Ever get sick of your own songs?

[BndGrl]

I can imagine as a full-time touring musician that someone would easily get sick of playing their own tunes. I'm sure that even Skynard probably doesn't want to play Freebird anymore.

 

Does anyone here have any of their own songs that they are just tired of playing?

[LateGreats]

Sometimes. The funny thing is the songs you're the sickest of are usually the ones people like the best and vice versa. It comes and goes too. Sometimes you're sick of a song for a while, then you start to fall back in love with it.

[squealie]

Yes.

[vanlatte]

I don't get sick of music.

 

I get sick of people.

 

[zookie]

It's funny, but you chose songs because you like them and they move you.

 

And then you settle down to the business of working out an arrangement. You start to associate the song with work and it loses most of its emotional appeal.

[fastplant]

I get sick of my songs as soon as I write them, is that bad sign?

[JacieFB]

 

Originally posted by zookie It's funny, but you chose songs because you like them and they move you. And then you settle down to the business of working out an arrangement. You start to associate the song with work and it loses most of its emotional appeal.

 

 

 

Nice observation. It's like decoding a song. If I hear a song that moves me...particularly in a sad way, if I learn how to play it, then the sway the song has over me is no longer.

 

Conversely, there are some songs that are just flat as a pancake on CD/tape/radio/whatever, but when you play them live, the energy elevates them.

 

Sick of my songs? Some of them, definitely. Some of them that start to get lackluster responses from the crowds I usually like to tank as soon as possible. Some of the ones that are more "immature" than the tunes we do now, I like to keep at the bottom of the pile. Even more of a downer is the song that is good, but not that good, yet everyone in the band wants to keep re-arranging it and re-recording it.

[Brian Krashpad]

Right now, just one. We put out a full-length (14 songs anyhow) CD a couple years ago and have been trying to get material from the CD out of our setlist, but have had a continuing gradual membership changeover that's made that difficult. We're almost up to playing half "new" (not on the CD) stuff in our live set, but one of the hangers-on is one of the 2 songs on the CD that for whatever reason always gets played on the "locals" radio shows in a week preceding our upcoming show.

 

It's a funny, catchy song, but it's been overplayed (to the exclusion of songs that are just as good or better on the CD) and kind of gives a false sense of what the band is about at this point. I can hardly wait to "retire" the song, it's next on the list!

 

BK

[THB]

I haven't gotten tired of any of my own songs yet. There's one that I just got around to recording on the latest CD that was written 27 years ago! Songs have a way of maturing and changing slightly as time goes by, too, and that makes it easier to keep playing them. We've had some turnover in the band, so that keeps a new perspective coming in to some of the songs as well. We're in the position of having enough material that we don't have to play every song every night, so we actually have to concentrate on keeping songs in the rotation.

[thriftyshirt]

 

Originally posted by THB I haven't gotten tired of any of my own songs yet. There's one that I just got around to recording on the latest CD that was written 27 years ago! Songs have a way of maturing and changing slightly as time goes by, too, and that makes it easier to keep playing them. We've had some turnover in the band, so that keeps a new perspective coming in to some of the songs as well. We're in the position of having enough material that we don't have to play every song every night, so we actually have to concentrate on keeping songs in the rotation.

 

 

I think that's the key to not getting bored, keep your songs, even old ones, fresh by changing them up a little.

 

If you get locked in on them, and have them too tight "in the pocket", then you're really just going through the motions. Any band worth their salt has some amount of improv or difference from night to night. Playing your songs EXACTLY like the cd is not a strength IMHO.

[Cassius]

Im usually sick of them once iv finished writing them. After a week or so i can come back with some fresh ears and appreciate or bin it.

[elsongs]

Here's an idea if you "play out" one of your original tunes:

 

Fuse it with a cover tune that sounds similar to it, or extend it by playing the chord progression of the verse (or choruse, or both) of your original with the lyrics to a popular cover song, with a different melody. The chord progression of your cover need not be the same as the original, though you can do that if you want (Example: Sheryl Crow did that by fusing Steve Miller's "The Joker" with her own "Leaving Las Vegas" when she did her first tours). Just make sure the lyrical phrasing fits. People will go nuts over that and it makes the song more fun to play.

[t-rave]

usually by the time a song is written rehearsed and played live and finally recorded ...I can't stand it!!

[VSpaceBoy]

It depends on the song. Watching someone other than myself really get into a song revs me up to play it.

 

We broke into a song I wrote like 15 years ago, that I've gotten VERY sick of the other night. Was pretty boring until I saw two ppl really jamming to my guitar riff.. then I started getting into it more. Then they did.. byt the end of the song I was almost excited and wanted to play it again!

