How Many Songs Do You Write Per Week/Month?

[mazz]

It depends on the deadline. I prefer quality over quantity but I also sometimes tend to "over write" which slows me down. I'm constantly working on that one!!

I've done the one song per day thing and for certain types of pieces that's do-able. But for other types, like orchestral and hybrid orchestral, it can take several days to get the piece sounding excellent.

I shoot for at least 100 pieces/year and do the math backwards from there. Of course, a client request may expand or contract that number depending on the requests and the deadline.

I do something with my music and/or career every day, even on days I work at my day gig. Consistency is the key to sustained output.

Inspiration is for amateurs, doing the work every day is what professionals do, inspiration is a bonus. Besides, inspiration is more likely to strike when one is prepared for it and the resulting product of the inspiration will end up sounding much more like the "inspired" idea if the craft and chops have been developed consistently. The only way I know to do that is to write every day.

Besides, writing every day helps one to separate the process from the product and to see the pieces as products to be marketed rather than little emotional children to be protected at all costs. There's nothing wrong with being proud of one's work, in fact it's totally necessary in order to keep at it, but at some point that separation needs to happen in order for one to be able to deal with the inevitable rejections that will come in the process of putting those pieces out there.

There's nothing like a hard deadline to help "inspire" creativity!

Just my opinions based on my experience. YMMV.

Mazz

[burpo]

"Inspiration is for amateurs."

Truer words were never spoken.

I feel that I am both always and never writing. The "R and D" phase of generating
haystacks of lyric scraps or melodic hook candidates on the dictaphone add up to
the overwhelming bulk of my time. (That is until I'm recording, then digital futzing
is the name of the game.) The actual "here I am, writing this song with an actual title"
is the chocolate chip, not the cookie dough.

If I have a topic that's been on my mind, I usually come out with a suite of three or four
songs. Then it's another lull 'til the next batch. Writing for a specific listing has been a
good exercise, but it's the exception and not the norm for me.

[deankripp]

Hey Burpo,

cool post - got me curious about my output in 2011....

...just going through my files - it looks like I did 148 instrumental tracks (for Film/TV cues and Muzak type stuff) and wrote, co-wrote (or re-wrote) 78 vocal songs, 19 of which were demoed and 2 are now "cuts." (I am keeping my fingers crossed that about 4 more of them will end up being artist cuts - but who knows)

Like some of the others have posted here, instrumentals used to take me days but now I usually do one or two a day... three in a 12 hr. day is my most.... The Muzak type smooth stuff used to take me three days - now I can do one in a day.

Vocal songs take "as long as they need to take" to get to the demo stage... sometimes they are quick... sometimes it takes weeks or months for the right tweak to come... If I am working on a song by myself or with another songwriter, the song could easily be rewritten a year later if I/we think I am really on to something cool but "just missed." If I am working with an artist with a deadline the tweaks will be written much, much more quickly. Like... "right now!"

I need to work with more artists with release deadlines so that my vocal song tweaking speed gets faster (don't we all)

there is where I am currently at... but, I am still growing... I'll get faster.... I'll get better


dean k



...

[Kolstad]

I write a little less than two instrumentals and one song a week, by average over the course of a year.

[burpo]

Thank you so much, Mark, Magne and Dean. This is kinda fascinating.

[cardell]

Great thread Burpo!

Stuart

[burpo]

Thanks, man and Happy New Year to you and the family!