Idle time & work time

[Spirit]

I've got to write (& finish) about three new long 'mood' tracks as soon as possible. The deadlines are making me aware of how slowly I seem to get things done, and how much time I seem to waste.

For example, I might sit in front of all the gear for four hours, but sepnd maybe one hour actually playing, tweaking, mixing etc. I suspect the other three hours I just listen to the mix so far, or daydream about what extra parts I need, or where the track is going, or what the 'feel' has become.

( It's also quite funny: I'm writing semi-ambient tracks of about 12-minutes each. I regard I'm being successful when the music makes me drowsy in the chair. )

Now is all this 'daydream' time just lazy time-wasting or part of the overall composing process ?

I have the feeling that if I was more disciplined I'd cut out most of this daydream time.

So now I'm curious. How do other people compose ? How much time is spent just thinking & listening, and how much spent tweaking and playing ?

[garyb]

it takes as long as it takes. listening is not wasted time.

[ChrisWerner]

Right.
Things need to grow, profession comes out when you know what to do and you just do it.
But we are artists not working machines, or?

You can´t finish cooking a steak in a minute, it needs time to be finsished but when all things are best and you catch the right moment, it´s perfect.

[astroman]

On 2005-03-05 21:32, Spirit wrote:
...
Now is all this 'daydream' time just lazy time-wasting or part of the overall composing process ?

I have the feeling that if I was more disciplined I'd cut out most of this daydream time.
...

it's a signal for aging (imho) and reflects part of your grown experience.
I wouldn't call it 'discipline', but if you're aware of the state it's worth controlling it.
It's not a negative thing in itself, but it can seriously get you off track - the 'delayed' results will not make you happier.

Imho it has nothing do with composing or arts. I do experience the exact same thing in programming - and I have experienced the same in sports.
I was much faster back then in writing programs, but today I'm much more aware of the overall context in which the thing is supposed to run finally.
In the context of sports climbing I yielded much better results some years ago by getting right into the flow of challenge - one move after the other by focussing on exactly the next move (it really starts to goove then...).
Today I somehow prefer more relaxed moves and I'm much more aware on risks and safety, but that definetely costs me 2 degrees of difficulty.

While I like to be in control of the situation, I also have to realize I'm not as good as before, and that hurts.

So (imho) the point is to integrate experience into the flow and not let thinking take control over action. You'd stop progressing then...

cheers, Tom

[hubird]

I give my points to Astroman, same feelings and analysis here
btw - nice story Spirit

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: hubird on 2005-03-06 09:12 ]</font>