This is something I’ve known forever! I can’t name a track well for the life of me. Okay, so maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration as I am still alive and I have songs with titles but that’s besides the point.
The main point is that my titles are not very searchable or obvious. I mean with the possible exception(s) of “Subscribe” (and “Full of S***” given to me by my father) , it takes me so long to come up with a name.
For this reason, naming songs are actually a struggle for me. If I could name them with the conventions of yester year (ie name them “Invention No. 1 in C major, by Him3e”) I would (trust me I would)!
…
Okay, maybe I can but I don’t think it would be beneficial to me with the genres I do (unless I decide to call it post classical).
The reason why I’m blogging about this is because I’ve sat on a number of tracks for months because I couldn’t come up with names for them.
Here are the things I’ve done to proactively come up with song titles other than listening to a track on repeat till something half decent comes to mind.
- I’ve tried looking online for ideas for developing song names
- I’ve
skimmed throughread books - I’ve looked at name generation sites
- I’ve meditated
- I’ve even called upon various gods.
- I’ve thought about being a successful artist and stealing song titles on purpose with no real luck.
I suppose this would be easier if I was a lyrical artist. Unfortunately (in this case) I am mainly an instrumentalist.
Plus as a lyricist, I’d have to actually write lyrics which is a whole other can of worms my mainly instrumental mind can not currently fathom)
And don’t get me started on album names
I implore you to check out my bandcamp page and read my long butt excerpts regarding how I name my albums and why I named my albums or even some of my songs (as if anyone would care to read them). They are long winded. They are long as heck because it took me a long time to come up with most of those titles.
Part of me wants to “Make classical conventions of naming pieces great again” to make my life easier. Ultimately, I hate having to come up with a song title (it makes me insecure about my creativity and ability to connect to the musical populous).
And on the other hand, I’m tired of the idea of naming titles to tracks for licensing like this: ” Inspirational Instrumental Hip Hop Beat With Strings”. Like how would my song at the end of pg 1000 get chosen with a song title like that. It’s a mirror of everyone elses’ stuff. When looking up how to name tracks to get them licensed, the above title is a decent naming convention. When everyone wants to make money, they are willing to use that template. When hundreds or thousands are doing that, you are bound to get lost in the crowd (right?)
Alas, I’ve come to the end of my written rant. I lack any real solutions to naming conventions for either music licensing or for my own personal projects. I’m just expressing frustrations with myself and using song titles as a partial excuse for not putting out music since May.
And speaking of albums, I will be releasing an EP called “Left In Bits” on July 19th,2019. It’s practically done. I just need to figure out the ‘album art’ and then it’ll be officially complete.
I would like to thank you for reading my amazing drivel and I hope you will stay tune for more.
Cheers!
