Pride of ownership vs collaboration

[marv cripps]

I am of the opinion that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Some of us think in lush orchestral moods while some like me think in chords and melodies. My measure of success would be for someone to catch themselves whistling one of my melodies. I would love to hear seeds of ideas turned into real songs, regardless of who contributed the most important part.

[Lisa Smolen]

I used to think I had to do it all on my own, but as I've grown (as a person & musician) I've learned that the best results are had when I'm open to other people's ideas, opinions & assistance! It's also opened the door for people to feel comfortable asking me for those same things in return.

[Deborah Young]

Although I've been writing music and songs most of my life I've just started to consider it as a possible profession. Previously, it was simply a mode of communication. So collaboration is a bit foreign to me. As I've studied the music industry I've learned that collaboration is very common, but I have yet to experience it.

[Ray Kemp]

Collaboration is born from performing music.
My experience in writing and recording my compositions is at complete odds with my lifetime in making music but that is because I treat composing as a diversion rather than a vocation. If that were to change and I wanted to move forward in publishing my music I most certainly would collaborate where I felt it would improve the production.

Whether it's lush orchestral moods or a single polyphonic instrument being played, you get chords. I can't really find a difference there. I also find it difficult to think of a melody on it's own as having an owner, certainly not a couple of bars worth, but, if that melody is accompanied by a chord structure and instrumentation then, it becomes a composition. In creating this one is creating a collaboration of notes. You can't get away from it.

[marv cripps]

Could we create a common pool of unfinished songs (or finished songs open to change) to draw from, make changes, and returned as a variation on a theme. mp3s could be added to - midi files could be easily modified. Anybody interested?