Having Trouble Composing and Producing

[DamianC]

I'm having a hard time right making music. I'm so diverse in listening to all genres and now that I've gone solo again after being ina band... its like I lost my ways of even starting a new track. I've even limited myself to use only Ableton and learning production tips and stuff to start a new track but nothing good comes into the empty canvas. I used to make good music on Reason and Logic a couple years back but I used presets and teeaked them on my own. I try starting with a beat or pads and nothing, but I really want to make a track so bad that I'm happy with. Anyone have any advice as to do in a situation like this?

[JuanSOLO]

Just keep at it, there is no rush, find your style and commit to it. The hardest part is the first stab at it, dont let that part stifle you, keep going till something clicks.

[DamianC]

Thanks guys, but I have another questions. Let's say I have an idea and I limit myself to saying.. I want to start with a pad. I open up operator to attempt to create a pad patch. Now I have the pad patch done but I hate the sound but I have the notes I want to use for it. What would you do in a situation like this? Skip onto the next instrument without fixing the sound and worry about sound design later? What do you do when you're stuck in this situation that you need to learn certain things like how to build a good patch for a track you want to produce?

[justchris86]

Don't *try* to start a new track, just do. Throw in some drums or a synth or a guitar or a loop or anything, and mess with it. Don't worry about the track being good, don't worry about fitting into some genre, don't worry about the arrangement, don't worry about if other people will like it - just do.

Also, try to finish a track out, even if you don't like where it's going. This will help hone your skills as well as boost your confidence, hence making it easier to start the song.

Good Answer!

[x9]

it helps to enjoy music again by LISTENING to music. not by force but will, maybe when driving a car or bike, drinking a little bit. i think the impulse should be "oh hell! i wanna do this and that, how i´m gonna make it?" rather than "ok, i can do this and that. what am i going to use it for?" mark hollis (talk talk) once said sth like, before learning a note you should live to find a reason. ("before you play two notes learn how to play one note - and don't play one note unless you've got a reason to play it.")


to me it sounds you lack motivation. when motivation is high, there ain´t neither limits nor rules. if you start making music though you don´t FEEL BIG motivation, your work will lame itself. sitting around like a fool doing nonsense-clicks. and if thats becoming your regular style of work well (just because you THINK you want or you should want to make music, instead of really having this inner force and euphoria), then you´re getting lost. its called a burnout. i have this from time to time, and then i really make a cut. doing nothing for months and even i feel the hungryness coming back, i won´t satisfy it too early. wait til you really fuckin need it, and from there you´ll get back on the right track. it needs excitement, which is hardest to keep alive once sth isn´t new to you anymore. motivation grows by challenge/adventure and the opposite, routine, just shrinks it. that´s life.


for minor lows it helps to buy a new toy, means equipment. there´s so much gear available from the past and even the present and every little buy, even if you sell it on two weeks later, will have some impact and provide inspiration.

[Tarekith]

http://tarekith.com/assets/inspiration.html

and this:

http://tarekith.com/finish-what-you-start/

[jaytee]

it helps to enjoy music again by LISTENING to music. not by force but will, maybe when driving a car or bike, drinking a little bit.

Um, please do not try to improve your musical ability while drinking and driving.

[Nick the Zombie]

When I run into a block like this (it happens often) I write music an 1/8 note at a time. This means that the focus shifts to creating a combination of tones that sounds pleasing for each unit of time in my song structure. When I take it bit by bit like this, it helps distract me from any doubts that I'm having and simply enjoy the act of making lots of little decisions, one after the other. I think that too much music education focuses on changing focus from the macro, to the micro and back again. With all the tools and techniques available in electronic music, this perspective shifting gets overwhelming sometimes (speaking for myself).

EDIT: Also, I had to stop myself from mixing sound design/tweaking sessions from composition sessions. It's too easy to get lost in creating some wanky synth patch and then losing your train of thought.

[x9]

it helps to enjoy music again by LISTENING to music. not by force but will, maybe when driving a car or bike, drinking a little bit.

Um, please do not try to improve your musical ability while drinking and driving.

well, good things always have their little legal tribute.

[murgatroid]

I'm having a hard time right making music. I'm so diverse in listening to all genres

Me too. I'm all over the place. One day I feel like doing a jazzy bit. Another day, an alternative rock tune....a hard rock one, progressive, chicken pickin country bluegrass, another time its punk, then a straight R&R pop tune...then comes electronic stuff...ambient, experimental, sound collages, total weirdness, whatever....I sort of envy people that can stick to, or rather focus on, a certain specific musical style.

Every time I open up Live or Logic I usually have no problem with coming up with 8 or 16 or 24 bars of something, be it guitar based or electronic/sample based, but then I hit a brick wall and don't were to take what I have any further towards completion. So I wind up having tons of what could be really good verses or choruses or themes and can't turn them into a finished tune.

Sometimes a whole song will present itself if its just me and the guitar. But even still, when it comes to recording it, I wind up getting bogged down in too many daw details.

Looking at other posts, I should read that Tarekith's Guide to Song Arranging.

