What do you do when you're stuck?

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My creative process goes more or less like this:

I make about a quarter to half of the song, tracked and sounding pretty decent. I check the clock and realize I'm only at a minute and a half. After playing over what I have an enormous number of times I begin to lose interest in my song and can't honestly figure out where to go with it.

This happens to just about everything I do. Much of the stuff I've put out has been rushed near the end because, as I say, I've lost interest and just want to get the damn thing done.

How do I rectify this? It's honestly killing me. I'll try some things halfheartedly then ultimately give up. I started producing about 5 or 6 years ago and stopped for about two years because of this exact same problem.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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Switch songs for a while. Days, weeks, months even. Sometimes I find when I return to an unfinished track months later I have a bunch of new ideas.

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Eat. Or download huge amounts of freebies. Like THAT helps the creative process :roll: :hihi:

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Play. Experiment. Don't put pressure on yourself to finish the song, but just have fun with the process.
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I hope I can explain this ...

Bounce down what you have.
Open a new arrangement.
Import your minute and a half mixdown.

(a) Now you can extend your mixdown by cutting and pasting additional chorus sections, verse sections etc from your short mixdown.
(b) You can add brand new instruments to create an intro etc.

Then go back to your original mix and add in all the extra sections. Etc
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I saw this idea on youtube. Load up a song you like the arrangement of. If you have a verse in your song, place your verse where the verses appear in the commercial song. Place your chorus where the chorus' appear in the commercial song. You may notice that the commercial track has a breakdown and you don't have one. Create a breakdown for your song. Eventually you will fill in all the blank spaces and your arrangement will be complete.

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I hope that makes sense.
Last edited by Aloysius on Fri May 22, 2015 7:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

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Sometimes a piece of music is only meant to be a couple of minutes long - I wouldn't worry about it. Give it a proper intro and ending, mix it and move on to your next opus.

This track is just 1:45...

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Obviously for you the first thing to do is to understand why you loose interest.

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frankvg wrote:Obviously for you the first thing to do is to understand why you loose interest.
I agree. Ultimately, it comes down to how much you "love" music and how much you "love" doing this.

Maybe it's as simple as "not that much" for one or the other or both.

In my case, I would be lost without music. I never lose interest. My biggest frustration is not enough hours in the day and limited talent. But I'm improving lately and that has given me an even bigger incentive to write and produce.

Ask yourself how much you really love doing this.

That might be the answer in a nutshell.

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Enjoy in process, when you get bored, ditch it, when you feel like doing it, do it, you need to feel it all the way, if you aren't, than it's not meant to be, don't force it, that should be natural.

I can suggest some things, but it's not like your life depends on it, finishing or even making music is not a must, shouldn't be forced, it should be something you really like to do, not something you think you should be doing against your own will at some point.

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Just stop. Go out for a walk, or a ride with the bycicle. Let ideas flow in spontaneously.
When you came back to your work just start improvising, have fun, don't think "I must compose the next hit".

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MaxSynths wrote:Just stop. Go out for a walk, or a ride with the bycicle. Let ideas flow in spontaneously.
When you came back to your work just start improvising, have fun, don't think "I must compose the next hit".
Great advice :tu:

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unstuck yourself. There are billions ways to do it, including silence for a while.
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Play the track on a loop.......leave the room......do something else, with the track on in the background.....put some washing on the line perhaps?......I then find myself humming out new parts without realising.
I find that sometimes if you're stuck in front of the computer it can be very unnatural and find myself trying to force out melodies that don't quite gel. So if you go and do some mundane task, it sort of takes the pressure off the main task, which is making the next killer part, and what I come up with is far more natural.
Cubase user, House producer.

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I take a break and listen to new music I haven't heard yet. That usually jacks me up and inspires me to dive back in.
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I go sit in the back yard with an acoustic and play and sing other people's songs.
Sweet child in time...

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