Quantity vs quality

[Tony00237]

When starting out what do you feel is better to grow, quanity or quality?

 

When it comes to music I personally have committed to 2 pieces a week on my sound cloud  with one being a sound experiment where I try something new with computer generated music and the other being a random price of real  guitar (this is just a on the spot improv usually). Then I also have a thing where with whatever time I have left over I produce, record, and edit singles which will be individually posted then combined into a album. My thinking being the weekly tracks will feed into the singles while simultaneously creating music that people may enjoy.

[symphonious7]

2 minutes ago, Tony00237 said:

When starting out what do you feel is better to grow, quanity or quality?

 

When it comes to music I personally have committed to 2 pieces a week on my sound cloud  with one being a sound experiment where I try something new with computer generated music and the other being a random price of real  guitar (this is just a on the spot improv usually). Then I also have a thing where with whatever time I have left over I produce, record, and edit singles which will be individually posted then combined into a album. My thinking being the weekly tracks will feed into the singles while simultaneously creating music that people may enjoy.

Hmmm..... see I'm so... picky about my music that I look at every piece as the last piece of music I'll ever write basically.  Every song is an opus, every song must be huge, it can't be heard until it's perfect.  But you know... me and my wife struggle with money and I'm 33 and going nowhere (well... by all worldly standards, not by mine) and I have never, not once, sold one song.  I just share them like they're... not worth buying or giving a hoot about cause they aren't right.  I... isn't it weird how I won't take myself seriously or... but you know if I was RELEASING, something every couple of days or so.  Like.... like you said, improv guitar work, (which I'd love to hear yours btw) demoey mixes of decent songs, how long would it be before I'd get the attention necessary to do something more?  How much validity is there to this idea that it can't be heard until it's right?   You can always come back and redo a song right?  I think your idea is genius and I think I should be ashamed of myself for not thinking of it.  I should just start releasing like crazy, like I'm outta control, you're a genius dude.  

 

 

[Tony00237]

7 hours ago, symphonious7 said:

Hmmm..... see I'm so... picky about my music that I look at every piece as the last piece of music I'll ever write basically.  Every song is an opus, every song must be huge, it can't be heard until it's perfect.  But you know... me and my wife struggle with money and I'm 33 and going nowhere (well... by all worldly standards, not by mine) and I have never, not once, sold one song.  I just share them like they're... not worth buying or giving a hoot about cause they aren't right.  I... isn't it weird how I won't take myself seriously or... but you know if I was RELEASING, something every couple of days or so.  Like.... like you said, improv guitar work, (which I'd love to hear yours btw) det moey mixes of decent songs, how long would it be before I'd get the attention necessary to do something more?  How much validity is there to this idea that it can't be heard until it's right?   You can always come back and redo a song right?  I think your idea is genius and I think I should be ashamed of myself for not thinking of it.  I should just start releasing like crazy, like I'm outta control, you're a genius dude.  

 

 

Honestly your far too kind to me and far to ruff on yourself. I'm sure your music is wonderful. As a matter of fact there was someone saying they were bad and stuff and then when he followed me on soundcloud and I listened to his stuff it was so much better than my weekly stuff (shout out to hobosage). Also something that may not be super clear is that I'm young as hell (18) and have no job except being a full time student so I have time I can just pour into this. As for redoING songs yes I can it's pretty easy. Actually I am doing that to my first acoustic track (sleep playing) because you can hear the storm that rolled in last night in the background so I have to edit it out. As for your stuff I'm sure if your putting this much work into it it has got to be great. As for money idk it's starting off slow with 30 plays on the sound experiment with 3 likes and 3 followers but that is how things go I suppose.

 

Now here comes a self plug real quick in case anyone is interested. My soundcloud is under my real name Anthony Gallagher. In a few hours the aforementioned sleep playing track will be uploaded again so there is that. Also the first sound experiment is still up (distant worlds) but I'm not sure how I feel about it. Finally sometime this weekend the first single will be finished, "My oldest friend" (title not finished) which is a song to retire the very first guitar I ever owned. It's a strange price where drums, bass, rythem, and lead are all played on the guitar that is being retired. Word of warning though all the recordings for right now are on pretty meh mics (nothing professional) but I'm saving up 300 to set up a recording studio  (if you want to help with that look at my patreon).

