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Songwriter Forum => The Writing Process => Topic started by: Jenna on June 08, 2017, 03:47:20 AM

Title: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: Jenna on June 08, 2017, 03:47:20 AM
Martin posted a thread about start to finish, how many unfinished songs do you have and I had to laugh because I don't have a single finished song. But I've only been at this since early this year, so I'm learning a lot of skills at once that pertain to the process. Plus, I've been doing this along with taking a college program in another field, so it's taking me awhile to polish anything. Still, I thought it would be fun to see how long it took to write your first finished song.
Title: Re: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: Yodasdad on June 08, 2017, 04:03:48 AM
Hi Jenna,

The first song I started to write was for my son when my wife was pregnant with him. He's just turned 15 and it's still not finished!

That was a one off though and I decided to have a proper stab at songwriting about 4 years ago.

I went out and got a computer and all the bits and bobs and just sat down and did it. I can't remember how long the first one took, probably over the space of a couple of weeks I would imagine. I do remember agonising over it a lot though.

What can easily stop me from finishing is the sheer number of variables in a song and the countless decisions and variations I could make. I have to force myself not to dwell on all these possibilities and just push through with what I think works.

I've got about 25 finished songs since starting, about 15 part finished and probably a couple of hundred snippets of ideas that may develop into something one day.

The first song I actually finished I've never posted on here. It's a bit ropey and lame with a dodgey key change coz I couldn't get back to where I wanted to be but I was quite proud of it at the time.

It's here if you want to hear it.

https://soundcloud.com/my-idiom/dont-let-your-life-pass-by

Yodasdad
Title: Re: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: Jenna on June 08, 2017, 06:10:25 AM
Analysis paralysis! I'm more than familiar with it and wholeheartedly agree. It's tripped me up in life more than once in other areas with far fewer choices than songwriting. The possibilities are nearly infinite.

Thank you for sharing your experience I can't listen to the track at the moment because my husband is sleeping next to me, but will be sure and give it a listen tomorrow.
Title: Re: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: Boydie on June 08, 2017, 08:04:30 AM
I have a bit of a mantra for this:

Songs are written
Good songs are "re-written"
Great songs are re-writes of good songs


Just get the song written and don't worry too much about amazing imagery or the perfect rhyme - just get the song written

The graft (and craft) comes when you spend the time finessing your song and re-writing it to make it even better

Very few people move on to this step

I would suggest getting your first draft / recording of the song done and then post it for feedback - if it is a first draft you intend to re-write anyway you could even ask for the reviews to be "no holds barred"

This would then give you lots of different opinions and help identify the things that aren't working in the first draft

You can then take a break from the song and revisit it fresh to do a "re-write"

IMHO it is much more productive to get a bad song finished and then work on it than trying to write "the perfect song" at the first go - this will lead to the road of "paralysis by analysis"
Title: Re: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: Skub on June 08, 2017, 08:17:36 AM
Half an hour.

Get it done. :D
Title: Re: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: Jenna on June 08, 2017, 12:02:37 PM
Half an hour.

Get it done. :D

 :D Impressive!

Boydie, I like your mantra. If I'm not writing something, I'm rewriting something else. That's the best part! Word games. I love 'em.
Title: Re: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: Martinswede on June 20, 2017, 11:37:44 PM
Hi!

It's a matter of definition to me. Ever since I found this old folder from back when I was studying and now keep it in a book shelf at arms reach from my bed I checked it and found a song called 'Dracula'. It is by far not the first song I've written and since it's in Swedish and I only started to write in Swedish when I was about 20. But that is about as far back as memory takes me. Though I remember I was teased because I had used a The Cure chord progression in one song and that has to be earlier... So my guess is 1-4 years.

Re-writing can do wonders but for it to work you have to have some new input. A new perspective.
Title: Re: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: hardtwistmusic on July 05, 2017, 02:20:47 AM
It all depends on what you consider my "first song."  The first lyric I ever wrote to music added lyrics to the instrumental song "Sylvia" by  Focus on their "Dutch Masters" album.  Took about two hours.  It was a terrible fit with the instrumental, but the lyric eventually made a good song.  The vocal just followed the instrumental melody note for note, so one could not really say that I "wrote" that melody. That was around 1975.    

The first song I ever wrote found a vocal melody of my own for was a preachy, long winded, overlong song called "The Fool That I Was."  Wasn't good enough to ever put music to.  It took about six hours, including lyrics.  That was probably around 1988.  

The first instrumental I ever wrote (and the first music I ever created from scratch) is a little, happy instrumental called "Andromeda's Moon."  I had just gotten a notation software, and just started pulling notes onto the staff.  Surprisingly, it turned out.  No one who has heard it has failed to like it, and every attempt to "improve on it" makes it worse.  It took about an hour and a half.  It's still one of my favorites.  That would have been around 2007 or 2008 around Christmas.  

The first song I ever created from scratch, music, lyrics, and all was a song called "Ode To Mary Carolyn."  It took about three hours.  I began with the sheet music from "Crimson and Clover" and deconstructed from a three measure set of notes that sounded pleasing, and then worked forward  and backward from those three measures creating new combinations of notes that sounded right with the adjacent measures until it sounded right to me.  Took about two to three hours for the instrumental, then another two or three hours (spread over several days) to find the right lyric.  December of 2007 or 2008.  Easy to remember, because I bought myself the software as a Christmas present to self.

First song I ever wrote from scratch without having an existing template to work from was a simple little agnostic song called "I don't know."  I still like it. . . but no one else ever did.  Not surprising, since I still didn't understand that chords existed, much less that their was a way to put them together, and a way to avoid putting them together.  Didn't take more than about 45 minutes front to back.  

