Finishing songs

hugbot

A couple years back I was writing a song which absolutely refused to be finished. I spent ages tweaking it, and retweaking it before eventually just dumping the demos on a drive and giving up.

Today I found it and listened to it again and realised it's actually pretty decent, the first version that is, every subsequent revision was just fucking it up and subjecting it to death by a thousand cuts.

Anyway, actually finishing songs is a massive problem for me and I just wanted to vent.

Nomad

Occasionally, there are what might be called definitive versions, but for the most part, I reckon tunes are never really finished. They always evolve, even if there's a recorded version.

PolarityMan

I usually get to the "oh shit its 15 minutes long we should probably think about stopping soon" stage.

Fretwired

I have about 50 nearly finished pieces .. I lose interest after a while.

Danny1969

There's a process called chasing the demo here, where a band records a good demo in less than ideal circumstances but inadvertently capture a bit of magic and a great feel. Then they decide to record the whole thing again in a proper studio getting everything done separately and was well recorded as possible. But often the finished thing lacks something the original demo had and there's endless mix's "chasing the demo" 

For my own projects I've started to make a real effort to get things finished even if that means using my own (shudder) vocals   

Cirrus

Danny1969 said:
...But often the finished thing lacks something the original demo had and there's endless mix's "chasing the demo" ...  





I think sometimes it's the magic of discovery and playing something new that causes a demo to have a certain spark to it. Also I find demos have an innocence about them - the band are only trying to be themselves and often played it together, as a unit. Then they go to record it "properly" and suddenly it's not just about being themselves. It's about getting it right and often that results in something that's more self-conscious and less natural, not to mention the obvious effects of overdubbing vs. whole band performance.

For that reason, I've majorly gone off the idea of doing demos at all, other than single-mic in the room recordings while the song's being written.

Rocker

This is how I arrived at my entry in this months ROTM competition. I have a simple melody which comes round to the start (in a way like a 12 bar does). Fitting in words is my problem and I could not play the riff while trying to find words to fit, I hit on the idea of recording the riff on my smartphone. Playing it back through my computer sound system showed that the riff might have some potential. Still working on the lyrics and driving myself nuts in the process, the finish line is a couple of verses away but vaguely in sight. For the recording, I used no FX - guitar into amp. The self built Cornell SE kit valve amp was set to 'cool' and the volume was very low. As clean a sound as I could get (mainly to help emphasise the chord subtleties and rhythm). I never recorded myself before so the experience was a bit of a revelation. Since that day I am less afraid of making a playing mistake or less fearful of revealing myself through my music. Great result even if the song remains unfinished......

hobbio

^^ My ROTM entry is a riff that's been floating round me in various forms for something like 20 years. It originally was written in drop D and had a much heavier feel.

I really struggle to finish songs off though, I mean I don't do lyrics anyway but just structuring my ideas into songs is something that I find really difficult. I think I need to find someone to write with who is good at that side of things!

lloyd

I'd say there's a lot of us out there that suffer the same problem.....I never finish any songs but am lucky in that my band mate does lyrics and we work well together-I'll put some small riff or idea out there he takes it away and brings it back a bit more song like then the whole band works on it.

I'm lucky to have that. I've said it a few times but making music for me only properly makes sense when I'm with other people....noodling on my own doesn't really do it for me.

Fretwired

I might have to sift through some old stuff for inspiration ... never  thought of doing that.