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View Poll Results: How many song do you try to write each year
I try to write a song a week, with lots of rewrites. 5 18.52%
I might write a song a month 19 70.37%
I average about a song a year 2 7.41%
I wrote a song, once or twice 1 3.70%
Voters: 27. You may not vote on this poll

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  #1  
Old 03-01-2021, 12:30 PM
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Default Question(s) for the guitar playing (or other instrument) Songwriters

This is not about songwriting guitars , and though this thread is directed mainly at songwriting with lyrics, as apposed to Instrumental, Instrumentalists should feel free to chime in.

I know a bunch of folks on the forum either dabble with or peruse songwriting with a passion, or perhaps some make a living out of songwriting. So I figured a a pole would be fun and help to see where folks fall on the songwriting spectrum. Also i thought a few follow up questions would help get a better sense of where folks are at in their songwriting journey.

So, is it a hobby, a passion and/or do you make money doing it?
Are you involved with a local songwriting community?
Are you involved with online (or in person) songwriter gatherings and/or critiques? If yes what are they?
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Old 03-01-2021, 02:11 PM
elninobaby elninobaby is offline
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It’s more than a hobby, and definitely a passion. I do make money. Never enough to live on, but some children’s musicals I wrote helped put my kids through college.

I have a regular songwriter group that I started five years ago, which meets twice a month. We have a couple of Emmy-nominated writers, a well-known folk singer-songwriter (Christine Lavin), and numerous MAC Award (Manhattan Assoc of Cabarets and Clubs) winners, including me.

I’m very involved as a writer and producer of shows in NYC. The last live show I did before lockdown was a tribute to Nanci Griffith in Dec 2019. I had Pete and Maura Kennedy as my band (Pete’s an amazing guitarist and Maura is good, too, and plays a Hummingbird that I covet) and my friend Julie Gold do two songs, including her Grammy winner, “From a Distance,” which Nanci first recorded. Julie also brought good wishes from Nanci, who’s a bit reclusive these days.

Yes, to on line stuff, too. My songwriter group now meets on Zoom. I’m also a sometime participant in a group that Jimmie Dale Gilmore leads, which grew out of some workshops he led at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY.

I’m more a songwriter who plays guitar than I am a guitarist. I’m trying to get better as a player, though. I’ve gotten really good at watching guitar videos a drooling over things at Reverb and elsewhere.
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Old 03-01-2021, 02:57 PM
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Hmmm...semi-serious hobbyist. The short answer is, when I was actively writing (which I currently am not) I'd probably produce a dozen or so completed songs per year.

Last edited by DukeX; 03-01-2021 at 03:02 PM.
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Old 03-01-2021, 03:13 PM
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The more you write, the better you will get. It's best to get into a writing routine where you try to come up with a new idea every day and write it. Most of the time you'll end up writing crap that you never want anyone to hear, but you'll come out with the occasional gem that you're really proud of. Also hold onto all of those crap songs you write, because sometimes a few of those lines will be perfect for your next masterpiece.
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Old 03-01-2021, 04:15 PM
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I chose 1/month because that's the closest choice in the poll, but it really doesn't work like that. I've usually got 2 or 3 songs in various stages of completion at any one time. What happens is that I'll be working on an idea for a track, and realize that it doesn't fit the song and would be better on its own as a different thing. Sometimes it never goes further than that, but other times those reject tracks become complete songs. Sometimes they're better than the songs that spawned them. Sometimes they're not very good at all. You never know, and that's part of the beauty of it. I don't make a penny from my music, but I'm passionate about it. I don't think I could stop writing deliberately - the writing stops on its own occasionally, but only for a week or two. I do keep a notebook, but anything can prompt a song idea: a phrase, random riffs in your head, a person you see, something you heard somewhere in the past - the process is self-starting and then your own creativity takes it where it will.
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Old 03-01-2021, 04:20 PM
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It depends on what I'm trying to accomplish at any one time. After a very long term band broke up, retirement moves mostly, I decided I needed to change direction and go solo while writing songs, which I had done all my life when inspiration came. I decided to attend an open mic three times a month, ended up more, and write one song a week while never repeating a song for a year. I think I ended up with 70 or so songs, some finished on a placemat ten minutes before going on. Not only did I learn a lot of covers, I learned to wing it under pressure. Great fun. Learned a crash and burn was not the end of the world. It took me a good six months to readjust. Lately, I've been honing my guitar accompaniment skills in order to improvise fills and avoid straight strumming when possible. Being a long time bass player, I need a bass line. So now I write when I get a good phrase, or a new chord sequence. But a lot of time is mandolin practice. I'm retired so I can play three hours a day over about five sessions. One thing I never do is play without a purpose. No more noodling. Mandolin has improved my guitar playing by a lot. Tight and accurate pick strokes a must.
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Old 03-01-2021, 04:22 PM
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I write songs as the inspiration hits. Sometimes I'll go a couple weeks between songs, sometimes it'll be a few months or longer. I do it for fun and to play and share with friends, I have no loftier aspirations.
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Old 03-01-2021, 04:29 PM
Goodallboy Goodallboy is offline
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I didn’t cast a vote because it varies. In the past two months I’ve written 10 songs, but in the two months prior I may have only written 1 song.

