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Author Topic: Overcoming negative thoughts  (Read 24968 times)

Mat_Zo

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Re: Overcoming negative thoughts
« Reply #15 on: January 10, 2016, 03:11:59 am »
Not hanging onto ideas you think are mediocre, learn to enjoy making mediocre ideas and scrapping them, but to do that YOU need to be honest with yourself and don't let lovey-dubby soundcloud comments get to your head. Ideally by not sharing EVERY idea you ever make
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Mussar

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Re: Overcoming negative thoughts
« Reply #16 on: January 10, 2016, 05:02:48 am »
Quote from: Mat_Zo on January 10, 2016, 03:11:59 am
Ideally by not sharing EVERY idea you ever make

This is something that took me almost a bit too long to realize, and has already cost me a few contacts in the music industry (I can only hope I didn't burn any bridges while doing it) before even getting started. It's great to be excited about your own growth, but allow people to come to you more organically - trust me, once you start to stand out from the crowd they'll take notice.
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Uppertone

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Re: Overcoming negative thoughts
« Reply #17 on: January 10, 2016, 07:41:33 pm »
Sometimes it's nice to be self critical; it keeps you motivated to get better.
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eveningout

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Re: Overcoming negative thoughts
« Reply #18 on: January 10, 2016, 11:03:30 pm »
Any time I work on a project for a decent amount of time, I feel I can find something to take away from the experience.  Maybe I improved my workflow slightly , or figured out how to tweak something to get it to do what I originally set out for.  Those things are the reward that eventually leads to improvement.  You can can only get better!
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trifonic

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Re: Overcoming negative thoughts
« Reply #19 on: January 10, 2016, 11:16:39 pm »
Quote from: Mat_Zo on January 10, 2016, 03:11:59 am
Not hanging onto ideas you think are mediocre, learn to enjoy making mediocre ideas and scrapping them, but to do that YOU need to be honest with yourself and don't let lovey-dubby soundcloud comments get to your head. Ideally by not sharing EVERY idea you ever make

Totally agree about not sharing every idea you make and posting really rough WIP. It could be that I'm relatively an old man compared to a lot of young electronic music producers, but generally I've always felt it is a bad idea to share your music until it is either fully baked or pretty damn close. You want to put your best foot forward to the world, so posting up a half-way done tune that you're excited about in the moment, but haven't had time to reflect on and scrutinize is not always the best idea. Furthermore peoples positive AND negative comments could fuck with your head and your direction while you're still working through the idea.

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Volant

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Re: Overcoming negative thoughts
« Reply #20 on: January 11, 2016, 12:47:54 am »
Quote from: Mat_Zo on January 10, 2016, 03:11:59 am
Not hanging onto ideas you think are mediocre, learn to enjoy making mediocre ideas and scrapping them, but to do that YOU need to be honest with yourself and don't let lovey-dubby soundcloud comments get to your head. Ideally by not sharing EVERY idea you ever make

Definitely agree with this one. I've started a ton of songs last year and barely finished any or put them out, but that helped me develop tons. I focus on entirely different things in my writing process now than I did before.
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Shew

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Re: Overcoming negative thoughts
« Reply #21 on: January 11, 2016, 06:43:23 am »
Quote from: Volant on January 11, 2016, 12:47:54 am
Quote from: Mat_Zo on January 10, 2016, 03:11:59 am
Not hanging onto ideas you think are mediocre, learn to enjoy making mediocre ideas and scrapping them, but to do that YOU need to be honest with yourself and don't let lovey-dubby soundcloud comments get to your head. Ideally by not sharing EVERY idea you ever make

Definitely agree with this one. I've started a ton of songs last year and barely finished any or put them out, but that helped me develop tons. I focus on entirely different things in my writing process now than I did before.

Can you expand on what you've been focusing on in the writing process?  I feel kind of haphazard when I write, and just hope something good comes out.
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UMBRA

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Re: Overcoming negative thoughts
« Reply #22 on: January 11, 2016, 03:49:18 pm »
Quote from: IKIS on January 09, 2016, 12:48:28 pm
I've been producing for years now. At the beginning when I was a absolute noob everything was exciting and fun. Now, everything I do just sounds like shit. At the same time I know I could potentially make something awesome if I just set my mind to it. The problem is, making music has become extremely exhausting mentally. I'm always doubting myself and I feel really bad about myself.

I havent been able to make anything I'm proud of for the last year or so. I can work on a track really hard, but when it's finished I just feel the track is shitty and just ditch it.

I have no idea how to overcome these feelings. It all just feels depressing and not fun. At the same time, I continue to work on music, which is kinda funny.

This is probably something every producer goes through but I don't like this at all. These feelings just put out my creative flame. I know I have improved a lot during my years but still the anxiety and depression considering music production just increases as I get better.

I would just want to have that optimistic and exited feeling again. Sometimes it just feels theres no point in making music. I've just stopped trying, nowadays I just make music to extinguish my urge to create something.

I know the feel man, it's tough, and you're right I think 90% if not more people here would feel the same way with somewhat regularity. Like that graph Valant posted up above, and as you said, you're always improving but there are going to be lows, and there are going to be highs, but it sounds like you're just getting stuck down in the trough a bit more often than not. When I get stuck down there I step away for a bit, go watch some anime or play games or something, exercise, work, whatever else it is that you do in your spare time. Then rather than jumping straight back into it, I find some mixes or sets I haven't listened to before like Diplo n Friends sets of artists (Moksi's just recently), radio shows like Oliver Heldens', regular mini-mixes like Malaa's, and really sink back into the love that drove me to music production in the first place. Or just search for some completely new stuff outside what of you normally listen to.

