kineticturtle
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MJP

Does anybody else have a schedule for their song production?
In theory I am writing the bulk of the song Monday, recording it over Tuesday and Wednesday, mixing and uploading Thursday, then making a video Friday, after that taking the weekend off to listen to last week's submissions and do other stuff.

In reality, I didn't realize the first week started on Dec 29th so I crammed the first song in two days, then the second week I followed my schedule but haven't made the video yet. This week I had intended to do more chords-and-lyrics writing yesterday but instead I recorded a beat and a bassline.

So I actually have two questions:
1. Do you have a schedule in mind for getting your song done every week?
2. Is having a schedule futile?

lysdexic
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melb.aust

That doesn't leave much time for competing work and life schedules (which seems perhaps futile in the longrun?). Currently, I'm a PhD student and teaching at two universities with freelance work on top of that so I'm partitioning my involvement here whereever I can fit it. Some weeks I'll have the luxury of spending more than one day on a track/patch but most I'll be lucky to get one.

That said I'm finding writing patches on commutes into my main university being the most time I get to develop stuff, then saturday I'll render and sleep on it and submit sunday. I think I'm going to have to begin to rely on continuing work on an idea over multiple weeks to get more resolved works happening as opposed to generating an idea and resolving it within one week.

Last edited by lysdexic (January 14, 2020 10:32 pm)

midimachine
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Gosford, Australia

i'm trying to stream music production for a few hours on thursday and sunday nights, so that's gonna be my WB time if i don't have other things to do! i'm going to new zealand for a couple weeks in march so that will be a challenge!

ngineer
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Wb has left me without much weekend time left! Its exciting so I put all the time I can into it. Ill try and start sooner this week.

tac
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netherlands

i try to focus monday - wednesday on my own song, and thursday - saturday on florelle's song but its usually more messy than that lmao

rdomain
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Coastal Australia

I'm generally creating most days so it's more of a matter of finalising a piece and mixing it out for WB each week.

ngineer
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midimachine wrote:

i'm trying to stream music production for a few hours on thursday and sunday nights, so that's gonna be my WB time if i don't have other things to do! i'm going to new zealand for a couple weeks in march so that will be a challenge!

I am so too shy for this its not funny lol. I don't feel like I would be charismatic or versed enough to carry a stream!

ngineer
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rdomain wrote:

I'm generally creating most days so it's more of a matter of finalising a piece and mixing it out for WB each week.

Job, video games and side work kind of bursted my creating every day bubble. Is it what you do for work? Truthfully, I very much feel like an amateur and cannot stop listening to my week 1 track. I seriously feel like I peaked. I don't know where that came from or what to do now, so my week 2 was I think subpar especially by comparison. I hope when I sit down with my DAW for week 3 I can finally get week 1 off of my dang mind!

Last edited by ngineer (January 16, 2020 1:17 am)

djippy
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Montreal

I don't have any planned schedule. I try to do enough at home with the kids and girlfriend (housework and stuff). I do work full time day job. I do try to lock Thursday or Friday evening for the rock band rehearsal (or recording stuff related with the band).

If I do have a little energy left at the end of the day when the kids are sleeping, I will "force" myself to go work on some tunes/ideas. Instead of browsing netflix or reading boring stuff on my Facebook, I do compose. So far I am able to find some time for the weekly beats. This week I did put less time than the 3 previous ones, but it was my gf birthday and I just started a new position at job too...

That was a long answer for question 1.

If it is futile? I don't think so. If we want to release stuff we need to work on stuff, so locking time to work is good I suppose. Very nice work by the way, I am impressed by the job you put over the song with the videos. I am not there yet...

Last edited by djippy (January 18, 2020 4:41 am)

Shorebound
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I do freelance programming and have pretty bad insomnia, so I have a fairly weird schedule but I do try to keep to it pretty strictly.

I have a time block sheet for the week that functions like university classes with music, work and other things I do. However, my sheet's relative to when I wake up. So I wake up and set the time on my planner which moves all my time blocks to their correct time and I write out a to-do list for what to do that day. Has been working pretty well for me so far.

Every Monday, Wednesday & Friday has a two hour time block dedicated to writing music. ~6 hrs a week of "mandatory" music work which isn't too bad. You get a bit more efficient with the time you do have and if I have spare time, I can do some more on the weekend or something.

I don't think schedules are futile at all, but the main thing I've found is you have to keep at them. If you spend an hour every day writing music, the longer you keep at it the more efficient you'll be. It's kinda Pavlovian. You get used to working at a certain time, your mind gets into the zone a little easier, you learn shortcuts, etc.

Last edited by Shorebound (January 19, 2020 11:52 am)

kineticturtle
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MJP

Thanks for all your perspectives!
I'm a bit surprised to so far to find that the schedule is really working for me. I work full time but my schedule is pretty unusual. I haven't kept exactly to my schedule, but very close, and it's definitely been enough of a guideline to keep me honest about achieving SOMETHING in regards to my week's song every day.

This week I didn't start recording by Tuesday, but the song is fully composed so I'm ready to dive in today - my day off - once I get my room set back up.

ngineer
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My week one I only had 3 days, my week 2 I gave myself only 2 days, and 3 days again for my week 3. So far that extra day seems to show! I guess my schedule is to get what I can done starting late in the week and working the track a good bit over the weekend and hoping for the best