I’d be curious to know about your daily or weekly schedules regarding music. How much do you work, which time of the day? Do you have days where you are more productive or is it well distributed?
For me, I’m working a full day time time job, so making music is limited to either morning or evening. I used to compose after work in the late evening till midnight, but changed it a couple of weeks ago to early morning. I get up between 5 and 6am and have around 2 hours of productive time. Being half asleep actually helps in finding ideas (alpha waves? ), and as in the late evening, nobody is distracting me. Evening is only for anything business related, like answering emails and such.
I noticed recently, that getting up early has a higher risk of sleep deprivation, though, then when working till midnight. I try to work every day a consistent amount of time and it has proven quite productive over the last 1-2 years.
I have been wondering the same thing. My best ideas have almost always come early in the morning. Between 4 to 5. Even dreamed one melody and remembered it when I woke up.
I have the same problem working full time - mainly snatching a few hours over weekends and the odd evening. Although I do go through courses on the way to work in a morning. Found GarageBand good for sketching ideas on my phone as well
I tend to be a bit of an extreme case because my passion happens to be my work, so I don’t really notice time passing by. I tend to work 7 days a week, in that, I’m also including the time working on improving my musicianship (ear training exercises, sight-reading training, transcribing, taking online courses, etc) and I do take some breaks during the day to get out of the studio or talk over the phone with friends.
I typically start my days early in the morning, about 8 to 10 hour days and try to keep my evenings free to go watch live shows (concerts, theater, etc.) or have meetings.
The schedule can drastically change when working on some productions, especially TV work where everything is given to us last minute. Sometimes I don’t have the choice but to do 12-18h days in order to deliver on time because of the short delivery deadlines imposed by productions and I don’t have anyone assisting me.
), and as in the late evening, nobody is distracting me. Evening is only for anything business related, like answering emails and such.