i'm curious what drives my fellow pg'ers to write songs.
i'll start.
for me , its the happiness i feel takeing an idea out of my brain , and finally hearing it back from even the rough bed
traks. my wife says its the core of my being.

its like i'm thinking of song ideas always.
what drives you ?
best
oldmuso.

When I'm really in a musical state of mind, everything can sound like music.

This is not as psychotic, or as pretentious, as it may sound!

I make a lot of recordings where I convert natural audio into MIDI then orchestrate at will; what starts out as a chicken may wind up a fiddle. So, walking along the river, I might try to imagine what hidden, digitally-extractable melodies there are in the water sounds, and the wind in the trees.

Listening to the world like that makes me want to go back home and make music on my iMac, which, if it goes well, makes me want to take another walk somewhere else.

I do it for the fame.


Regards,

Bob

Mark.
thats fascinating input.
i often just go for a walk , and new ideas come that way.
or my wife and i go for a jaunt/ride...manys the time ive
had an idea in the car, and had to rush home to get it down..lol

Bob.
not for me. would be too much razamatazz.
my wife and i like a quiete life.
(we got out of the big city rat race..for a quieter place with less stress.)
frankly my wife and i are just glad i came through very difficult surgery, and i'm all back to normal.

(i'm always very very active, and didnt like being in a hospital.)
it really focused us both.

best
oldmuso

Because we can’t (understandably) post covers … seriously. Writing for me is akin to a root canal but I do it for the aforementioned reason.

Bud

You know, I was just thinking how frustrating that restriction is. Then I thought, but the effect on me personally seems to be that I'm actually motivated to produce original material, which is what I really want to do most anyway, so I can't complain about that!

I find the "BIAB Only" restriction frustrating, too, though (almost) completely understandable. I do wish it were OK to post non-BIAB material somewhere. I actually find myself thinking of ways to add a BIAB drum track or whatever to a non-BIAB thing to get it to qualify, but then I feel like Farmer Hoggett writing "pig" on the sheepdog contest form.

It's my job. :-)

Well, I suppose it has been good for me that I started writing again after a long absence before discovering BiaB in 2012. And we post a lot of PD songs...some real treasures. And the write collabs I've done with a couple of friends here over the years have been very rewarding.

The "BiaB only" doesn't concern me. They are a business and promoting their product is part and parcel of the forum. There are other places to post non BiaB based songs. We were at JPF for a decade. But it will be hard to find as friendly and well moderated site as this.

FWIW, grains of salt, etc., etc.

Bud

I do it because of several reasons.

I like the creative process. Nothing in the world compares to the feeling of zen when you start on an idea and things just start to flow like a river. It's the best high in the world. The funny thing is that you can't force it. It has to be natural.

I like that I can say things in a way that people are willing to listen.

It's cathartic. It keeps me sane in this crazy world. I can get things off my mind.

As part of the creative process, I enjoy the final result. Often the final song is different from what I was hearing in my head but it is in no way diminished from the original idea. Often, it is better than what I was originally thinking it would sound like.

And.... last but not least.... it is just plain fun. I can lose myself in the process and several hours become like several minutes.

Completely understood and completely reasonable.

My thought is that, at this point in history, PG would not be hurting itself at all by saying, "Hey, these are BIAB-centric forums but feel free to contribute anything that contributes to the overall discussions".

Of course, that probably already is the de facto policy, for anything less than spammy self-promotion. I don't imagine that if someone finished a three-part work, of which only the first and third parts involved BIAB, they would be reprimanded for discussing the second part here.

Guitarhacker.
my goodness , wish i had said that.
great comments. i have many of the same feelings often.
but i have trouble expressing them like you did.
kudos to you, cos i am sure lots of song creators feel the same way.

what bugs me often are my own inadequacies often in the creation process.
cos i listen say to a great 60s song write like summer in the city by the loving spoonfull, and other hits of that era where they didnt have the tech we have today, and i feel my own efforts are puny in comparison doing original songs.

best/kudos for your comments.
om

Hey, "Summer in the City" was the high tech of its time! I remember thinking, wow, dig that echo on that electronic keyboard, and wow, are those really jackhammers and car horns?

