We had a post recently about posting your own original music, maybe we can also have some discussions aimed at music-makers.
I write music, and I aim to write just a little bit every day, and finish every composition that I start, without too much pressure for everything to be “good.” Every six months or so I listen to everything I wrote recently and pick out the good stuff to put online, and everything else gets stored away in a sort of personal archive that isn’t public. Maybe it’s a “quantity over quality” approach but for me it feels like it helps to always be working on something
I’m not one to output a lot of content, and I don’t invest the time into my own music enough to feel confident about it’s quality. But i for sure will share my process!
Goal: First I set a goal for the song. This could be to get the melody I wrote out of my head and onto paper, this could be exploring a musical idea I had, or a topic I want to write a song about lyrically.
Constraints: I like music theory, and a lot of novel concepts and 20th century techniques in my writing. One take away from Stravinsky is setting up your own rules. When you define what rules you will NOT be breaking, you can have fun exploring the sounds and possibilities all while not breaking the rules you set. This helps the piece have cohesion, and not just a bunch of ideas all at once. It’s easy to get carried away and lose your initial goal.
now Write!!: For me, this is a after work, spouse has gone to sleep, nothing else is going on, opportunity to focus and create the song. I like to do this in 1-3 sessions. Try to stay true to your original intent, and also know it’s okay to throw something away that doesn’t work. This is what causes my music to lack quality (only spending 3 - 6 hours to go from zero to finished), but i just don’t have the time and patience to pick snares for hours (yet) …
This is some of what I’ve been making lately https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8QjCF31j3A