Getting past the 3 minute mark/writers block

[Karldali]

I have no problems with making the 1st half of my tracks its always the second half where i struggle.
I've been told that one day things will just click into place and i'll know what goes where and when.

At the moment I just end up getting frustrated with my work, and i'll either rip it apart and start from stratch, or i'll just archive it and start something new.

Its very frustrating, i've been at it about a year now and i don't even have one track finished.

any one have any tips, books, etc

thanks in advance

[Linear Phase]

Alrighty mate.. 1 year, is brand new to production, so quite beating yourself up. If you want to produce underground club tunes, with a unique sound and vibe, its going to take a few years. Everything starts with the beat. It seems simple, but its really not. Start defining your beat, and feeling your rhythm, than begin to layer your sounds.

[Karldali]

Yeah i know that 1 year is not actually that long but its just getting a bit annoying its almost like now i will start a project knowing that i won't be able to finish it.

any advice?

[jellycaster]

if you've said all you have to say in three minutes then what's the problem? no one says songs must be a particular length.

but... it sounds like you are not thinking about the piece as a whole... what is the arc of the track? what things do you want to happen along the way? Try thinking in an abstract way about the shape of the songs and the journey you want to go on.

and yeah, don't expect too much too soon. small steps.

[luddy]

along the lines of what jellycaster said, maybe you can start by laying out on the timeline the whole piece, just a sketch of the sections you want, the breaks and ups and downs and what-not, and then fill them in with something, say a bassline and drums, just to get an overall structure in place. then you can hunker down on the various sections without losing sight of the whole piece...

-Luddy

[Tarekith]

http://tarekith.com/assets/pdfs/ArrangingSongs.pdf

Try that.

[UltimateOutsider]

http://tarekith.com/assets/pdfs/ArrangingSongs.pdf

Try that.

That's a very good write-up.

Another approach is to break down the structure of songs by other artists that you like. Whenever I faced this same issue (good groove but nothing to do with it) or when I was very first learning how to do electronic music, I would listen to a song I liked over and over and break it into sections and parts. (Example: Part A1 (8 bars) kick/hat/bass. Part A2 (8 bars) add clap. Part A3 (16 bars) add lead/pad, Part B1 (8 bars) Different bass line, kick/hat/snare/clap...) I'd also make note of where automated filters were being used to bring new parts into the foreground or to add life to individual parts. That left me with an explicit outline that I could plug my own musical parts into to form an entire track. Once I had arranged my parts according to the outline, I'd usually hear places where I needed to change things up to suit my own tastes.

After I did this a few times, the arranging process became pretty simple and organic. My work eventually developed its own character and flow, but it was a big help to truly understand how others were doing it.

[Vios]

Where specifically are you getting caught up? For me the hardest part is doing the actual composition (ie what notes, what drum beats when) of the track. However I had a lot of problems starting out that I was doing all kinds of production work (EQing, effects, etc.) before I had any business doing so (most production work is best done after your track is fully arranged). See this tutorial

5 Steps to Writing Better Music Faster

It changed how I produce my music, much for the better.

[timday]

Quite often I find that after a frustrating time writing "bits" of tunes I can put the bits together nto one good tune. So I'd suggest revisiting your archives and seeing if some of your half tunes will fit together into a whole tune.

On the one hand, you'll get some tunes with fairly unexpected changes in them. On the other hand, that in itself can be a good result.

[ttilberg]

I remember reading Tarekith's guide a few years ago on the ALDJ forum, and the concept of "subtractive sequencesis" [pun] was exactly what I needed to finally finish a few tracks, and feel a million times better about what I was doing.

I even brought it up to a few other folks on this forum a few months ago, but I couldn't remember where I originally saw the idea discussed--- I'm pretty certain it was an older version of T's guide.

Thanks for sharing Tarekith!

[Tarekith]

No probs man.

[memes_33]

remember that if you are going to repeat a section, make sure there is a reason to repeat it: a new part, new instrument, new melody, etc. also, if you're repeating a part and keep trying to add to it and getting nowhere, trying taking out parts instead of adding new ones.

[Reversoulmusic]

i feel ya just double the 3 mins bingo u got six minutes track is done

[volx757]

After a couple of years of facing this same issue quite frequently, I must say that while all of these tutorials and how-tos on writing music might give you some good ideas on how to structure your own workflow, there is no uniform solution.
Writing music is a creative process and will only happen if you have something to say (through your music). When you think of all of your favorite artists' songs, does it sound like they made a really good 'drop' and then cut and pasted different elements to different places?

This is just one example bc it happens to be what I'm listening to right now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lzk4Ixm28Y

its Embers by Feed Me. To write a really great song like this, you need to feel what you're going to create.

These kinds of things will only come with time and experience (that's what I tell myself anyway lol). However, not everyone has the goal of writing heartfelt music. If you simply want to make club bangers, then the formula will work.

[synnack]

Try these too:


viewtopic.php?f=1&t=177200

http://www.musicsoftwaretraining.com/bl ... the-cycle/


Specific to your 3 minute problem I would suggest closing your eyes. Listen to your own music without staring at the screen so you can experience it as someone else would. Think of it as someone else's song. To me it's easier to "hear" what would come next if i'm not "looking" but listening.

You could also take an http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblique_Strategies approach. Like listen to your favorite 20 songs. Write down characteristics about them you like on index cards that you'd want to figure out how to do. Write down specifics on how they resolve during the second half. Shuffle the cards. When you get blocked, pull a card off the top and try it.