Yes definitely.
I do animation and started to apply a lot of what I learned doing that, to my music and vice versa.
For example, I’m much more willing to take critique with music from people who give honest and worthwhile critique.
I also don’t get married to my work as much just because I made it.
Sometimes a track isn’t working out, I’ll let it go knowing I’ll try something similar later and get a better execution.
Sometimes I’ll make “scratch tracks” or sketches of music only to completely work them out on other hardware later.
Lots of times the second or third attempt will loose something that I loved about the sketch.
I’ll try and figure out what that essence is through listening to it with fresh ears. I’ll leave it alone, come back to the sketch later and listen to it as if someone gave it to me. What would I say about it if it was someone else work, what do I like and what don’t I like.
Then I apply those ideas to the track I’m trying to polish.
Yes lots of time it’s breaking things down into “composition” or “timing” etc. figure out what’s working and what isn’t.
Apply those ideas.
Got more critique from others.
Eventually I have to call it done and move on.
Knowing that there will always be things I’m not completely happy with.
Nevertheless I’ll play live, and I’ll rehearse, try to incorporate new ideas or kill off things that arent working.
Keep moving forward.
Sometimes completely writing the same idea over at a later time, see if I like it better or not.
Rinse and repeat.
Some people don’t work like that, some seem to just constantly produce material, keep moving forward.
It’s almost like completely different approaches.
Occasionally I’ll know that my @sketch” is good enough to call finished.
I’ve fallen into the same thing this past year, mostly because of various things going on in my life. I went from mostly making tracks when I made music to mostly just jamming, which was sort of what I needed as a release I think.
I find it easier to make tracks when I have some kind of parameters, like when I’m participating in a beat battle and you have to use X, Y, and Z.
I have an EP idea sort of sketched out as well, but even though thematically I have a lot of ideas written down, I find the blank page a bit too open ended and paralyzing.
I’m just wondering how others approach things. Do you pull up an image or video and write music to that? Do you give yourself specific parameters?
A composition teacher I briefly worked with said he actually rolls a 12-sided D&D die to pick a key and goes from there.
I’ve also been thinking I should try the approach the JHS guys use in this series, where they challenge themselves to make stuff using certain pieces of gear.
Anyway, just wondering what other people’s approaches are, and maybe that might help spark some ideas for the OP as well.
You are 48 years old! You have a book store! You wrote songs and performed them live already! You seem to have fun with your gear and you seem to have fun with video games.
Why bother with all that? Will you be a better you, if you do something you don’t seem to enjoy, just to release an EP that either „no one“ will listen too, or you have to add additional work of either working with a label or marketing it yourself?
Why are you so hard to yourself?
I can totally relate with you. more or less everything you write but without the book store. I sometimes even have that feeling that I spend too much money on gear without “getting something out of it”, totally ignoring that I have a ton of fun sitting in front of it, creating what I create.
As much as I like this forum and the possibility of Social Media to connect to other artists, it created a ton of pressure somehow. You don’t look at the 99% people here, that do the same you do. You look at that 1%, that do releases, put out awesome music, but don’t they struggle too? Maybe there are people out there, who release music all the time and sit down and think: all I do is music. Why am I so driven in creating and releasing, why don’t I give myself the time, to just enjoy myself jamming or play some video games.
This is a perspective I’ve been embracing a lot lately.
Just because something hasn’t been recorded, arranged, mixed, released etc it didn’t mean the time spent has been wasted.
Some moments are best spent jamming and connecting with instruments, others practicing recording/mixing/arrangement.
Practicing finishing albums is a whole lot of time to commit if that’s what you want to do, but practice makes perfect and enjoy the moments
I have also managed to stop the pointless buying of more gear (except for one slip-up).
I also definitely struggle with commitment and perfectionism - and concentration and over-thinking - the older I get (50 next year). I do wonder if there’s some ADHD going on that’s only come out now for whatever reason.
I would echo other people’s advice of not putting pressure on yourself but it seems a bit hollow when I do exactly the same! I want things to be spot on or I can’t be bothered at all a lot of the time. Life is busy with work & kids and when I do get time that I could use for music, much of the time I just want to read or watch a box-set, or actually do nothing to give my head a chance to slow down.
