Members whyareyoualive Posted July 9, 2007 Members Share Posted July 9, 2007 i write some music, and think 'wow, thats pretty good' , then when i come back to it a couple of hours later it just seems crap. why is this. what can be done ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BATSBREW Posted July 9, 2007 Members Share Posted July 9, 2007 this question's easy... just keep working it, til it's NOT irritating. it's just a matter of time spent working the craft...everybody here, myself included, has been irritated by something with mixes, arrangements and lyrics i'm sure, but after a zillion hours of tracking and mixing, it all starts to come together. no free lunch, no shortcuts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Li10 Posted July 9, 2007 Members Share Posted July 9, 2007 i write some music, and think 'wow, thats pretty good' , then when i come back to it a couple of hours later it just seems crap. why is this. what can be done ? I get that all the time. It sucks so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted July 9, 2007 Members Share Posted July 9, 2007 Batsbrew's on the money... just keep writing. The cure for self-disappointing writing is more writing... writing is like playing an instrument... there are sometimes little spurts of progress that seem to come almost out of nowhere interspersed between long periods of drudgery... As you write, the little spurts become a little more frequent and the periods of drudgery/hard work become a little shorter (er... that's some kind of reciprocal relationship, innit? I'm just finishing my first pot of coffee, here). Anyhow, write, write, write. Write some more. And try it out with friends and colleagues (and we'd like to think you'll come to consider us your colleagues) and see what they think. Be prepared to make the most out of any criticisms you get... it's hard to get honest feedback a lot of times... your friends want to be encouraging... that's why writers' workshops can be so helpful. Sitting around swapping songs with fellow writers... And that's kind of what we do here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DougH Posted July 9, 2007 Members Share Posted July 9, 2007 I find this with mixing and many other things these days. Drums have to many tom hits, not enough cymbals out of fear of to many cymbals. The guitars always suck 10X more than I thought. No advice other than what is given plus really try to figure out what sounds like crap and what you need to do. You also need to listen while you are recoding because it could be latency or distortion if it is technical. If the chorus doesn't match the verse or the drum roll sucks and the cymbals are to much...welcome to suckville. I am there often but to busy fretting with a sequencer to help, sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members samtrips Posted July 10, 2007 Members Share Posted July 10, 2007 Some days I just suck (bad head on). And other days I {censored} gold (good head on, remembering to think positive). I try only to record on the latter days. Close mic that toilet bowl! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DougH Posted July 10, 2007 Members Share Posted July 10, 2007 Some days I just suck (bad head on). And other days I {censored} gold (good head on, remembering to think positive). I try only to record on the latter days. Close mic that toilet bowl! I used to play guitar for hours and think that that time when I would jam a cool riff out of that damn guitar would be any minute. Heck, I would be warmed up and all familiar with the finger board. Improvisation heaven? Fatigue and upset hell is more what would happen. I seem to think it is best to practice as often as you can but don't try anything creative if you start to suck. I hate to say that because I know the best guitar players practice and write like crazy. There throw aways are beter than my best. but with song making, I should do it everyday treaty. But playing guitar is out for me right now. I am trying to learn the basic craft of Verse Chorus Bridge making. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members whyareyoualive Posted July 10, 2007 Author Members Share Posted July 10, 2007 Batsbrew's on the money... just keep writing. The cure for self-disappointing writing is more writing... writing is like playing an instrument... there are sometimes little spurts of progress that seem to come almost out of nowhere interspersed between long periods of drudgery... As you write, the little spurts become a little more frequent and the periods of drudgery/hard work become a little shorter (er... that's some kind of reciprocal relationship, innit? I'm just finishing my first pot of coffee, here). Anyhow, write, write, write. Write some more. And try it out with friends and colleagues (and we'd like to think you'll come to consider us your colleagues) and see what they think. Be prepared to make the most out of any criticisms you get... it's hard to get honest feedback a lot of times... your friends want to be encouraging... that's why writers' workshops can be so helpful. Sitting around swapping songs with fellow writers... And that's kind of what we do here. ok, thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members King Chaos Posted July 10, 2007 Members Share Posted July 10, 2007 I know the feeling, but often I write something on guitar for instance, and It'll have a certain tone and feel very particular to that moment in my jam, then I might tab it up, and through GP the feel and tone will be pretty much completely lost. often I become demotivated by the fact that 'I' have lost the feel for the riff or the piece aswell when I return to it. Best advice is definately to record the piece as you first create it and before returning to the playing of the piece, listen to it again. hopefully then you can revitalise what it was about the piece that you were originally impressed with. I actually keep a small tape recorder near my set up so I can just hit record and capture important moments. Sure the quality on the recording is awful, but the playing is always captured well enough to return to it with the same mind set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members eddieboston2 Posted July 10, 2007 Members Share Posted July 10, 2007 Why do you think it sucks? I mean, try to pinpoint specifically what it is that you aren't happy with. If you can't pinpoint anything, maybe it's just the normal hyper-self-criticism we all have. If you know what the problem is, ask if it's something you can fix. I bet most of the time it is. If it's not, well, now you know what to consciously avoid the next time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Li10 Posted July 10, 2007 Members Share Posted July 10, 2007 I think it helps alot if you have a band, or just other people to write/work with. The other instruments fill loads of gaps where your instrument isn't doing anything. Right, I have this cool riff, but they just don't work. It sounds good, but it doesn't sound like anything should come after it. I spent ages trying to figure out what would sound good after it, but then I suddenly heard, in my head, drums and bass coming after it. It's kind of like the Pixies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members whyareyoualive Posted July 10, 2007 Author Members Share Posted July 10, 2007 I think it helps alot if you have a band, or just other people to write/work with. The other instruments fill loads of gaps where your instrument isn't doing anything. Right, I have this cool riff, but they just don't work. It sounds good, but it doesn't sound like anything should come after it. I spent ages trying to figure out what would sound good after it, but then I suddenly heard, in my head, drums and bass coming after it. It's kind of like the Pixies. yer. some o the stuf i come up with is quite pixie-ish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stoneball Jack Posted July 10, 2007 Members Share Posted July 10, 2007 i write some music, and think 'wow, thats pretty good' , then when i come back to it a couple of hours later it just seems crap. why is this. what can be done ? I know what you mean I think it happens to everybody. I think it can be a good thing though. If you go back and fix the things that you don't like, leave for a awhile, fix more stuff, leave, and so on until there's nothing you don't like about the song. It's like writting a research paper or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Eclepto Funk Posted July 10, 2007 Members Share Posted July 10, 2007 i used to think of songs as "in the moment" whatever i had was the song i was very often disappointed at how bad my songs were [now i am disappointed by a whole new bunch of issues, but that's a different story) then i realized that "this moment" is just a stage in the song writing process, and that if it's telling me "this sucks" that means "you need to keep going, you're not there yet" "you need to keep going" may mean several things: 1. this is a bit of another song to be written later (put it aside) 2. this song has promise, you just need to find a way to make it work (which may involve putting it aside for a while); or 3. you just don't like this song you just wrote (very possibly), which usually means move on to another song ... perhaps keep a few things from this one and try again later there's nothing wrong with writing "bad songs." that's just parting of learning the craft, as has been said. that's how come you can turn around and write a "good song" later or to put it another way: a song is not a song. it is just another step in your writing. some are good steps, some are bad. hopefully all teach us something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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