Trouble with Your Own Song?
 

I wrote a song that is hard for me to play. Anybody else ever had this happen?

I tend to do that. I feel like it won't be worth the listener's time if I don't have to work at it. Funny, huh?

Bob

Frequently. That's the fun of it.

Yep, been there!!

Yes, but only when writing songs designed to be played by a band. Obviously I can't play bass and drums as well as guitar!

For solo playing, no. I never compose anything for solo guitar/vocal that I can't play. I don't understand how or why one would do that. I can imagine stuff that I can't play, obviously, but why write it? I compose with my guitar in hand, not from abstract notation. IOW, I compose from what I can play. My guitar skills are more than adequate for anything I want to compose, because I'm more interested in the song than in guitar technique.
Mind you, there are lots that I can't sing... :( I.e., I still try to follow the principle of working from what I can do, but my voice is not great, and my pitching is not secure.
When it comes to instrumental pieces, then I might be more at the limits of my skills, but still not interested in going beyond them. Unless, as I say, when planning multi-instrument pieces, requiring instruments I can't play (or can't play well enough).

I will only write challenging pieces. If it doesn't task my skills to their edges then I feel I've somehow cheated learning.

This is my life story...

Yes, quite a few times, typically some type of repeating arpeggiated chord playing. Practice practice practice!

Oh yes it happens.

I do tend to write parts I can play, keeping that in mind as I compose most often on the instrument itself, and that reduces the incidence, but with the vocals I often find I've composed a melody I can't hack a as poor vocalist. That's frustrating.

I wrote a piece called ‘...and why not?’, that is very difficult for me to play. Right after I wrote it Todd Hallawell (former Winfield Fingerpicking Champ) asked if I would show it to him so that he could record it. He learned it in about a week and totally owns it!

I still have a hard time just playing through it at half speed.

Go figure.

Howard Emerson

Yup, and friends can't understand why I sometimes forget my own lyrics.

Yes. Happens often.

The best part is that mistakes are just improvisation.

Happens to me too. The beauty of that is that since I wrote it I keep at it until I get it down pat. So many times I thought that there was no way I was going to perfect something that I created when in itself seems funny to me.

To date I’ve written 86 songs, of which I can do about a dozen from memory. Yet, I still remember every word from the first album I ever bought (Led Zeppelin II). Go figure.