My fresh ears theory of songwriting

[whatsthedealman]

Having fresh ears is crucial, in my opinion. Certainly for mixing, but also for songwriting. I had a song that I have come back to for almost 5 years. It's never been right and so I put it down and come back to it later, try again, and eventually I got it. I also will record a song I just wrote (no matter how rough the take is) on garageband or just on a little digital recorder so that I don't forget it, and so that I can just listen to it the next day or the next week. This has helped me tremendously. I highly recommend recording your work even if it's only one line, a tiny chunk of a melody, and even if you mess up the vocals or the guitar part 50 times. It's good to play back - I get way more ideas and can objectively critique it that way. This approach is also good for me as a vocalist - recording my songs helps me decide if I like the melody or even if I am dictating a word properly.

I've also been guilty of picking a song to death - that I just can't sing it well enough, etc. Giving it time also helps this - if I give it a break I can listen back and think it wasn't so bad after all, or yep, indeed I need to work on those vocals.

Thanks for the great topic and good comments!