screen before it escapes, and consequently I have to go back and do a lot of repair work.

Curiously, I often cannot see a typo until after I've hit the "submit reply" button, at which point it gleefully waves a finger and says "ha ha you missed me", so then I go back into and edit.

So, as up-fiddler deduced, "dnage" = "danger".

Interestingly, this is also what happens when writing songs. I will get an idea, which is only partially formed. I will record what I've got so far so I don't lose the idea, even using any old words if I haven't got a full set. Once this is done, by listening to what I've got, the rest of the song usually makes itself known, and the bits that rankle stand out, waiting to have their heads chopped off.

(Then, after about a year, I decide that the whole thing rankles, and ditch it altogether, never to be heard again. I've used far too much dnage!)

 

[cakewalkKaKed]

"Interestingly, this is also what happens when writing songs. I will get an idea, which is only partially formed. I will record what I've got so far so I don't lose the idea, even using any old words if I haven't got a full set. Once this is done, by listening to what I've got, the rest of the song usually makes itself known, and the bits that rankle stand out, waiting to have their heads chopped off.
"

same ere except they stick 2 fingers up at me !!!

and i try and record while im practicing cos i mostley come up with something .. record it warts n all !!!

 

[up-fiddler]

I type very fast, but very inaccurately, in my attempts to transfer a thought from head to screen before it escapes, and consequently I have to go back and do a lot of repair work.

Curiously, I often cannot see a typo until after I've hit the "submit reply" button, at which point it gleefully waves a finger and says "ha ha you missed me", so then I go back into and edit.

So, as up-fiddler deduced, "dnage" = "danger".

Interestingly, this is also what happens when writing songs. I will get an idea, which is only partially formed. I will record what I've got so far so I don't lose the idea, even using any old words if I haven't got a full set. Once this is done, by listening to what I've got, the rest of the song usually makes itself known, and the bits that rankle stand out, waiting to have their heads chopped off.

(Then, after about a year, I decide that the whole thing rankles, and ditch it altogether, never to be heard again. I've used far too much dnage!)

We are the same age, you and I. We also share some of the same problems as they relate to songwriting and I am proud to say that they aren't age related for either one of us. You are an incredible talent and a cornerstone of this forum in particular. We all benefit from your insightful posts. On the editing plus side, often I find that my typo mistakes make me reread my material and I come up with better phrases, ideas, and lyrics during that process.


Dave smiles approvingly at his 1000th post.

 

[Nightfire]

I heard Lennon and McCartney NEVER had a songwriting session where they didnt write a good song or more.
A local songwriter here told me he writes a song a day, and at the end of the year he has maybe 12 good songs that he can turn into a record.
Truth is, great songwriting is a skill as much as an art and a gift - and practice makes perfect.

Typically we behave nicer than that in this forum. We often joke but rarely do it with mean intent. This forum has been very helpful to me personally over the last couple years. I also feel that I have contributed what little I have to offer whenever I thought it would help someone get better at their craft. There are places other than the Songwriters Forum for us to express our personal views and criticisms of each other. We should do what we can to keep this forum for and about the songwriting process. The last couple of threads are disappointingly far awayfrom that ideal. jmho, Dave. (aka up-fiddler)

I agree completely with you, but I think jpenns may have been making a joke. You've probably seen this thread already where Jordan has published many of his albums and has gotten some feedback.

 

[jpenns]

I appreciate your intent. However, JordanD is a special case.

Typically we behave nicer than that in this forum. We often joke but rarely do it with mean intent. This forum has been very helpful to me personally over the last couple years. I also feel that I have contributed what little I have to offer whenever I thought it would help someone get better at their craft. There are places other than the Songwriters Forum for us to express our personal views and criticisms of each other. We should do what we can to keep this forum for and about the songwriting process. The last couple of threads are disappointingly far awayfrom that ideal. jmho, Dave. (aka up-fiddler)

 

[up-fiddler]

I appreciate your intent. However, JordanD is a special case.

And I fully appreciate your right to say what you feel. I am not asking you to make nicey nice with JordanD. I just think that this forum is not the place for attacks. Get into the cave or live events and blast away to your heart's content. Enough said. My intent is not to wind you or anyone else up. I simply feel that this is a great place for growth for us as songwriters and that is best served by discussing the attributes and failings of each others material. All the best to you musically, Dave. (aka up-fiddler)