Author Topic: Seemingly insurmountable self resistance  (Read 9357 times)

madison

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Seemingly insurmountable self resistance
« on: September 23, 2016, 04:08:08 pm »
Okay, I'm so happy there is a section for this... I've been going through something lately and I'm not sure what. Its like a mental game I've been playing with myself. I'd rather screw off when I get home. I have the burning desire to make music everyday and when I hear really good music it drives me even more. But, when I actually sit down to do it. Nothing. I fiddle around a bit with sound design and I really like to make 8 bar segments. I have a million half finished projects and no drive to continue on them. I just start from a template every time I sit down. Why am I so intimidated by music? I was doing well for the first year and once I hit the year mark I've noticed myself making countless excuses not to do it everyday. I want to have the motivation and drive but I'm definitely having some internal conflict and I just need some advice on how to keep going. I'm so stubborn and I'm sick of fighting myself

Mussar

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Re: Seemingly insurmountable self resistance
« Reply #1 on: September 23, 2016, 05:26:40 pm »
This is one of the most common struggles with any artistic pursuit, and there are a few possible reasons why it could happen. From my own experience, and from watching others, it tends to come down to 3 different areas. I don't know which applies to you, so take or leave them as you wish:


1. Your taste is better than your skill. When you first started out, your taste was equal to your skill, so everything you first made sounded good because you just didn't know any better. As you continue to make music, both your skill and your taste improve, but not at the same rate:

Your understanding of what is good will always increase faster than your ability to create what is good. So it's important to lower your expectations just enough so that you can push forward and keep making art.

2. You're relying too much on your memory of music and the emotional impressions of the songs you love, and working inside a vacuum. When you're working on a song, your only basis for comparison tends to be "the way it sounded before vs. the way it sounds now." That comparison doesn't tell you whether it's better or worse, it just tells you whether it's different. The best way to fix this is to reference other songs, both before you start writing a song and throughout the entire process. Spend some time studying song arrangements, and go further: recreate the whole songs. Write down all the different attributes you figured out, and use that to develop your analytical ear. Then, every time you decide to start a song start pulling attributes out of that list and decide on some songs you can use for references. Pull those songs into your DAW, and every time you feel stuck you can compare your song to the reference and ask "What are they doing that I'm not doing? What are they not doing that I am doing? Do I like those differences? If not, what can I do to change my song to be similar without directly ripping them off?"

Eventually, you'll need to compare the songs less often and the things you're comparing will become more detail-oriented. I think everyone should reference before they finish the song just so they're not living in the dark, but you'll rely on them less and less.

3. You've put making music too high on a pedestal and you've psyched yourself out of being able to write music. You sit down with the intention of writing fully realized and perfectly crafted songs, and forget that no fully realized and perfectly crafted song starts out as one. Everything starts out as a first draft, and first drafts always suck. So instead, focus on just trying to do one thing. "I'm gonna design a bass patch today." "I'm gonna write three different chord progressions, and save the MIDI to a new folder called 'Chord Ideas' for later." "I'm gonna write a few drum loops." Collect the seeds of ideas and use the best ones as foundation points for your next few songs. Keep the rest for later, and if you think of a way to change or use them you now have a library of ideas to draw from instead of having to constantly be focusing on new material.



I hope this helps. Take a look around, and in particular look at some of the videos in the Tutorial Videos thread over in Sound Design. I've posted a bunch that focus on mindset and workflow, and they might help you out of this rut! The most important thing is that you keep making music. :)

vinceasot

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Re: Seemingly insurmountable self resistance
« Reply #2 on: September 24, 2016, 12:44:25 am »
whats holding you back? you have to shut off those voices in your head i think


Marrow Machines

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Re: Seemingly insurmountable self resistance
« Reply #3 on: September 24, 2016, 03:45:25 pm »
When i was starting out making music i was a little bit like you, but my mixing and sound design wasn't so good.

i worked hard at it every day for months on end, and pretty much got the same results. I eventually take a year off of making music entirely before i came back around to do it again.

fast forward five years later, i don't make music at the same rate that i did, but i am making better quality of music in terms of production and artistic creativity.

mussar has a point you should consider in that time graph and his explaination, eventually what he says will be moot after a long time of going through the process.

It really won't matter that much to you, because you would have arrived at a point to where you can enjoy what you make and enjoy the process and understand when you need to call it a day after work.

Your craftsmanship will get better, and you will should be left with a different attitude than when you first started.

for me it was like "man this sounds ok, but i know i can do better." to "dem snares need more love, and after that i want to let the mix stew for a bit. i'll come back in a week."

If you stick with it and not get so wrapped up in where you want to be, but take it a day at a time and a lesson at a time, then you'll set a good foundation to continue the journey for the rest of your life.
Josh Huval: Honestly, the guys who are making good art are spending their time making it.

Lydian

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Re: Seemingly insurmountable self resistance
« Reply #4 on: September 24, 2016, 08:05:35 pm »
just do it man. unleash the giant within.
A young 14 year old me with a really bad haircut. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eMbftWV75w

Marrow Machines

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Re: Seemingly insurmountable self resistance
« Reply #5 on: September 24, 2016, 10:02:19 pm »
just do it man. unleash the giant within.

#goatgod
Josh Huval: Honestly, the guys who are making good art are spending their time making it.