Juggling Studio Roles, How to stay focused when doing it all? Options

[Bonzo3]

I've been wondering why it takes me so long to get from start to finish when making music – and in many ways the answer is obvious: when you're acting as writer, musician, producer and sound technician for the same song, of course it takes time.

However, I feel that one problem with performing all these roles is the difficulty in staying focused. I'm sure I can't be the only one who writes a song with a certain production or instrumentation in mind, and then gets bogged down mid-song by worrying about how I'm going to achieve that sound, rather than leaving this problem to someone else. I think this is particularly a problem when you use programming software as your composition tool, rather than just a production tool.

I'm sure that all of these roles get a little easier through pracitice and experience, but I'd love to hear from anyone how has tips on how to juggle these roles and take things a step at a time, rather than chasing your tail.

All the best,

Bonzo

[jeffj1111]

Tools are just tools. It's much too easy to get lost in the toolshed these days.

For me, I start with the melody, the emotion, the lyrics (if any). Build from there. If it sounds good on just acoustic guitar, you're onto something.

Experience will guide your sound choices, style, etc. But getting the emotion across is still the goal. A song is really 2 essential parts: an emotional idea, and a technical vehicle to deliver it.

Listen to some classic 60s Bob Dylan songs. Brilliant lyrics, mainly. Performance came second. Robbie Robertson is on record trying to get across to Dylan how the great 45s captured a moment -- think Otis Redding "These Arms of Mine".