I’m not in a songwriting group and I write solely for pleasure and to satisfy a need to create and enjoy plating what I write. My playing partner and I have written 30 songs in the past 3 months.

We were active in performing at various venues that exist to support songwriters in the our respective areas, before the events of the past year. We hope to resume when things return to normal.

We get our “fix” now playing together online 3 times a week, he in Nashville and I in Knoxville. We’re all practiced up and anxious to play these songs for those that come to appreciate the genre.
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Old 03-02-2021, 12:12 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by elninobaby View Post
It’s more than a hobby, and definitely a passion. I do make money. Never enough to live on, but some children’s musicals I wrote helped put my kids through college.

I have a regular songwriter group that I started five years ago, which meets twice a month. We have a couple of Emmy-nominated writers, a well-known folk singer-songwriter (Christine Lavin), and numerous MAC Award (Manhattan Assoc of Cabarets and Clubs) winners, including me.

I’m very involved as a writer and producer of shows in NYC. The last live show I did before lockdown was a tribute to Nanci Griffith in Dec 2019. I had Pete and Maura Kennedy as my band (Pete’s an amazing guitarist and Maura is good, too, and plays a Hummingbird that I covet) and my friend Julie Gold do two songs, including her Grammy winner, “From a Distance,” which Nanci first recorded. Julie also brought good wishes from Nanci, who’s a bit reclusive these days.

Yes, to on line stuff, too. My songwriter group now meets on Zoom. I’m also a sometime participant in a group that Jimmie Dale Gilmore leads, which grew out of some workshops he led at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY.

I’m more a songwriter who plays guitar than I am a guitarist. I’m trying to get better as a player, though. I’ve gotten really good at watching guitar videos a drooling over things at Reverb and elsewhere.
Sounds like you are deeply immersed in the songwriting universe
I got a question for you that I will send later today.

I actually had a cool conversation with Christine Lavin at one of her songwriter workshops. After a while we got onto the subject of playing songs for folks and she was adamant about not playing new songs for someone, and that the song should sit and stew for a while until you get a chance to see it with fresh eyes. She is a wise soul . .... and great song writer
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Old 03-03-2021, 04:56 AM
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I voted once a month, but my process is a bit longer than that. When I have a song emerging--usually from a bit of active daydreaming with the guitar--it will often possess me for months at a time before I feel that I have down the lyrics and a clear arrangement (guitar and vocal only). Even then, I typically won't play it at an open mic or with my duo partner for a while because, while practicing with what I think are the definitive lyrics and licks, I sometimes stumble on another idea. I also have several songs simmering at once, often for a long time. I've been writing in some form or another--lyrics, music, or poems for the page--for many years for myself and have never produced anything satisfactory under pressure of a deadline. That said, I do try to write frequently, believing that inspiration comes more often the more often you go to the well. Though I have made friends with some local musicians, I am not in any songwriters circle, but I am still hoping to find one, ideally in my region (Philly). I have had the good luck of having musicians join me at an open mic--harmonica, fiddle, drum, mandolin--and have always been further inspired as a writer and a player by those moments.
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Old 03-03-2021, 06:11 AM
Andy Howell Andy Howell is offline
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For me it goes in phases. I might write one a month or three in one week. It is all about the inspiration and having something to say. Things are quiet at the moment as I'm not playing guitar to give a sore shoulder a rest. Songs always start with a tune for me!
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Old 03-03-2021, 06:13 AM
Andy Howell Andy Howell is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Straw View Post
I voted once a month, but my process is a bit longer than that. When I have a song emerging--usually from a bit of active daydreaming with the guitar--it will often possess me for months at a time before I feel that I have down the lyrics and a clear arrangement (guitar and vocal only). Even then, I typically won't play it at an open mic or with my duo partner for a while because, while practicing with what I think are the definitive lyrics and licks, I sometimes stumble on another idea. I also have several songs simmering at once, often for a long time. I've been writing in some form or another--lyrics, music, or poems for the page--for many years for myself and have never produced anything satisfactory under pressure of a deadline. That said, I do try to write frequently, believing that inspiration comes more often the more often you go to the well. Though I have made friends with some local musicians, I am not in any songwriters circle, but I am still hoping to find one, ideally in my region (Philly). I have had the good luck of having musicians join me at an open mic--harmonica, fiddle, drum, mandolin--and have always been further inspired as a writer and a player by those moments.
Good points. Songs get fine tuned and honed through live performance. Words change to make them flow better, new bits added, lnes changed and so on. I only record stuff once it has lived a bit. Well, obviously that is more difficult at the moment!
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Old 03-03-2021, 08:54 AM
Brent Hahn Brent Hahn is offline
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None of the categories are me. Sometimes I'll be dry, sometimes I'll have four songs going at once. I honestly don't feel that forcing myself to be writing all the time makes me better. I tried that, and it mostly made me want to be doing something else. All that said, though, I do take it very seriously and I refine and edit a lot before a let a song out into the world.

