attn. songwriters: writing gets harder as you grow older?

[joeinthebox1980]

hey... songwriters... i was wondering if you experienced a dip in writing production as you get older.

i think as i get more older and more mature, my writing production starts to go down. i physically do not write as much songs as i did, say, in high school.

of course, i think it's because in high school i had a lot of energy and emotion pent up and it exploded on to paper. (i also think it got a lot of bad teen-angst songs out of the way. hehe).

i think i have passion, inspiration and energy now... but it's slower. but while it's slower... i think the quality of songs that i ultimately write are much better. and i don't write about "girls" or "love" that much. at least, not as obviously.


i dunno perhaps it's all just... *gasp* maturity.

[nickname]

I fear. I better start writing more while it's still there...even though I don't feel it will decline anytime soon--being prolific is good, because when you die your family still has 20 albums to release at carefully-crafted intervals to make sure the rest of your lineage lives their days in opulant happiness. Get those pens.

[skip tracer]

I write a lot less now than I did when I was younger, but as gururyan said, quality goes up and quantity goes down. I used to write all the time, about everything, but most of it sucked.

I just have less time to work on songs now. In high school and college, I'd write during class, and have all day to work on it. Now I'm at work all the time and just don't have the energy to do anything when I get home. Plus I spend all my free time on guitargeek, that doesn't help. ;)

[Bad Johnny]

yes and no. i'm not old or anything, but you'll have more stuff to write about with the more experiences you have. at the same time, it will be harder to come up with truly original stuff because more and more people will be writing songs and you'll have a great riff and lyric that may have already been copywrited and stuff.

[NoteBOOM]

I'm 16, so there's not much I can really say, but my guess is that they just get more selective, and they know a truely good song when they hear it. They don't want to waste their time on bad songs, so they skip that step.

[skip tracer]

Originally posted by Bad Johnny
yes and no. i'm not old or anything, but you'll have more stuff to write about with the more experiences you have.

I think now that I'm older I have less to write about. In high school, you experience so much for the first time. And then there's the endless stream of songs about girls. I think I had more songs of unrequited love than a 12th century Troubadour.

[fiveways]

Don't talk to Nobody or myself about what happened when we turned 25.......

[trim]

I haven't found that my writing skills have slowed but I do write about different subjects....

All of the songs I wrote way back when were more on the angst, anger and questioning my mortality... where as now, I write more in reflection, regret, and questioning my mortality...

[entrada]

An example of the fine wine theory is Tom Petty. I think his songwriting chops and vocal style are way beyond his 70s material. I'm only 23 but I know my songs these days are way stronger than just 4 years ago.
Your knowledge of how chords work expands with every happy accident you stumble upon.
Life experiences add honesty to the lyrics.
Exposure to more and more styles of music will result in a more eclectic sound.

[Amsterdarn]

Good god, I already write slowly, with lots of quality control. And I haven't penned a girl song in a very long while.

And I'm only 17.

*panics*

[Furious George]

i think songwriting does get harder as you get older...or rather, it gets harder as you start learning more about the different varieties of music and hearing more artists. it's sort of a double-edged sword...the more music you hear, the more influences you have to draw from, but that also poses constraints in that you risk ripping off more artists...it's almost good NOT to listen to too much music, that way you can claim ignorance if someone says you rip off a song. personally i don't give a ****...if i write something that's similiar to another artist, i just chalk it up to having strong influences...good music is good music. i wouldn't mind having four versions of radiohead, as music gets more complex it will naturally be more unique anyways...

MOokie

[Jason Henderson]

It all depends on what kind of songs your after. If you want to write angry and powerful songs all your life, then its going to stink when your older and have no anger left in your life.

but if you want to me more eclectic, then You'll only get better cause you'll be wiser and smarter than before. :cool:

[cubby]

Writing as many songs becomes harder.

Writing good songs becomes easier.

When a 15 year-old comes up to you and tells you how great that song was then it's time to reevaluate.