Thank you all, great tips.
I would say do this. find a bunch of songs that you love right now, and use them as reference. Make the same arrangements, but with your notes.
Also, start taking lessons. Have someone teach you, even if you’re good at keyboards, learn a different genre off of someone. I would suggest gospel.
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;)
I couldn’t refrain. 🫠
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If your music always sound the same.
Change your preferred key scale and chords, it should sound different.
Practice on this area and feel well with different chord on different scale.
Listen to a song you like on YouTube or similar platform take a bunch of note and chord from it and make your own song with this snippet of note.
Try to recreate the song or make it your own.
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Listen to Rush. Listen to some African roots. Different time signatures might nudge you from your rut.
Use a harmonic minor or Indian scale.
Try a different genre.
Take one song you made. Copy 5-6 times and remaster it in different ways.
BUT
remember if you are enjoying what you are doing, that’s the important bit. Practice is not necessarily production. It will improve you but if it is at the expense of enjoyment, you should limit it to a specific part of your session.
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That reminds me of the sort of suggestions you can find in ableton’s 74 strategies book, notably “Catalog of Attributes”.
The book can be found as a full, free, pdf, and also there is about 1/3 of it available as web pages, starting with “Catalog of Attributes” as it happens
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First off congrats on sticking with this for 2 years…
What are you goals? What does success look like for you? What are the mistakes and how are you making them?
I’m not qualified but I played a ton of music in bands and have spent too much money on gear. Recently, I’ve been trying to be more formulaic in my approach when song writing. I’ll choose the key, some chords, timing, and explore the vibe. Sometimes I’m working only on sampling, like I’ll walk around and record strange sounds. Anyways the idea is the same you must approach things the right way otherwise you’ll keep doing the same defaults so you have to be proactive and mindful about where you want to go.
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Actually, this feeling is typical. The first steps seem very easy and smooth. As you progress the steps are getting steeper. Suddenly, you feel like standing in front of a mountain. That’s where most people stop altogether. A teacher, in particular a good one, can indeed help you a lot during those times (there will be a few of those): setting goals, dealing with criticism, renewing motivation, developing strategies, etc.
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Break things down into manageable chunks that you can work on in a spare hour or two. Too repetitive, work on a couple of fills every 8 bars, or add more timbral modulation to certain elements, or drop elements in and out to shift attention. If something is missing, try out four or five things on top to fill that gap, then pick the best one to keep, or (conversely) remove something that isn’t actually necessary. Sounds are thin and dull, reach for some light saturation or strip things back (maybe everything is fighting for space and thus nothing is given enough focus). It’s hard to help without really knowing specifics but also, try to write/arrange/mix with your ears instead of what your meters/plugins are telling you. If it sounds good, it is good. And if it’s a lack of inspiration, impose some arbitrary limitations, such as only using one sample, trying a new genre for a while or trying a different scale/time signature etc etc
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