[Hermanus]

Thanks guys, but I have another questions. Let's say I have an idea and I limit myself to saying.. I want to start with a pad. I open up operator to attempt to create a pad patch. Now I have the pad patch done but I hate the sound but I have the notes I want to use for it. What would you do in a situation like this? Skip onto the next instrument without fixing the sound and worry about sound design later? What do you do when you're stuck in this situation that you need to learn certain things like how to build a good patch for a track you want to produce?

Keep your operator, duplicate the track and try some other instruments on duplicated track.
You can even duplicate the new midi track again,
once you've found the good sounding machine, duplicate then try some others

Sometimes a single unit sounds good but lacks some texture.
Duplicating and adding other sounds to it enhance the melody.

You could even find your operator sounding good as it is, or tweak it later.

Most important, don't loose your own style. An electronic media doesn't mean we have to do electronic music

Plug a microphone and record whatever you want,
a spoon ringing in a cup of tea
An empty thin box
Your voice, some mouth sounds, anything that can warm up your workflow.

Then start warping in ableton and tweak those samples with madness [texture, beat, repitch, complex, lots of fun and some new ideas will come out]

Just have fun

[Nick the Zombie]

Most important, don't loose your own style. An electronic media doesn't mean we have to do electronic music

Plug a microphone and record whatever you want,
a spoon ringing in a cup of tea
An empty thin box
Your voice, some mouth sounds, anything that can warm up your workflow.

I'm quoting this for truth.

[Earwax69]

When I run into a block like this (it happens often) I write music an 1/8 note at a time. This means that the focus shifts to creating a combination of tones that sounds pleasing for each unit of time in my song structure. When I take it bit by bit like this, it helps distract me from any doubts that I'm having and simply enjoy the act of making lots of little decisions, one after the other. I think that too much music education focuses on changing focus from the macro, to the micro and back again. With all the tools and techniques available in electronic music, this perspective shifting gets overwhelming sometimes (speaking for myself).

Thanks for that... I loose myself in micro far too often. I should structure the macro first... then layer some micro! good idea! (note that did not stop me to release 3 albums, but I counted 120min of unfinished songs last week that could need more macro finishing)

[DamianC]

When I run into a block like this (it happens often) I write music an 1/8 note at a time. This means that the focus shifts to creating a combination of tones that sounds pleasing for each unit of time in my song structure. When I take it bit by bit like this, it helps distract me from any doubts that I'm having and simply enjoy the act of making lots of little decisions, one after the other. I think that too much music education focuses on changing focus from the macro, to the micro and back again. With all the tools and techniques available in electronic music, this perspective shifting gets overwhelming sometimes (speaking for myself).

Thanks for that... I loose myself in micro far too often. I should structure the macro first... then layer some micro! good idea! (note that did not stop me to release 3 albums, but I counted 120min of unfinished songs last week that could need more macro finishing)

Excuse my ignorance! What's micro and macro? :/

[Nick the Zombie]

When I run into a block like this (it happens often) I write music an 1/8 note at a time. This means that the focus shifts to creating a combination of tones that sounds pleasing for each unit of time in my song structure. When I take it bit by bit like this, it helps distract me from any doubts that I'm having and simply enjoy the act of making lots of little decisions, one after the other. I think that too much music education focuses on changing focus from the macro, to the micro and back again. With all the tools and techniques available in electronic music, this perspective shifting gets overwhelming sometimes (speaking for myself).

Thanks for that... I loose myself in micro far too often. I should structure the macro first... then layer some micro! good idea! (note that did not stop me to release 3 albums, but I counted 120min of unfinished songs last week that could need more macro finishing)

Excuse my ignorance! What's micro and macro? :/

I'm referring to looking at your music both on the overall arrangement (macro) level and the note by note (micro) level. I find that I too easily fall into obsessing over one or the other to the detriment of actually finishing music. Sometimes it helps to switch from one level of focus to another if you are running into a creative block.

For instance, I might be thinking long and hard about big picture stuff like chord progressions, overall song structure, etc. Maybe nothing that I'm trying seems to fit, so I walk away in frustration (this is often the case). What I'm training myself to do is to intentionally block out big picture issues and narrow my focus down to one unit of music at a time. Say I have 3 voices (synths, samplers, whatever) + drums in my track. For each 1/8th note, I decide which voices should play a tone, and I go through each one and input notes that correspond with whatever scale/mode I'm writing in. If they sound good together, I move on to the next 1/8th note and repeat the process. The result may be total shit in terms of rhythmic variation, but it does give me some chords to work with, already laid out on the timeline and ready to be moved around into pleasing progressions. Naturally, you'll massage the progression, deleting notes, arpeggiating certain chords, adding passing tones, etc. Before you know it, a song structure begins to emerge and it starts to "write itself."

This is very similar to how composers have written counterpoint in fugues for hundreds of years. You might do well to study the various forms of classical music composition and orchestration. These people were working with restrictive sets of rules for writing music, and while your average electronic music producer balks at the idea of setting limitations as if they are the first to ever consider such a radical idea, the reality is that limitations breed creativity.