I’ve also wondered a lot recently about selling off the rest of this kit I’ve bought, just keeping 2-3 things, and incorporating into Ableton which can after all make almost any sound I want. But the gear freak in me hasn’t let me do that yet, even though I’m not using any of it, because ‘I will one day’.
I’m also grateful others with similar issues can post here, sharing and talking about it does help
I don’t have a problem per se with commitment: playing, in itself, is a joy. Producing an album will certainly make me happy (egotism?) but just being playing with friends is always a treat.
Lately, though, I’ve been wishing to push things further with my current regular musical partner, and for some reason it seems harder than ever, partly because I feel some kind of pressure about it (from both of us), but also because I have trouble focusing on
tracks
style
project/people I make music with (I can’t say no to someone that wants to play)
Besides, the house needs so much work it’s never ending…
Add some end-of-the-year exhaustion and I can bet my whole studio I’ll get nothing done before a long time.
I feel like such state of mind is a burden.
What I really need is taking the time for a whole weekend (or a week) + be in the right mood and this will come naturally.
i need to streamline the “boring” parts for me to be able to do them… in my case it´s taking longer loops of vocals and adding them to make it more “song”. Since id rather just make weird beats on my machines i need to streamline that process for my lazy creative side to actually go on and do it.
Maybe you have to look at your workflow of creating a song and see if you can streamline it.
Well, I know a few musicians, who do that for a living, and I know that they struggle a lot in that constant release, play live, hope merch sells well, rinse, repeat cycle, because income is not always that great. Spending an evening with them, playing some Games like we did “a long time ago” isn’t a thing anymore, not because they don’t like video games anymore, or don’t like to meet friend, but because they fear, that not working, will make them irrelevant, fall out of festivals, peoples mind etc.
I fully understand what you mean here. The FOMO can be very strong if you’re used to the “gigging life”, which includes the admiration of people for such a lifestyle. It can have a very addictive effect on people to need the attention and adrenaline rush.
And everyone has some fear of being irrelevant I guess, but only a few of mankind will be remembered for their art or achievements. Accepting the fact that you will not be one of them (or don’t want to be) can feel very liberating.
I went to a great cabaret show last weekend with some fabulous musicians and I was thinking: “Wow, what a great life they have, making such beautiful music for a living. Too bad I…”.
Then I figured out that on the same evening they performed the same show again (and it was very intense), and this for 14 weeks in a row, every single night.
Yeah, I actually ordered one off of Amazon after writing that post, because this topic reminded me of it.
I think he would decide on the mood he wanted, and based on that would choose major or minor and then would roll the dice. I suppose you could flip a coin for that before you roll as well if you wanted to keep that random too. Heads major, tails minor or something.
cut a midle part where only some elements are playing
further cut an intro with removing more parts.
Let it sit - (i have that trick from Oscals Underdog Music school videos -its a nice tip, and in general he has cool ideas.)
Then hear it in your shop /car - maybe you get an idea how it could be a finished song. I talked to other guys, which said that they could come down to 1h for a finishd track. (but they used some splice loops to fill out gaps.) I personally take much more time, but i try to be more efficient in the future, and i use premade loops very sparingly (shakers, top loops, but most often i made them from scratch.)
I’ve thought about the painting analogy as my spare time is split between painting and music. From painting I think I’ve learned to commit with music projects and see them through. I have recognized there is a point reached in a painting where I feel it is a big pile of shite. That used to put me off but I’ve learned it’s just a sign post to keep going, now I kind of use it as a reference point - ‘wow this is shite. Great.’
So many great ideas and recommendations in this thread. Glad I started it although I felt hesitant at first. As an avid gamer I have many sets of dice in my gaming closet. I’ll definitely try that trick and many others too. Happily it’s friday and my employee is keeping the shop open tomorrow so it’s a night of crisps and tv for me. Thinking of bringing my MPC Live on the sofa with me.
Funny, thing but multitasking has become a constant recurring thing as an adult. So many things to do and so little time to do them that I too often try to do two things at once. Last thursday, I made myself lunch and as I was preparing it, I watched a documentary on my iPad which was standing beside the stove.
Moments later I watched another documentary and at the same time played Zelda on my Nintendo 3DS with the sound down, so I was more like listening to the documentary and playing a game. Free time is so precious that I need to use it to the max. Two things off my to-do-list. I miss childhood and freedom.
