How Long Does It Usually Take You To Write A Song?

[silverjess]

Last night I sat down and ripped out a song (music and lyrics) in less than 1/2hour. Its a bit rough but I didn't want to get out of the groove. Other times it takes days to weeks. Just puttin this out there to see where everyones at!

[Chicken Monkey]

Once I decide I'm going to finish it, I write it within an hour. That could be after sitting on the idea for years, and I may edit it over the next few months.

[MrCompton]

usually 2-3 days. But finalizing takes a while.

[rsadasiv]

Sometimes I'm done in an hour. On the other hand, last year I finally finished a song that I had started writing in 1987. It depends.

[blue2blue]

Anywhere from a few minutes to a few decades. And counting...

[grantsabbath]

Very fast.
I spit out a couple songs a week. I don't always show them though.
A real finished song, like the others said, can take from from ten minutes to a couple years.

[LaurenBateman]

Hey it really depends on how into the moment I am. I've definitely written songs in about 30 minutes. Some take a week and some I started and finished a year later.

My songs are really emotionally tied, so if I'm totally taken over by that moment it comes out pretty easy.

[mpeddle]

I take forever. I usually write 2 or 3 melodies that go together in a sitting or two, then agonize over the words. Forever. Seriously--for eons. If songwriting were just about creating pleasing melodies, I would have finished a dozen songs in October.

[easilyspooked]

time is an illusion.
the only illusion.
we move, my brothers, we move.

i will add my voice to the chorus of: if i'm in the groove, an hour. if i'm working from a riff, then writing a verse, then writing a chorus, well i'm on the 3rd week of the song i'm currently writing, though hopefully i finished it last night, but one never knows.

[Mcfontio]

It really depends. I can write a complete song myself in an hour if the inspiration is right. But getting the music to sync right with the band can be a tedious process. It's taken us ten months to complete 4 solid songs. But, we don't even practice that much with grad school and all.

[Matximus]

Lyrics and music tend to come together in about an hour. But I can get hung up refining and rewriting lyrics for a couple weeks.

But the best songs shouldn't take take long to write. I also find that Laboring over something for a long time rarely makes it better.

[wwwjd]

one hour to one year.
if I buckle down and really WORK IT, I can complete a started concept to finished master within 8 - 16 hours

[rhino55]

I come by lyrics much slower than the music or melody. Typically I'm sitting on a bunch of pieces of music. Once an inspired lyric comes along the rest comes together in under an hour.

The first example of a song that comes to mind is one I set out to write about my daughter when she was a baby. There is a ton of material out there on the subject and I had trouble at first because I didnt want it to be too much of a cliche. I was stuck until I came up with one phrase, 7lbs of cool. I used this as an opening for the song and the rest of it flowed out in about 15 minutes. This is typically how I operate.

[popthree]

write or finish ? i can write a song in a very short time... a moment really... i've never finished one though. :-)

[Lee Knight]

For me? About 31 years.

[xdrummer]

I've writen songs is less than an hour. Although in the majority of cases, I then do re-writes over the next 7-10 days trying to improve lines, etc.

Although a couple of what I think are my best songs were songs that came quickly and required very little tweeking.....when the muse truly hits I find everything flows. But when I have to depend on my actual craft....that in when the process takes plenty of tweeking.

[rockinrobby]

for me it's usually a few weeks.

[Eclepto Funk]

most times i can write a verse/chorus combination in a few days, sometimes faster ... as the "song" develops, the bridge or some other transition will usually become apparent. at that point, i consider the song "written," and it usually takes less than a week.

then, i can mess with it for weeks or even months, trying to finish the words for all sections, sometimes changing the structure around, etc.

but it varies

for example, "Fine" took one night to write, as is. "Supernova" took five months to its final shape.

[Boydog]

Originally Posted by blue2blue

Anywhere from a few minutes to a few decades. And counting...

+1 here also
couldn't have worded it better

[Thrustin]

I generally write, arrange and record full instrumentation in under 24 hours. I'm not saying they're great songs, but that the way I write.