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Songwriters, do you get tired of your songs pretty quickly?

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  • Songwriters, do you get tired of your songs pretty quickly?

    So I spent 4 or 5 hours the other day writing a song. I've played the song a ton already just making little changes and improving. Now I'm really tired of hearing that ****ty song and I feel like its garbage. haha However, while I was writing it I was proud of myself. lol

    I rotate music a lot when I listen so I feel like I am always hearing something different. When I get hooked on one song it gets boring after 15 listens.

    Is this the same effect? Do you guys experience this too or did I just write a junk song?
    Originally posted by Good Will Hunting
    Real loss is only possible when you love something more than you love yourself.

  • #2
    Re: Songwriters, do you get tired of your songs pretty quickly?

    I think that same rush of enthusiasm you feel when you first write it is what listeners feel the first time they hear it completed. It gets worn out on me because I have to work to perfect it, hearing it so many times. If you leave it for a few days, or a week, and give it a listen with fresh ears, some of the enthusiasm will come back, but also you'll make better decisions to improve it. Changing it when you are burnt on hearing it can lead to morphing it away from the vibe it was born with and needs to retain.

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    • #3
      Re: Songwriters, do you get tired of your songs pretty quickly?

      Originally posted by beaubrummels View Post
      I think that same rush of enthusiasm you feel when you first write it is what listeners feel the first time they hear it completed. It gets worn out on me because I have to work to perfect it, hearing it so many times. If you leave it for a few days, or a week, and give it a listen with fresh ears, some of the enthusiasm will come back, but also you'll make better decisions to improve it. Changing it when you are burnt on hearing it can lead to morphing it away from the vibe it was born with and needs to retain.
      ^This. It's easy to get burnt out on a song. Take some time away from it, maybe work on another song or something different from music altogether. If you still think it sucks after a few days of not hearing it, it's probably time to scrap it. Chances are if you've only spent one day working on a song, you probably just need a break from it. I usually work on songs on and off for days or weeks before I decide I'm done.

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      • #4
        Re: Songwriters, do you get tired of your songs pretty quickly?

        There's a great adage that I think applies here: sometimes 'good enough' is good enough.

        I VERY rarely go back to a song once it's written, but my songwriting philosophy is different from most people, I think. Most people will work and rework a song over days/weeks/months/years, refining the song until it is down to its ideal fighting weight.

        Me, I like the flab on there.

        I am constantly writing and recording riffs, and not always with guitar in hand. Sometimes it's notation jotted down in a notation book, notebook, or scrap of paper. Sometimes it's just me humming into the voice memo recorder on my phone as I go about my day. And other times it's done using the Guitar Pro app on my phone or iPad.

        When I am writing for an album, I usually write the whole thing within 8 weeks (the album I am working on now was written in 6 weeks). I use those riffs as the starting point and see where they lead me. I leave holes here and there for transitions and segues I can write spontaneously later.

        But I usually keep my ideas while cloth. I have released an album per year for the last 3 years using this method.

        Is every idea platinum? Nope.

        But that's not the point, at least for me. I am trying to get material out there, and each time it gets easier and easier to self editorialize and keep the strongest ideas. Other times it's a struggle.

        So, my advice would be not to labor too hard. Get the gist, put it out there, and then move on.
        Why don't you take your little Cobra Kais and get outta here?!
        My collaborative PROGRESSIVE ROCK PROJECT, As Follows.

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        • #5
          Re: Songwriters, do you get tired of your songs pretty quickly?

          Originally posted by beaubrummels View Post
          I think that same rush of enthusiasm you feel when you first write it is what listeners feel the first time they hear it completed. It gets worn out on me because I have to work to perfect it, hearing it so many times. If you leave it for a few days, or a week, and give it a listen with fresh ears, some of the enthusiasm will come back, but also you'll make better decisions to improve it. Changing it when you are burnt on hearing it can lead to morphing it away from the vibe it was born with and needs to retain.
          Originally posted by Tizzer View Post
          ^This. It's easy to get burnt out on a song. Take some time away from it, maybe work on another song or something different from music altogether. If you still think it sucks after a few days of not hearing it, it's probably time to scrap it. Chances are if you've only spent one day working on a song, you probably just need a break from it. I usually work on songs on and off for days or weeks before I decide I'm done.
          +1

          I almost never write a song in a single session, rather it typically gets written in pieces over a longer period of time and maybe reworked a couple times. The point where I typically get sick of a song is after recording and mixing it because I had to hear it 500 times. And then I get annoyed when I listen to it again six months later and hear a f***up that I missed.
          Last edited by dystrust; 06-28-2014, 08:38 PM. Reason: forgot sumpin'
          Originally posted by crusty philtrum
          And that's probably because most people with electric guitars seem more interested in their own performance rather than the effect on the listener ... in fact i don't think many people who own electric guitars even give a poop about the effect on a listener. Which is why many people play electric guitars but very very few of them are actually musicians.

