The Song Fight Bulletin Board

QoTD: Roughly, how many songs have you written in your lifetime?

Small Print:
For our purposes, we can count independent lyrical ideas as long as they are at least 1 verse long and musical passages as long as they contain two different parts and are more than 30 seconds long.

I really can't say for certain, but I started in 1995. I probably wrote 8 to 10 sets of lyrics that first month I started, then through the rest of high school I wrote sets of lyrics in virtually every class, so it could easily be around 1,000 tunes just in HS, then there was a long dry period when I wasn't motivated (in fact, I sold my Line6 2x12 and my Fender Squire: only electric guitar I had at the time; this was also the time I got my first acoustic), so I probably only wrote 20 to 50 songs until around 2001 when I again had a cave in which to work on my madness. Mooowhahahaha.

We'll put my number at <b>2,000 to 2,500 songs written</b>, probably around 400 to 800 with some sort of music, around 1,000 or so "just lyrics", and probably a few dozen guitar riffs that never found a tune (likely cuz they sucked ass). I would guess only 100 to 200 have "good" songwriting technique, whatever that means.

I did permanently lose a few dozen tunes when I lost a hard drive that I had not backed up. While over 80% of my music is on the computer, I have a box full of handwritten lyrics somewhere that I will one day enter into the computer. Probably a bunch of adolescent nonsense written in HS.

Peace!

I'm sure I'm over 1000, and that there's even a few good ones in there. They're all recorded except 2 or 3 that I've just played on the guitar for a long time and never put on tape.

Well, if it's 1000, I'm off to mix down 1001 and mail it in for Songfight!. Have a nice Labor Day, U.S. citizens. And a nice laboring day, all others.

Paco Del Stinko wrote:I'm sure I'm over 1000, and that there's even a few good ones in there. They're all recorded except 2 or 3 that I've just played on the guitar for a long time and never put on tape.

Could ya commit those to tape and share 'em some day? If you noodle 'em over and over again, they must be good!

Paco Del Stinko wrote:Well, if it's 1000, I'm off to mix down 1001 and mail it in for Songfight!. Have a nice Labor Day, U.S. citizens. And a nice laboring day, all others.

Oh yeah, it is Labor Day! I am working anyways (need the money for the vacation). Besides, half the employees aren't coming in, so I <i>should</i> be able to get a lot of stuff I'm behind on done. But I have a feeling that everyone is gunna half ass today and wanna just talk....

EDIT: Ha, I'm now Justin!

Wages wrote:Oh yeah, it is Labor Day! I am working anyways

Scab

I think in addition to my Song Fight! catalog I've written maybe 50-60 other songs, though most of them are instrumental electronic crap, and the rest just suck. I try for quality over quantity, but of course quantity is how you refine your quality.

I don't consider every set of lyrics I've written to be a song. I don't consider every snippet of a lyrical melody I've come up with to be a song. I consider my songs to be the ones where I completed the lyrics and the melody and come up with a finished product.

I doubt I've written more than 250 songs.

Hey! I'm back - I start first year of college this week. My trip to South Dakota/Wyoming/Montana was great, and I saw some cool things that I've always wanted to see (Mt. Rushmore/Crazy Horse/Old Faithful).

How many songs have I written? Let's raid my little iPod to answer that.

22+14+16+1+12+4+4+2+8+43+1+5+1+6

139.

How many tracks have I recorded/taken part in the recording of?

48+2+5+1+1+6+102+10+12+1+7+1+1+1+2

200.

It's been about 2 years since my first recording experience. Cool.

QotD:

Wow. That's a tough one. Hmmm, I figure 2 albums worth of stuff for Amethyst, 2 for fearofsleep, 3 Niveous albums + a bunch of stuff for other bands, XTRG, TFC, Deaf Sale, Winters Apart and a lot of unreleased stuff. So when it comes to at least lyrics (because I'm mostly a lyricist) I would probably say around 500. Probably more.

QOTD: One. Every time I play it, though, it sounds quite different.

Don't you hate it when you work your ass off on a song, and it ends up being only 2 minutes long? Spent a solid 12 hours starting and finishing "History of My Broken Heart" yesterday. Monitors weren't working, so it was all in headphones. Ouch.

Thank you very much Deep Throat for that title. I hope that wasn't a wedding gift. Still, I did it just the same.

Kids, when working out complex arrangements, start early! Your brain (and loved one[s]) will thank you for it.

Ever see a dog react to a theremin before? It's really funny. I'm glad Maximum Dog ain't a howler.

QOTD:
Not sure. I lost track after 3.

Caravan Ray wrote:

Wages wrote:Oh yeah, it is Labor Day! I am working anyways

Scab

<a href="http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?s ... a=Scab">Do you mean</a>:
3 a : a contemptible person?

or

3 b : a union member who refuses to strike or returns to work before a strike has ended?

If its any consolation, I left an hour early. Only half of the people came in. I got A LOT done today. I was so happy!

Not sure. I'll have to check back at home. Well over 200, I would say, at a guess. Perhaps, three that are good.

Okay, so much for boycotting the QotD. 909 songs, and, like PdS, all of them recorded. I'm another one who doesn't consider it a song unless I have a recording of it. Probably my single biggest "lifetime goal" is to write a thousand songs, and being unemployed the past four years has definitely helped there...

We did a lot of yardwork stuff this weekend... that's about it. Looks like I'll be a no-show in both the Velvet Underground fight and this week's title - "History of My Broken Heart" is probably something I could have done something with, but I never felt like I had an inspiration for something unusual and interesting, and I didn't feel like spending the time recording something predictable and ordinary... oh, well. Got some very nice review comments on "Memphis," but still expect to get slaughtered in the voting.

Charles (KA)

I've written like 7.

fodroy wrote:I've written like 7.

Like the man said, quality over quantity. ...That being said not immediately recalling what songs of yours I've heard.

I would definitely trade the thousands of songs in for like 20 or 30 "really good to great" ones. But I'm not that meticulous. I need band members!

Roughly 70 - every one an Octothorpe Song Fight entry. Of course, I don't write the lyrics, so maybe some of you will think that they don't count. In that case, none.

Wages wrote:

fodroy wrote:I've written like 7.

Like the man said, quality over quantity. ...That being said not immediately recalling what songs of yours I've heard.

I would definitely trade the thousands of songs in for like 20 or 30 "really good to great" ones. But I'm not that meticulous. I need band members!

Yeah. I've written way more than 7. I just didn't feel like counting, so I said what it feels like I've written. My actual number is probably over 100. But I don't know.

Not keeping count of songs written.
But the best songs ever written are never recorded, and usually forgotten by the next day.
Just me thought.