What "BIAB Only" restriction are you talking about?

The rules for the "User Showcase" don't say that. They do say:


This is to remind people that if they aren't a PG Music product user, they can't post here. But that doesn't mean it every song has to have BiaB in it.


Notice the if in the beginning of the paragraph.

So just be upfront that the track doesn't use BiaB, and see what kind of reaction you get. Just know that many people are listening to hear what can be done with BiaB, so you probably want to also be really clear as to why you're posting it to the forum, and what sort of feedback you're looking for.

Yeah, after a while, I was wondering what I was talking about myself.

But you cited the relevant statutes, and judiciously built your case that that there really isn't one.

Thanks,
Mark

So, maybe just add in a very distant sound of BIAB Mark Tree bells no one can hear anyway and call it a day Mark??

OR--go to one of the other forums, but God help you. Make sure you are wearing three masks.

Once or twice I ventured away to other forums and was forced to write a song about it all.


https://soundcloud.com/davidsnyderchannel/just-plain-folks

Uhhh... ? (later) OK, now I get it! I didn't know those things were called "Mark Trees", and being who I am, that sentence broke my parser.

It's part of me. It's not a great part of me but part of me just the same.

Like 90 dB said, I do it for the fame only.

I also do it for one other reason but I can't tell you what that is.

Not here, anyway.

Its in the Blood !!, veins, air that I breathe !!.


I also work, and love model building !, and car exploring new places !! L.O.L.

Age 8ish to 10ish. I was driven by the discovery that I could actually do it. Like discovering you can run fast, or do above-grade-level maths in your head, or draw well. Once that discovery is there, a kid is on a mission.

Age 11ish to 13ish. I was driven to inspire millions and change the world, all the while donating my royalty payments to charity. Dream well deferred.

Age 13ish to 17ish. I was driven to meet arty and/or brainy girls who were still hot. I wanted to impress, stand out, and be hot with them.

Age 18ish to 25ish. I was driven as an act of socialization on the internet and the desire to encapsulate my late adolescent thoughts and feelings into bite-sized and memorable chunks. Like photographs or film-clips.

Age 25ish to recently. I wasn't wasn't driven to write songs at all. I still did a lot of writing, but I no longer found "song-writing" very appealing. Besides being more fulfilling, I actually could turn a buck elsewhere.

Currently, I'm more driven to explore musical ideas "new to me". Though I've written a small number of songs lately, I am not motivated to stand in front of a microphone and record them. It's no great loss to the world of music. There are probably already enough songs.

I already know I can do it, I won't inspire millions or earn filthy lucre, I've already married my dream date, socialization is good, but it's never like it was when you were single, is it?

So I am not really "driven" any more, but who knows if these two semi-interconnected "song-related" interests may reconnect. I'm not driving myself crazy to get there.

I use to write songs so the girls would like me. Then I found out all you had to do was be the frontman. The girls get crazy for anyone who will stand up there on stage and sing and play guitar.

After a pretty short time, the girl thing got old. Then I got married and it became a PITB when my wife would come to the gig.

Later on, it got to be really fun with the band. Now it is sort of fun most of the time. Some of the time it is not very rewarding. Like playing in a club with six people.

I like writing songs with other musicians, being in a studio. Music is a team sport for me. I am not very happy setting in my home studio working by myself. Unless I am on Zoom with other people the internet is way too passive.

I have been lucky and never had to worry much about making money from music. The friends I have made and got to play with were worth more than all the money in the world.

Billy

when i was a teen many moons ago and started noticing
women i was living with my granparents.
(my parents were doing good things abroad.)
my granny said to me "youll race around after women till one catches you" and also "youll find some women like bad boys and can be trouble".
i found in my travels granny was always right..lol.
moral of the story , always listen to your granny.
om

I like your granny, om.

The front-man's girls are like the "any key" on a computer keyboard. I had higher aspirations for my lower aspirations.