It's hard for me to say which of these was the "first song I finished."  Or "when I started writing music."

Title: Re: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: hardtwistmusic on July 05, 2017, 02:27:21 AM
I have a bit of a mantra for this:

Songs are written
Good songs are "re-written"
Great songs are re-writes of good songs


Just get the song written and don't worry too much about amazing imagery or the perfect rhyme - just get the song written

The graft (and craft) comes when you spend the time finessing your song and re-writing it to make it even better

Very few people move on to this step

I would suggest getting your first draft / recording of the song done and then post it for feedback - if it is a first draft you intend to re-write anyway you could even ask for the reviews to be "no holds barred"

This would then give you lots of different opinions and help identify the things that aren't working in the first draft

You can then take a break from the song and revisit it fresh to do a "re-write"

IMHO it is much more productive to get a bad song finished and then work on it than trying to write "the perfect song" at the first go - this will lead to the road of "paralysis by analysis"

Yeah. . . what Boydie said.  Extremely well stated, and excellent advice in my opinion.  Wish I had said it myself.
Title: Re: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: Wicked Deeds on July 21, 2017, 10:47:11 PM
I started to write at the age of 15.  I learned a handful of chords: G Major, C Major, D Major and B minor 7th and soon after, I was on a lifelong journey, trying to write songs that ticked all of the boxed for me. I don't think there's any real mystery to writing songs,  Most people are exposed to so much music throughout the early part of their lives that I'm sure, they learn many of the tricks and techniques used by established writers. I think that much of that knowledge settles in our subconscious and comes to fruition in our writing down the years. I'd say, don't worry about writing.  Don't view it as a complicated task.  It is very much like football, or cooking  or whatever you enjoy doing.  Practice writing and enjoy the experience.  You may not please everyone but you should be pleased with your own efforts.  

Paul
Title: Re: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: pompeyjazz on July 21, 2017, 11:12:58 PM
I was six and I played it on the kazoo. My family still take the piss out of me. Have to post it some time. Budgie in the background as well  ;D
Title: Re: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: adamfarr on July 22, 2017, 08:06:36 AM
A bit like speaking a foreign language it works best if you launch into it and think you're amazing and learn by doing. Later you may go back and say that was awful but you have to go through the process lots of times in order to know that.

My first was a three chord Tracy Thorn ripoff which took about an hour to write, a week to get all verses in place. That was only 33 years ago. Things were easier to start then. I am better at finishing now.
Title: Re: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: adamfarr on August 03, 2017, 02:21:47 PM
Regarding the writing / rewriting process, perhaps this is of some interest:



At 2'33" we have Child of Nature, which is what eventually became Jealous Guy. It was a decent song. But some serious rewriting intervened for whatever reasons and the rest is history...
Title: Re: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: PaulAds on August 03, 2017, 05:59:44 PM
The first music I wrote was my first song. It was written in about 30 mins and was, of course, shite and sounded like a hymn as I was trying to get around back to where I started with the chords...

The second one wasn't much better and took a turn for the political...as was the third one I wrote which I always kind of liked...I revisited the lyrics from time to time and eventually it ended up with some of my favourite lines

"We don't need no hipster badges
We don't need protest songs
Whatever gets done about human rights
There'll be more human wrongs
Cos I don't see a world in action
But one that doesn't care
It's the gravest show on earth
with all the fun of the unfair"

Title: Re: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: PopTodd on August 13, 2017, 11:32:07 PM
The first music I wrote was my first song. It was written in about 30 mins

Me too.
Fortunately, though, it was actually pretty good. In fact, one of my old bandmates still calls it one of the best songs that I ever wrote, and he even covered it with his own band, some 20 years after I wrote it.

The original:
http://indiemusicpeople.com/songs.aspx?SongID=48259&ArtistID=77262

My friend's cover:
https://soundcloud.com/poptodd/hammerlane-every-kane
Title: Re: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: james96555 on August 20, 2017, 10:33:29 PM
When I started learning guitar I spent probably the first 6 months getting to grips with playing the instrument and learning bits amount music in general. I probably spent the next year after that coming up with various parts of songs (a guitar riff, a chord progression) but never was able to put a whole song together even though I wanted to. Until finally it all came together and I managed to get a whole song together. After that it became a lot easier and I was able to write lots more songs (and better songs). I think its just a case of getting that first one done. Takes away the thinking that its something you'll never be able to do, or at least that's how I found it.

Best of luck  ;D
Title: Re: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: hardtwistmusic on September 18, 2017, 11:47:31 PM
Martin posted a thread about start to finish, how many unfinished songs do you have and I had to laugh because I don't have a single finished song. But I've only been at this since early this year, so I'm learning a lot of skills at once that pertain to the process. Plus, I've been doing this along with taking a college program in another field, so it's taking me awhile to polish anything. Still, I thought it would be fun to see how long it took to write your first finished song.

Don't know about anyone else, but "finished" is a funny concept.  Is any song that is imperfect actually "finished?"  But you have to stop somewhere. 

Even when you DO "stop somewhere" ten years down the road when your skills and perspectives have grown and/or changed, you can "further finish" a song that had been "stopped somewhere." 

I have exactly zero "finished songs."  And at the same time I have about 800 "finished songs" that were "stopped somewhere." 
Title: Re: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: Max32 on November 06, 2017, 08:35:51 AM
I was writing for other people 5 years before i decided to get the balls to at least try and do something by myself  8)
Title: Re: How long were you writing music before you finished your first song?
Post by: cowparsleyman on January 09, 2018, 08:41:27 PM
For me it was more the other way around, I wrote many songs before I could write music.

CPM