Too much work!

Right now, there are about 5 or 6 pretty long pieces (some longer than others, obviously) that I'd like to finish, all ranging from string quartets to orchestral pieces to piano pieces. Now, I know that doing a few projects at a time can be all right, but I probably work slow enough as it is :). I'm all right with it, though, because I generally like to come back to a piece when I'm inspired to write something. Which brings me to my simple question. How many pieces are you writing right now, and if it's more than, say, 3, is it going well :P?

6 projects in varying stages of completion. All of them are major works. Most of my musical effort is going into two of them in particular, but most likely none will be finished in the next year or so... if I can finish two before I graduate from medical school (that is, in the next three years), I'll be extremely happy.

I am currently workin with 2 pieces right now and both are my final projects to finish my master degree.

I allways work with one piece intensly and finish it as soon as I can. But ofcourse I dont rush to finish just that it is finished. I never work with many pieces and leave them somewhere to come back to them when I get inspired. This makes me removed from the piece and when I get back to it, it is difficult to focus again. Because I believe that every day we change, we grow, and this leds to you thinking differently since you initially started the piece. And you may never get into the same thoughts and same ideas that you initially started with the piece. I think that its best to get focused on one project and finish it and move on to next one.

Yes I do write some themes and ideas somewhere to use them sometime when I will be needing. But they are not pieces, just themes.

yeah, I know how you feel. I can often tell the different parts of the music where I took breaks in writing it. At this point, though, for me, I'm still learning as many techniques as I can, so a lot of the time I write a piece to experiment with new ideas (kind of like how you write themes occasionally).

I try not to have more than two...simply because I'd start having trouble keeping them separate. I keep a backlog of random ideas that don't make it into the current projects, just for potential starting points of the next...nothing worse than downtime between projects...

I'm working on like 259 things write now. I start something, and then start something else, and I never end up finishing it until like 2 years after I wrote the first part.

oboehazard, take my advice and try to finish something even if you dont like it. But just finish. If you dont like, fine, move on the the next piece. This will serve you as a practice, much like you practice your instrument. You wouldnt interrupt any scale, etude and move on the next one would you ? no, you would practice it until it is played effortlessly. Composing is the same. Early pieces of the composers serves them the practice part. Dont expect to write something big right now. Stick with small things. Dont go and write opera, when you are still strugling to learn how to develop themes etc. Eventually, when you master the "tools" of composition, you no longer be needing to practice them and writing big pieces will be effortles. the only effort being to find nice themes and come up with original ideas. (perhaps effortles is not the right word, i will be underesestimating the great work of great composers. I simply meant you would be concentrating on different things rather than basics of composition)

This is just my thought. Some of you may think differently.

at least 5 pieces I can think of off the top of my head, but then there are probably at least 3 songs I'm working on too. I put 7+, cause I know it's a lot....

oboehazard, take my advice and try to finish something even if you dont like it. But just finish. If you dont like, fine, move on the the next piece. This will serve you as a practice, much like you practice your instrument. You wouldnt interrupt any scale, etude and move on the next one would you ? no, you would practice it until it is played effortlessly. Composing is the same. Early pieces of the composers serves them the practice part. Dont expect to write something big right now. Stick with small things. Dont go and write opera, when you are still strugling to learn how to develop themes etc. Eventually, when you master the "tools" of composition, you no longer be needing to practice them and writing big pieces will be effortles. the only effort being to find nice themes and come up with original ideas. (perhaps effortles is not the right word, i will be underesestimating the great work of great composers. I simply meant you would be concentrating on different things rather than basics of composition)

This is just my thought. Some of you may think differently.[/b]

Ya, thats one of my problems too. Ill start something and like it for about 2 days, then for some reason, I just automatically start hating it. lol. Anyway, the only piece that I'm REALLY working on right now is a piano concerto. I hope this one I can finish :)

Uhhh....I didn't say I hated the stuff....I just meant I had really good ideas and would write them down, then get another idea. I have this huge box full of melodies and stuff. I think I will start finishing stuff when I run out of ideas lol.

Just working on finishing up my waltz now, not starting anything until that's finished.

There are only 2 pieces that I would currently consider to be of "ASAP" status. One is due next week and the other has an unknown, but most likely close, deadline. The first is essentially complete; some refining of harmonies may be needed and the ending is not yet finished. Also, a process diary of sorts is required as part of the assessment.

I'm working on two pieces. It's nice because one is just for me in my own fun time, and the other is sort of an exercise I started for school to improve my understanding of writing for strings.

As it stands right now, I've got 16 pieces I have that need completing: Two symphonies, a cello concerto (with orchestral accompaniment), an alto saxophone concerto (with concert band accompaniment), two jazz pieces, a song for tenor voice, a new age/folk-type piece with a sort of Mannheim Steamroller sound, the expansion of a completed chamber piece into a multi-movement work, six works for concert band, and a marching band show.

As it stands right now, I've got 16 pieces I have that need completing: Two symphonies, a cello concerto (with orchestral accompaniment), an alto saxophone concerto (with concert band accompaniment), two jazz pieces, a song for tenor voice, a new age/folk-type piece with a sort of Mannheim Steamroller sound, the expansion of a completed chamber piece into a multi-movement work, six works for concert band, and a marching band show.

Good lord! How do you manage to keep them under control?

Easy: I'm a lazy-donkey procrastinator who hasn't even so much as LOOKED at most of those pieces in months...even years in some cases...