[Inazone]

We have only been gigging for a couple of years, but only one full-length behind us, we have a limited pool of songs to pull from. On top of that, three of our five members (myself included) have been playing some of those songs for going on five years, and as much as I like the songs, I'm getting tired of playing them. Then again, we are playing shows where it's typical for non-headlining bands to play 30-40 minutes, so we've been able to start rotating songs from show to show.

 

If not for that, I'd have gone mad long ago.

[Locke]

No because my songs are so {censored}ing good.

 

 

 

All seriousness aside, I just haven't played them enough to become sick of them. If I had to perform the tunes every day for a year I'd prolly get sick of them at one point or another.

[slugball]

Sure -- or, I'm just not in the mood to perform a given song on a given night. But, if you have a fan base built on certain tunes, I think you owe it to them to fake it. (fortunately for me, I don't have that problem).

[MrKnobs]

By the time we've finished writing and recording a song, and get the mastered CD, I'm completely and thoroughly sick of every song on the album - probably because I've heard them at least a thousand times and proabably played them as many.

 

But then we take the songs to the clubs, they change with different musicians playing them, and just from the fact they're being played live.

 

Then I like them again.

 

Terry D.

[cherri]

I go through cycles:

 

"Wow! I'm an amazing songwriter. I rock! I can sing anything!"

 

Then I get:

 

"Wow! Boy do I ever suck. I shouldn't be on this stage at all."

 

Then back to:

 

"Wow do I ever rock!"

 

This week it's "Wow, everything I've written this month sucks and I hate it all."

 

Usually a tight gig with a responsive audience will snap me out of the doldrums. Meanwhile... I just keep playing.

[JacieFB]

Originally posted by MrKnobs By the time we've finished writing and recording a song, and get the mastered CD, I'm completely and thoroughly sick of every song on the album - probably because I've heard them at least a thousand times and proabably played them as many. But then we take the songs to the clubs, they change with different musicians playing them, and just from the fact they're being played live. Then I like them again. Terry D.

 

This sounds familiar...a couple of projects that I've been in, we've recorded songs and then someone leaves the band. When we finally get going again, the songs have been updated or outdated. I've been trying to get the recording on the other end of the cycle...to have faith in the songs and work them out privately, then record, then play out. That's often not best for the songs, though.

[elsongs]

I'm pretty confident in my abilities as a songwriter. That being said, I'm not the most prolific songwriter, because I filter out all the crap songs before they can even get finished, so only the good songs are the ones people get to hear, though I can't just crank one out every week or even every month.

 

For familiar songs of mine that I can play comfortably, I can just kind of go a little on "auto pilot" and instead of being focused on how I'm playing the song, I note the audience's reaction to it, whether they're dancing, tapping their feet, bobbing their head or even singing along.

 

For songs where I'm not at that stage yet, I can't focus on the audience to see what they're doing.

[DonaldDemon]

 

Originally posted by Inazone We have only been gigging for a couple of years, but only one full-length behind us, we have a limited pool of songs to pull from. On top of that, three of our five members (myself included) have been playing some of those songs for going on five years, and as much as I like the songs, I'm getting tired of playing them. Then again, we are playing shows where it's typical for non-headlining bands to play 30-40 minutes, so we've been able to start rotating songs from show to show. If not for that, I'd have gone mad long ago.

 

 

That's what we do, rotate songs every gig. we never play the same set list any night. We have a good 30 or so songs to pull from though.

What kills me is when I write a song, feel really excited about it, bring it to practice, and we play it a few times and no one really cares. Then a song that I fely was where I wanted to take the music gets put on the backburner or just gets lost. That's just being in a band I guess.

 

Another thing we do which may sound stupid is to not spend too much time on the arrangement! We kind of know the general structure and let the rest sort of flow. That is untilits time to record and then the song gets beat to death and boring.

[SpacedCowboy]

Originally posted by MrKnobs By the time we've finished writing and recording a song, and get the mastered CD, I'm completely and thoroughly sick of every song on the album - probably because I've heard them at least a thousand times and proabably played them as many. But then we take the songs to the clubs, they change with different musicians playing them, and just from the fact they're being played live. Then I like them again. Terry D.

 

+1,000,000

 

I think my bandmate squealie would concur with this one, except the curve of coming around to like them again takes him a little longer.

 

There is one particular track of ours that seems to be the runaway song on our new CD, people seem to have latched onto it pretty quickly. It's the newest one we've written, and the last song added to the CD, so we haven't gotten a chance to get sick of it yet. But I have a feeling it's just a matter of time...