[Tony00237]

Actually correction I now have it up again now as A really late night as it was made after my nightly jog at midnight

[Tony00237]

Oh whoops I guess I just must have stumbled on it thinking it was new lol 😅

[Just1L]

To me it is quality. Because when you focus on the quality, you are building a good work ethic. To make things the best they can be for this particular song. If you are just trying to make sure you can get it done, it is easy to skip the "small things" that would bring the song up to the next level. When you do that week in and week out, for song after song, it becomes habit forming. Not saying someone couldn't crank out an absolutely fabulous song doing one every week. Sometimes the songs that take the least amount of time and go quickly are some of a songwriters best. But I still stand by my thought that quality is more important than quantity in the long run. Had to add, I guess it depends on how much time you actually have also. And I do know that bands like Green Day for example do a similar thing to what you do. They do a ton of songs quickly and then pick from those to put on an album. So, now that I've typed it out I see the benefits to both. As long as there isn't a struggle to spend more time on one particular song when you need to, it is a good way to flesh out the ideas while you have them.

 

Randy

[symphonious7]

2 hours ago, Tony00237 said:

Honestly your far too kind to me and far to ruff on yourself. I'm sure your music is wonderful. As a matter of fact there was someone saying they were bad and stuff and then when he followed me on soundcloud and I listened to his stuff it was so much better than my weekly stuff (shout out to hobosage). Also something that may not be super clear is that I'm young as hell (18) and have no job except being a full time student so I have time I can just pour into this. As for redoING songs yes I can it's pretty easy. Actually I am doing that to my first acoustic track (sleep playing) because you can hear the storm that rolled in last night in the background so I have to edit it out. As for your stuff I'm sure if your putting this much work into it it has got to be great. As for money idk it's starting off slow with 30 plays on the sound experiment with 3 likes and 3 followers but that is how things go I suppose.

 

Oh it's not like... I don't have a lack of confidence in my abilities I didn't mean to give off that impression, I just mean I'm too much of a perfectionist and I won't release anything I don't think is perfect, and it really inspired me, this idea of forcing myself to just put things out every few days and always be working.  And I was over exaggerating my response to be silly and make you laugh, I don't really think it's GENIUSSSSSS hahaaha but no I do think it shows... drive, faith, determination, and I respect people who will let people hear their work even if it's not EXACTLY what they want it to be.  I want to be more like that is all, and the idea does excite me sounds like a fun way to challenge myself.  

[symphonious7]

2 hours ago, Just1L said:

To me it is quality. Because when you focus on the quality, you are building a good work ethic. To make things the best they can be for this particular song. If you are just trying to make sure you can get it done, it is easy to skip the "small things" that would bring the song up to the next level. When you do that week in and week out, for song after song, it becomes habit forming. Not saying someone couldn't crank out an absolutely fabulous song doing one every week. Sometimes the songs that take the least amount of time and go quickly are some of a songwriters best. But I still stand by my thought that quality is more important than quantity in the long run. Had to add, I guess it depends on how much time you actually have also. And I do know that bands like Green Day for example do a similar thing to what you do. They do a ton of songs quickly and then pick from those to put on an album. So, now that I've typed it out I see the benefits to both. As long as there isn't a struggle to spend more time on one particular song when you need to, it is a good way to flesh out the ideas while you have them.

 

Randy

This probably applies best to people who CAN get a pretty much finished product for themselves.  But for someone like me who's never done it, it's like they say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing expecting..........  And for me I think the OP's idea is perfect, because since my ideas are endless but my mixing never ends and nothing ever happens, I'm probably hitting a mental wall over it, short on inspiration, and over thinking.  Seems like just releasing things because I make myself would make me get realistic about it, it would give me contacts who could give me pointers, and I feel like... it just seems like that is gonna more realistically get me where I want to be than tinkering and tinkering night after night, never getting results.  

 

So in my opinion it probably depends on where you're at musically, if I knew I COULD achieve groundbreaking recordings that were ready for the world, yeah I'd probably go back to making sure each song was exactly as it should be.  But I think if that's not an option for you?  Just show people!  That's how I see it anyway.  

[Just1L]

31 minutes ago, symphonious7 said:

This probably applies best to people who CAN get a pretty much finished product for themselves.  But for someone like me who's never done it, it's like they say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing expecting..........  And for me I think the OP's idea is perfect, because since my ideas are endless but my mixing never ends and nothing ever happens, I'm probably hitting a mental wall over it, short on inspiration, and over thinking.  Seems like just releasing things because I make myself would make me get realistic about it, it would give me contacts who could give me pointers, and I feel like... it just seems like that is gonna more realistically get me where I want to be than tinkering and tinkering night after night, never getting results.  

 

So in my opinion it probably depends on where you're at musically, if I knew I COULD achieve groundbreaking recordings that were ready for the world, yeah I'd probably go back to making sure each song was exactly as it should be.  But I think if that's not an option for you?  Just show people!  That's how I see it anyway.  