I guess it may just seem like pretty basic advice, and stuff you've likely heard before, but I hope this helps in some way or another ^^
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dominique

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Re: Overcoming negative thoughts
« Reply #23 on: January 11, 2016, 06:46:15 pm »
Most of my negative thoughts come when I compare myself to other artists. It's frustrating making music and then listening to others' that sounds 10x better. I try to remember that each song I create will have its own small success, released or unreleased, because I have undoubtedly learned some things in the process. We put so much pressure on ourselves to be masters so soon, but the only thing that will get us there is experience, and even if the product of some of that experience is shit, it's still experience.
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Final Kindgom

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Re: Overcoming negative thoughts
« Reply #24 on: January 12, 2016, 06:32:53 am »
1. I stopped most of the negativity when I started keeping my music to myself lol I haven't posted anything on my SoundCloud in a while because I was so focused on making the kind of music I heard in my head. Ever since then, I've been getting closer to that ideal. Now that I'm thinking about it, I had to start making music that I didn't intend for others to hear first. That way, the pressure of hoping people would listen to it or like it went away.

2. I no longer compare myself to my favorite producers, I just enjoy their music as much as I enjoy mine. I'm not even close to being on their level so why would I put myself through the unnecessary heartache?

3. I listened to older tracks I made to measure my progress. I had a habit (that I'm still working on) of just listening to my loops/tracks repeatedly because I liked what I heard. It wasted a lot of time that I could have been producing, but I was proud of myself. Without even progressing on a track, I would just go through a bunch of files listening to what I made, and I could hear the progress. Don't waste time like I did lol but go through some of your old stuff and hear the progression. You'll probably cringe, but that's a good thing! It means you've learned a lot since you made those particular tracks.
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Artless Venture

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Re: Overcoming negative thoughts
« Reply #25 on: January 12, 2016, 09:38:44 am »
Quote from: Final Kindgom on January 12, 2016, 06:32:53 am
1. I stopped most of the negativity when I started keeping my music to myself lol I haven't posted anything on my SoundCloud in a while because I was so focused on making the kind of music I heard in my head. Ever since then, I've been getting closer to that ideal. Now that I'm thinking about it, I had to start making music that I didn't intend for others to hear first. That way, the pressure of hoping people would listen to it or like it went away.

This is a quite interesting thought. I can definitely agree that if you are producing with this in mind, not only the negativity would go away, but instead you would also be able to truly make the music that represents you and your emotions, plus being able to develop a more unique and personal style.

I experience the negative thoughts myself especially while trying to finish a song. Moving to the end just gets harder and harder, but quitting shouldn't be an option just because your emotional connection with the music is temporarily gone. This is probably normal since you don't hear the track as a whole but only the things you aren't satisfied yet.

After I uploaded a track I usually don't listen to it for a while, but I start to enjoy it again the further the time progresses. Yes, I cringe too when I listen to some old music, and I even deleted a Remix from Soundcloud (though I try not to do this since I want people to see that everyone is a beginner at first), but I am happy to say that I am satisfied with my music so far because I always rediscovered the emotional connection that got me started producing the song in the first place.

I'd say be as confident about your music as you can be. At least you, the producer, should like what you are doing - otherwise it wouldn't make sense to make music if you don't enjoy it, right? . Self criticism and perfectionism can be useful and healthy to a certain extend, but don't overdo it - and don't let it get you down!!

Artless Venture ♢
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Krazner

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Re: Overcoming negative thoughts
« Reply #26 on: January 13, 2016, 12:18:51 am »
Quote from: Artless Venture on January 12, 2016, 09:38:44 am
I'd say be as confident about your music as you can be. At least you, the producer, should like what you are doing - otherwise it wouldn't make sense to make music if you don't enjoy it, right? . Self criticism and perfectionism can be useful and healthy to a certain extend, but don't overdo it - and don't let it get you down!!
Artless Venture ♢

I can't pretend I'm not getting better. Knowing what makes a piece of music 'good' though is so difficult to define it's hard to see these improvements.
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Artless Venture

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Re: Overcoming negative thoughts
« Reply #27 on: January 13, 2016, 06:09:18 pm »

Quote from: Krazner on January 13, 2016, 12:18:51 am
I can't pretend I'm not getting better. Knowing what makes a piece of music 'good' though is so difficult to define it's hard to see these improvements.

There are always two sides about this, the technical and the creative one. The technical aspects, like mixing and mastering should be done well enough in order for a record to be good. Although the ordinary listener will probably only recognizes really bad mistakes, so this does not need to be perfect in order to make a great record in my opinion. This technical skill can be learned but creativity itself can't. It exists inside you, and you just have to let it out and produce what you feel like producing, experiment(!!), so you really have this emotional connection with the song. I am not saying that it has to have a very specific meaning, it can be a very simple emotion too. Don't worry too much about what elements and sounds exactly make a piece of music "good" in general, but find out what these elements triggered in yourself that made you like the song. I like to get inspired by movies or by situations that I experienced in my life.

Take care,
Artless Venture
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Xan

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Re: Overcoming negative thoughts
« Reply #28 on: January 13, 2016, 06:14:40 pm »
I probably waste so much time fretting over whether I think a part can be 'better' than actually writing.
Maybe not a negative thought totally, but it's similar. It really halts my process and it sucks.
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Final Kindgom

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Re: Overcoming negative thoughts
« Reply #29 on: January 13, 2016, 09:49:18 pm »
Quote from: Krazner on January 13, 2016, 12:18:51 am
I can't pretend I'm not getting better. Knowing what makes a piece of music 'good' though is so difficult to define it's hard to see these improvements.

You probably won't see the improvements because they tend to happen subtly. I'm sure you'll back on your stuff in a few months and see the difference.
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