I don't consider myself a pro in the sense that I will ever be able to make my living at it. But I do have gigging pros performing my songs, and a few have been recorded by them. And to the best of my knowledge, one of my songs has been performed at the Bluebird Café in Nashville by three different artists, none of whom are me. Two of those times were on open mic night, when all the songs are supposed to be original. I take kind of a twisted pride in that. :-)
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Old 03-03-2021, 09:50 AM
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I chose the option for one per month, but in honesty it's maybe one per every 2 or 3 months. That's including writing and recording. I am mostly a hobbyist and I do not make any money on the music I write and record. It may seem silly, but the reason I do it is two-fold. After my mother died, I realized that I had literally nothing of her left except memories, some pictures, "stuff" from her house, and maybe a few home movies. So, I decided that it would be nice to have something to leave my children when I'm gone. Something intimately part of me. The second reason is it's a nice hobby, keeps me busy, and is fun to learn and try to get better and more proficient at.

With all of that being said, I do plan to publish an album, maybe later this year, through CD Baby. I have enough songs now or will in the coming months, and I might do it just to say that I am a published artist! I still don't anticipate making money off of it and in fact I will have to pay CD Baby and so I'll probably lose money overall .

As for the songwriting community, no. I would like to be, but there does not appear to be an active one in my area.
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Old 03-03-2021, 11:23 AM
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Since the middle of 2106 I've presented 520 musical pieces with words via my Parlando Project. I've written the music for 90% of those, recorded and "produced" all of it, and played all the instrument parts on much of it.

Many of these pieces aren't "songs" in the sense we conventionally think of them (thus the project's name) -- though some are. And though I've written plenty of lyrics over the years (and use a few in the project) one of the aims of the project is "Other People's Stories" -- and so, I use other people's words, mostly poetry that is in the public domain and free for reuse.

So pretty serious. I can't even begin to count up all the hours that went into this. Styles or musical genres I've used or at least referred to is varied. Throughout the project I've tried to be a varied as I could be, which isn't the way one should go to build an audience, though the audience for the musical pieces (available most places one goes for podcasts) has grown slowly over the years. Unexpectedly, the "show notes" blog

The Parlando Project - Where Music and Words Meet

where I write about my experience of the words I use has had rather steeper audience growth.

It's been increasingly harder to keep up this project's pace in the past year, living in a house with others who aren't much into what I do, no ability to play with others, and maybe a little fatigue from the effort of the past near 5 years.

To answer your specific questions:

So, is it a hobby, a passion and/or do you make money doing it?

The Parlando Project is entirely and intentionally non-commercial. Given the amount of time I put in, I can't even begin to think how I'd handle any kind of business end. Passion then.

Are you involved with a local songwriting community?

If you mean other musicians who write their own material, then some over the decades. I worked professionally for a radio network in a non-air role for 20 years. Now-a-days due to unfashionable old-age and the current pandemic, this has fallen away.


Are you involved with online (or in person) songwriter gatherings and/or critiques? If yes what are they?

I've been involved with a small group of other published poets for more than 40 years. One other member, like I, has written songs. We meet monthly to go over new work, via Zoom these days.
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