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          • #6
            Re: Songwriters, do you get tired of your songs pretty quickly?

            Maybe not in a single session, but what you write and play should grab you. If it doesn't, how will it ever grab anyone else? All the rest is just practice and production.

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            • #7
              Re: Songwriters, do you get tired of your songs pretty quickly?

              Originally posted by TwilightOdyssey View Post
              I VERY rarely go back to a song once it's written, but my songwriting philosophy is different from most people, I think. Most people will work and rework a song over days/weeks/months/years, refining the song until it is down to its ideal fighting weight.
              Ha, it's like you know me! I can't tell you how many times I've revised things. I can never accept a final cut of anything. I constantly learn new things and try new things and then it's a matter of changing everything to that style. There's always a search for improving things and it turns what was fun into a chore. I kid with my musician friends that I feel like Axl Rose did with Chinese Democracy... you want something so badly to be epic that you become completely indecisive. It becomes really frustrating when you used to play with a band that had their ****e together and could rock out several songs in an afternoon. Now that I try stuff solo with my own recording gear I have all these options and opportunities to get things "just right".

              If I get burnt out on a song (with forcing enough listens scrutinizing things it happens easily), I have to walk away, do other things and come back to it when I have a clear mind.
              Originally posted by kevlar3000
              I learned a long time ago that the only thing that mattered regarding tone was what my ears thought.
              Originally posted by Zerberus
              Better is often the enemy of good
              Originally posted by ginormous
              Covers feed the body, originals feed the soul.

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              • #8
                Re: Songwriters, do you get tired of your songs pretty quickly?

                People often consider me miserable, but my works inspire other creative people: painters and writers. Art is an exchange in its own way, and either you're a songwriter or an essay writer, it's all the same: your writing style inherits some traces of everything, because words are the same. - Nick Cave

                I can't stop improving my texts either. I wrote a song yesterday, called it Mission - inspired by Mars Theme lyrics by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis. But it now looks like I just nearly used all the stylistic devices and reworded the text and it's not what I was planning to write. How do you guys manage to keep to your own style? I mean without copying the style of other songwriters.

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                • #9
                  Re: Songwriters, do you get tired of your songs pretty quickly?

                  When writing, I've found that there's an upper time limit before I start making things worse. Like, I'll come up with a cool idea, mess around with it to make it even cooler and all is good. After about an hour of this though, I've got to take a break and come back to it the next day. Otherwise it just starts getting ****tier and more frustrating.

                  Once I've finally written something and have all the pieces worked out though, I really like playing my songs. They sound great to me (that's why I wrote them :P ).
                  Join me in the fight against muscular atrophy!

                  Originally posted by Douglas Adams
                  This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Songwriters, do you get tired of your songs pretty quickly?

                    Originally posted by GrantWilson View Post
                    I can't stop improving my texts either. I wrote a song yesterday, called it Mission - inspired by Mars Theme lyrics by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis. But it now looks like I just nearly used all the stylistic devices and reworded the text and it's not what I was planning to write. How do you guys manage to keep to your own style? I mean without copying the style of other songwriters.
                    One idea is to try to listen to different styles of music. Start out by copying it directly, then move on to discarding anything that sounds like something you heard before. Rarely is songwriting a clean and easy process. Another idea is to consult Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies deck. Refresh that page to draw a card.
                    Administrator of the SDUGF

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                    • #11
                      Re: Songwriters, do you get tired of your songs pretty quickly?

                      I have gotten tired of songs before, sure.

                      I think for me though, I get an idea, I write and record it, and then I move on.... I almost forget about anything I've done before.

                      When I go back and listen to them I laugh or can't even remember how or what the heck I was even writing about.

                      I just get it out, done, and on to the next thing.
                      Last edited by 80's_Metal; 12-22-2019, 05:20 PM.
                      Go buy my book. https://www.amazon.com/dp/198405564X

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                      • #12
                        Re: Songwriters, do you get tired of your songs pretty quickly?

                        One of my friends rented out to Aerosmith in Allston MA. before they broke big. The band practiced and wrote in the basement. He said listening to Tyler write Dream On was like Chinese Water Torture. Months of the piano plinking and Tyler trying to get the song right.

                        On a separate note Elton John called the Border Song the Bordom Song after just playing it for a year. He has now been playing it for 50-years so I am guessing he is beyond sick of hearing it. Robert Plant said when hears Stairway to Heaven he hears the ramblings of a pretentious young man. He can't stand the lyrics, but still performs the song 50-years later. So yes we can get sick of hearing our own music.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Songwriters, do you get tired of your songs pretty quickly?

                          In one of zetro’s toxic vault episodes, he mentions having to play Toxic Waltz like 200 times for the making of the video and by the end they all hated the song.

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