How to know if you’re finished
Deciding a song is 'done' can be a mildly agonizing experience.
As part of Song Club, I’ve been keeping myself accountable to y’all by sharing my efforts to write a song a week. This week, the song I shared is 1 min and 13 seconds long. It’s got two short verse and two short choruses, then it ends. It might be that in a week or three, I listen to the song and think ‘This is only half a song!’ But right now, it feels finished to me.
How do I know? I’m truly not sure. It just feels done. For now.
It’s a funny thing about songs, knowing when they’re done. Sometimes I have a very clear sense of completion, and other times I just decide the song has to be finished. It can either feel very obvious that a song is finished, or feel mildly agonizing trying to decide that it is. It’s a mysterious process.
And yet, I think there are some ways we can create the conditions for as much clarity as possible when it comes to knowing if a song is finished or not.
This week, some thoughts on that.
Big love,
Lucy
How to know if a song is finished
MEMO - Listen to it accidentally
It takes a bit of effort, because most of us don’t mess with mp3s anymore, but make a playlist with your song nestled between some other people’s songs and listen on shuffle. Suddenly hearing your own music in the context of other artists can be intensely clarifying.
A slightly less effective version of this: listen to your song after listening to a lot of other music. It gives you the comparison point, but not the surprise.
MEMO - Try to finish it more
If you’re pretty sure a song is finished, but not totally sure, try finishing it more. Write another revision of your lyrics. Add another section. Take a section out. Add more instruments to the arrangement. Listen to the new version against the old. Does one sound over- or under-done?
MEMO - Leave it the fuck alone, for a bit
Another option is just to peace for a short time. One to four weeks is my sweet spot. It’s hard to know how you feel about anything that’s mere inches from your awareness. Give yourself space from the song, and return only when you feel you can hear it with new ears.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments: How do you know when/if a song is finished?