Revisiting first pieces

It started with a discussion...

Hey guys, what was your first song? Some of us forgot our first, others will cherish it forever. And for some, it is still our best song to date! What did you write it for? Did it kick off your song writing career? And for those of you who aren't big into writing music, did you ever write a song just for fun?

Pretty much everybody's' first song is a giant piece of s***. Not much more to it then that.

WRONG! :P
I will have to say, on a very personal level, the recording quality for the first song may have not been much, but the song itself was something far more substantial than what a 13-year-old taking music lessons would be expected to write. Even now when I look back at the song..... actually, I'll be glad to remake it and then have people judge for themselves.

Not wrong. Even if your composition was good, there is no doubt in my mind that your first song had the production quality of a small brown soap dish.

So if the composition was good, there's no point in saying 'not much more to it than that', right?

Where there is a good composer, I do listen to the first song submitted here, if I can't find anything else -- because at least I know what kind of beginnings they have, and a lot of them have good beginnings. No way am I going to dismiss their songs as naught but crap just because the production was substandard. I pay attention to musical technicality, followed by expression -- if those two can be heard, that's enough for me to be satisfied in a first work.

Saying that a piece is crap only means that you are not willing to revisit it at all, and that's awful attitude, in my humble, honest opinion. As musicians, we all learn things and move forward, but we also do well by seeing where we began, and how far we've come. What if the first song had more interesting twists and turns than our later pieces? If we're going to dismiss our first songs as nothing but absolute crap, we're not going to go very far.

That's too bad. You're an awesome composer. I would love to hear what you have to say about your earliest music, even if you think it sucks.

Is the concept behind this post a giant piece of s*** because you used the word "then" when you really meant "than"? The answer is no. I know what you were trying to say. Even if the presentation of your idea wouldn't bear the scrutiny of some uptight grammarian, does that make it any less meaningful?

It's important to make every effort to attain the highest production values, but maybe this thread could be about early composition and the inspiration behind it.

Personally, I think too much emphasis is placed on technical stuff these days.

Don't be silly. Saying that a piece you made is crap is just that, and who wants to revisit crap anyway? Nothing I made for the first 2 years I was making music is something that I would ever want to remix, remake or even repair. I can't even look at it for inspiration or ideas - to me that's like collecting your own spit in a glass and then drinking it.

How far could you have possibly come if your first song is still better than anything you made long after it? Eventually you just need to forget about your old work. That's what it means to move forward.

Dear person who thinks your first piece is crap: You are the imbecile here, not me.

Each one of us is blessed with a talent. Our first pieces are not the best, but there is always something that can be drawn from it: a beat, an ambience, a chord progression, even a melodical motif.

I can say for myself: I have moved forward. I have moved from songs with few parts to fully orchestrated songs. I have moved from single-tempo pieces to using tempo and volume envelopes. I have gone from fully centre-panned music to properly mixed and mastered pieces. Moving on does not mean forgetting who we are or what we've started with, or what has happened to us. Moving on means growing, and sometimes growing can be painful. But look at the beautiful fruits of facing your own demons: this was my first submission to Newgrounds. This is what is sounds like right now.

I'm going to say it bluntly: are you lot just scared of facing your own work? I know there are lots of people who don't work as I do, but only when a piece is truly complete, then I move on from it. I wouldn't want to remake Westminster Tune in any other way unless it's going to be used for some other thematic purpose, in which case, a remake will be necessary.

If we don't face our own past pieces, draw what is good from them and/or make them better, we'd be putting our talents to waste. God would only weep at our pride or our ungratefulness. The world is constantly being perfected — so too, should we take the initiative to perfect at least some of our own works, and not leave them as they are if they are badly produced.