Time of day-night, your record, write, play?

[AcousticDreams]

I know so many musicians that are Night time oriented. They come alive at night.

I however, have always been a daytime person. Night time is for relaxing, watching movies, eating. Rarely do I find the enthusiasm to play, write, record at night.

Now a days, I am especially motivated shortly after I wake up. Probably has a lot to do with if I have a work factor involved such as working on the house or other heavy work jobs. Cause after I do some hard work, or heavy thinking....not motivated to write, play or record after that.

So it got me thinking. Is my day time preference due to the kind of music I like? While I call myself a bit of a rocker with heavy strumming, I am heavily into fingerstyle and fingerpicking. I am definitely heavily influenced by fingerstyle even in my wildest rocking songs.

So I wonder if there is a correlation between style of music and the time of day when you feel the most productive writing, playing, Recording ?

I want to hear from everyone. Rockers, blues players, folk & fingerstyle. I would be very interested to hear if fingerstyle musicians such as Doug Young, Michael Watts , Eric Skye, Dustin Furlow, are effected by time of day to Play,Write, Record. Maybe Gender of music style has something to do with preferred time of day?

I am looking forward to hearing the revealed data from this inquiry.

[Tahitijack]

After lunch I have a stretch of two to three hours to play so generally 1 to 4 pm I'm at the keys. If I miss a day I can hear it when I resume. I'm learning to play and my favorites are songs from the great American Song Book. My wife calls it Cocktail music... As Time Goes By, Que Sara Sara, King of the Road. Smile (Charlie Chaplin), Summer Wind, Wind Beneath My Wings.... you get the picture.

[Yamaha Man]

different every day, sometimes I'll get up at 2-3 in the morning and start working on songs...

[Bob Womack]

My most productive time for playing, writing, and arranging is in the morning.

Bob

[Rudy4]

Everyone has their own particular biorhythms built in.

Most anything works for me as long as I can fall asleep in my chair after lunch for a 10 to 15 minute power nap.

The biggest problem I have is that I can do something associated with music most anytime and then I have to deal with guilt or worse, the scorn of a great woman!

(The scorn part is totally untrue. She's actually my worst enabler!)

[TBman]

I'll compose between 8pm and 10pm usually. I usually record after 9:00pm

[min7b5]

Originally Posted by Knives&Guitars

[INDENT]I know so many musicians that are Night time oriented. They come alive at night..

I think for many of us, particularly those that have played in bands in local circuits -as with people in the restaurant industry- night time is when you're hired to work. And of course there's lots of night owls. But I can say for myself, and just about all of the successful musicians I know, I'm in early morning person. I'm without in a doubt at peak capacity for creating, learning, arranging, etc very early in the AM. Most of my albums were worked on before the sun came up in terms of practice and writing. And I always ask for the earliest session at a studio.. Any of the videos that I've put up on youtube or whatever were likely before 7am.. I'm usually working on music after dinner too -often on the couch as we watch a movie or something- but it's just noodling or maybe catching up on just writing something in on paper from earlier in the day.. If only house concerts before noon were a thing!

[rick-slo]

Usually mornings for more extensive composing and especially for recording. The day before I may be thinking that I want to get
something accomplished the next day and then start up in the morning that day while still having the most energy and time and
before other distractions can occur. Of course the whole session can well drag into the afternoon before being wrapped up.

[Doug Young]

I'm a night person. Too many years of playing in bands, where the "day" really got started around 9PM. These days I work on music whenever, but often the first parts of the day are taken up by "to-do" items, which might even be musically related - finish that article, format that book, record that tune - but are more often "honey-do" items. But my time to sit and play, practice, write new material, and usually even record, etc is generally late at night into the early morning - that's when I'm most focused and awake.

[AcousticDreams]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

My most productive time for playing, writing, and arranging is in the morning.

Bob

Originally Posted by Rudy4

Everyone has their own particular biorhythms built in.

Originally Posted by min7b5

I think for many of us, particularly those that have played in bands in local circuits - night time is when you're hired to work. But I can say for myself, and just about all of the successful musicians I know, I'm in early morning person. music after dinner too -often on the couch as we watch a movie or something- but it's just noodling or maybe catching up on just writing something in on paper from earlier in the day.. If only house concerts before noon were a thing!

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Usually mornings for more extensive composing and especially for recording.

Originally Posted by Doug Young

I'm a night person. Too many years of playing in bands, where the "day" really got started around 9PM. often the first parts of the day are taken up by "to-do" items, which might even be musically related - finish that article, format that book, record that tune - but are more often "honey-do" items. .

I thought that maybe I was the odd one out, but it looks like there are others that are morning writers as well.

Both Eric and Doug's explanation of how people become night owls is very informative. I always thought it was something inherent in musicians. But maybe night time creativity is a product of those days of bands and gigs and developing a biorhythm for that time of day.

Eric, boy hearing about you sitting on the couch and noodling...that brings back memories. I knew a bunch of musicians who would turn on the TV with the sound off and Play guitar or bass. Personally I never quite got into that. As I love a good story...so watching a tv without sound just never seemed right. But there has to be something to it...as so many use do it.

The only problem with mornings...is as Doug said, that to do list. That often gets in the way of me writing, playing.

However, after reading Erics explanation of when he likes to work, before sunrise, maybe I should think about trying that some time. Right now in Southern California the days are over a hundred degrees. I try and go on a 5 miles hike every few days. But in order to do that, and beat the heat, I have to get up early and be on the mountain trail by 6:30. Which means I have to be up by 5 too 5:30.

Hmmm? Maybe I should try getting up that early to work on music? ha ha...we shall see. My creative juices may not be totally functional that early.

[jim1960]

If I have a pattern, I've never noticed it. These days, it's likely as not that, when I'm writing a song, I'm doing the bulk of the writing (both melody and lyrics) in my head without a guitar in my hands. Once I have enough of the song written, I then sit down and learn to play it.

[min7b5]

Originally Posted by Knives&Guitars

But in order to do that, and beat the heat, I have to get up early and be on the mountain trail by 6:30. Which means I have to be up by 5 too 5:30. [/INDENT] Hmmm? Maybe I should try getting up that early to work on music? ha ha...we shall see. ..

If you can, it's worth a try. I know my duo partner in LA, Mark Goldenberg is up at 5 as well. We'll often text back and forth before 6am about what we're practicing or working on. Just this morning at 5:30 he sent me an amazing classical PDF to try..

I like to work early, and then go for a walk around 9. Sometimes I use the walk to listen back on headphones to a mix, or maybe something I'm practicing that I played into my iphone. After that my day is more about to-dos and work stuff, lots of teaching..

When I made my first few albums twenty years we had three little ones and I would get up at 4 and work until about 7 (if I was lucky), because after that it was impossible.. I guess I should have been a farmer or a fisherman

[RodB]

I'm not an early morning person, but play best and learn new stuff in the morning.

Conversely I'm much more likely to sit down later in the day just to enjoy playing though what is already in my head.

Hope this makes sense!

[Dave Hicks]

I don't think I've ever recorded anything worth keeping after noon (or maybe that's "after lunch").

D.H.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by jim1960

If I have a pattern, I've never noticed it. These days, it's likely as not that, when I'm writing a song, I'm doing the bulk of the writing (both melody and lyrics) in my head without a guitar in my hands. Once I have enough of the song written, I then sit down and learn to play it.

That's often the case for me, also. I occasionally have things far enough formulated to pull out my phone and use the voice recorder so I can pull it up later when a guitar is handy.

If I've simply been mulling over an idea then I can often refine it when I sit down for a mid-morning or afternoon coffee break. A notebook and pencil suffices there.