 

To an extent I agree with you. I'd say I have roughly 30 songs complete. But the melodies, lyrics and ideas for songs that I have actually had over the years are more than likely in the hundreds. Probably because I fell into a habit of mentally singing things when I do stuff. I do a lot of work on songs in my head as far as where I think they could go and whatnot. So anyway, I would say currently I have about 6-12 songs in my head that have stuck out of all the ideas I've had over the last say 6 or so years. And I consider these songs to be the ones worth working on because they keep popping up from time to time, over and over. 

 

The other thing I want to comment on from your post is the "doing the same thing over and over expecting…" Technically, that's exactly what you're doing, just with a new song. Hit a wall, scratch at it and then walk away. You gotta get through the wall (or over it). And, if I was playing the role of your Dad I would say "Don't quit when you hit a wall. Keep hitting it harder and harder until you break through it. Because you will, and when you do, you won't have to look back. Set your eyes towards the next wall. Because it's gonna come. And since you got through, or over the last one, you can get through or over this one." Love, Dad

 

All that being said I don't consider my recordings all that great and not where they could be. But when I compare them to my earlier stuff, it's obvious I've grown because I never quit. In one way or another I learned something new from each recording. So yeah, technically I didn't make all those old songs, or my current ones that sound like pro recordings. I can say that is partly due to time that I don't have. I posted a new song a week or so ago and have yet to actually be able to go back and work on it further. But hopefully this weekend.

[MikeRobinson]

"Symphonious, go hug your wife!"   You're 33 years old and you've got the greatest gift a man could ever have.  Way-y-y-y too many songs have been written about not-having such a gift, or about having lost one.  (And, feel free about writing another one – just, not from personal experience.)  Life doesn't come with a warranty or an instruction manual, but "the power of two" cannot be shaken.

 

And as far as music goes, there will always be two ways to look at "publishing it."  Some people want to share their musical journeys in near-real time, and they do find an interested and appreciative audience.  Others, like myself, want to polish and polish and polish the turd gem.  It's all good, just as long as you keep making it.  Even if you never make a dime from music, the ability and the determination to make it is precious – and, the ability to "share it with the world" is, until a very few years ago, completely unheard-of.

[symphonious7]

47 minutes ago, Just1L said:

The other thing I want to comment on from your post is the "doing the same thing over and over expecting…" Technically, that's exactly what you're doing, just with a new song. Hit a wall, scratch at it and then walk away. You gotta get through the wall (or over it). And, if I was playing the role of your Dad I would say "Don't quit when you hit a wall. Keep hitting it harder and harder until you break through it. Because you will, and when you do, you won't have to look back. Set your eyes towards the next wall. Because it's gonna come. And since you got through, or over the last one, you can get through or over this one." Love, Dad

 

Loved that part hahaha  I don't know how much it applies to me cause I think I should have realized slamming into the wall wasn't working and started looking for a way around haha  But often times instead of trying to find a way around I'd just drink beer instead lol  So that's where the dad talk would be just what this young man needed to here lol

 

And yeah I wasn't implying you're a mixing professional, but I bet you can listen back to your mixes and say "yep that's my song".  That's what I can never do, I listen back and go "Well that's kind of like a hollow outline of my song but...."  So yeah I guess that's the "wall" I'm stuck on.  I do think it should be mentioned that first impressions are very important and the last thing you wanna do is put out track after track that's hurting your reputation online.  But I guess I'm thinking more of people who have great ideas that people enjoy, they're just not AS good as they want them to be.  And maybe there's a point at which someone should say "I can only do what I can do right now, so I gotta put out what I can put out"  hehehe maybe, maybe not, it's kind of a specifically tailored situation I think.  

 

 

[symphonious7]

7 minutes ago, MikeRobinson said:

"Symphonious, go hug your wife!"   You're 33 years old and you've got the greatest gift a man could ever have.  Way-y-y-y too many songs have been written about not-having such a gift, or about having lost one.  (And, feel free about writing another one – just, not from personal experience.)  Life doesn't come with a warranty or an instruction manual, but "the power of two" cannot be shaken.

 

hehehehehehe she is my pride and joy that's for sure.  I've actually written around 5 songs for her, one of them I consider to be one of my best songs.  Right now I'm focusing on this gospel glam ep thing I have in my head, but maybe the next ep should be songs for the wife.  That is definitely something I can write from the heart about.

[Just1L]

5 minutes ago, symphonious7 said:

And yeah I wasn't implying you're a mixing professional, but I bet you can listen back to your mixes and say "yep that's my song". 

 

To some degree. Normally though when I listen I always think something could have been better. But if I listen to a track I did last year, and compare it to one I did 4 years ago, the 4-year-old one sounds like crap. At the time thought it sounded pretty damn good, because it was better at least than my last one.