[Dave Wright]

I'm interested in how people judge there own compositions. Do you play them to others for feedback or do you mostly know if they're working or not?

If you have spent time on a composition and decide you don't like it- do you spend time improving it or just move on and put it to the side? When do you know its finished?

How many compositions do you write that you like, compared to the ones you dislike.

Is it important that others like your composition if it has meaning to you?

I suppose for arguments sake that i'm talking about compositions that you are inspired to write as opposed to commissioned work, but perhaps either.

I'm really interested in your replys if there are any.

Thanks

 

[ianhart]

Mainly, I just listen to them myself, because there aren't that many people that will tell me honestly what they think of my stuff, not too sure why?

If I have spent a large amount of time (greater than, say, 50 hours or so), then I will set it aside for work on a later time. Maybe I will get some ideas in the middle of the night or something, who knows.

I would say that the ratio of comps I like vs. don't like is about 1:10 or so, so maybe 10% of my stuff I would consider showing others.

If the composition is important to me, then I really don't care too much what other people think, just because I write for pleasure, and if they don't like it, then too bad, right? But if the composition is written for, and inspired by, someone that I know, then I would hope that they like it

 

[hakukani]

I start a big fire and burn them, or throw them in a box and forget them after I've played them or had them performed. The world is not missing much, luckily.

 

[saxymanzach]

I was talking to a songwriter once, and he said that he had a storage space in New York stacked wall to wall with cassete tapes of notes for song ideas. So, you can go through a hundred tunes before you find a really good one. When you start getting better at putting what you hear in your head on paper, it becomes more frequent that you find something good.

For me, If I don;t like something, I sqeeze out all of my ideas for it on paper, put it in a box in my closet and come back to it in a few months.

As for inspired vs. hired work, I feel that I personally work better under pressure. SO when I get asked to write something by a cirtain date, it will usually turn out better than something I would write at my leisure.

 

[docformat]

I start a big fire and burn them, or throw them in a box and forget them after I've played them or had them performed. The world is not missing much, luckily.

Methinks you are too hard on youself..... troubled soul!

 

[Jolle]

I decide for myself first if they will ever hear it or not. Most of the time I like the idea, but I can't really get it to work without the guys of the band. They help me doing the bass and the rythm, and sometimes even the chord structure. Lyrics and melodies are my own, always.

I have now three compositions, of which one I really like. But I'm still working on all three of them. The work's never finished until we decide we should play it anyway.

I write compositions so people would hear them. They're mostly for the band. The one composition I'm making now should be a killer tune to the one it is written for. But I'm quite afraid she'll never hear it...

 

[Al Stevens]

I sang one of my compositions during a solo piano restaurant gig. It's a ballad and one of my favorites of my tunes. A few couples got up to dance. Later, when I was on a break, one of the couples walked past me as they were leaving. The guy was whistling my tune. That's good feedback.

If you don't announce that it's an original, and if members of the audience ask what it was and where they can hear it again, then you have a good tune.

If other musicians compliment your tune without being asked, you probably have a good tune. I say probably because some musicians heap faint praise on just about anything.