Comments on: After The Idea Is Hatched

By: Jason Steidman

Jason Steidman — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:13:21 +0000

Great post! That Ted Quinlan is a wise man… And killer player, of course. I have often found myself doing the same thing, calling it a ‘band-aid solution’. Rather than allowing a piece/song/etc to stop developing because of a ‘problem’, I will throw something in there that I might not be entirely pleased with to keep the momentum going, by filling a gap, creating a transition, etc. – promising myself to repair/replace/improve it asap. This is a vital (but seldom mentioned – so thanks again) part of the creative process that keeps things from coming to a dead halt and staying there. I’m kind of a perfectionist, so I’m easily halted without a ‘band aid solution’ ;+)

Best,

By: aaron

aaron — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:11:22 +0000

I find one thing that helps me get things finished once the “ideas” folder starts to get to full, is to go through it and choose five or six ideas that stick out and put them into a new folder called “new album” or something like that. Then I just try to work on only those songs until they’re done. There’s a strange winter period for each song, between the fun initial creation and the final exciting stretch of finishing, that you must acknowledge and mentally force yourself to push through in order to get anywhere. I find a “new album” folder helps with that!

By: Christine

Christine — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:50:29 +0000

I think the 3 of us should do this ‘forgotten pieces’ project.

By: joshua

joshua — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:29:56 +0000

The shuffle thing is a great idea! I have a terrible habit of naming things after the date they were made, which within three days means totally nothing to me. I try to have the discipline to go back through at the end of each month and listen to everything, but it doesn’t always work. I always thought it’d be fun to pick one of these folders completely at random, and do a trade with someone else’s forgotten piece. Finish them off for each other you know?

By: Christine Bougie

Christine Bougie — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 13:53:59 +0000

yeah, having them all in my itunes is a good thing. when I listen to music on shuffle, I get to hear some of these interjected into the mix. it helps to hear them in the context of a whole bunch of finished music.

By: dean

dean — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 05:58:01 +0000

i have the same problem. i will sit with my guitar, piano, ukelele… and get an idea that i think has some potential and could be worth pursuing and grab my recorder (or iphone), my 4-track, record it to the computer. if i can discipline myself at all i will take these recordings and dump them to the computer and put them in a folder to be reviewed further later. if i really get into it i’ll name the files, something like “fuzzy guitar thing”, “bouncy cmaj7″, “slow/dark finger-pick in Aminor”. the problem is i rarely end up going back to these things that seemed worthwhile to record in the first place. i think the itunes thing is a good idea because at least they can be there in front of you instead of in a hidden folder that never gets seen.