Created: 2022-10-03
Make a full beat within that time frame
I think we tend to idolise our favourite artists.
We hear a song and for a plethora of reasons it’s incredible to us, it’s perfect.
We then try to recreate music that elicits the same feeling.
In order to do that we think our music must be perfect too.
As a result, we are constantly chasing a fantasy, and I’m sure you have had tracks that you’ve spent weeks, months or years on - because ‘it just isn’t there yet.’
However, that perception of perfect is only in our heads, it’s not in our audiences’ heads.
we love about a piece of music is unique to us, someone else may love the track for a completely different reason.
So this notion of perfection is only hindering you from finishing music.
Yes, we want the track to be as good as possible, but there is a limit.
There is a time to call it a day, call it finished, and move on to the next song. “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” - Big Leo Da V.
If your style of writing is
opening up your DAW and writing as you go -
rather than having a song fully formed before you start -
you will probably at some point run into the dreaded 16 bar loop phenomenon.
This is where you have an awesome sounding 16 bars,
but then you don’t know where to take it next.
What usually happens here is you keep adding up layers
so this one part sounds really great,
but then you don’t know what to do with it next because it already sounds so good.
My advice here would be;
once you have an idea, before you develop it into a great sounding loop,
try to write another section that would go well with it.
I’ve found that if you can write a ‘B’ section to go with your initial ‘A’ section early on, you will finish much more music.
Once you have these 2 parts,
you can then build up the layers into fully fledged parts,
then finding an intro, outro and maybe a breakdown/middle 8 will be easy as cake.
This admittedly sounds counterintuitive, however I have found that this tip really helps me finish more songs.
Rather than listen to your beat/track/loop hundreds of times over and over until you're sick of it, If you find your creativity starting to stall, call it a day and quit while you still have some juice in the tank.
That way you don’t completely exhaust your creativity, you have some preserved for the next session.
This was a tip I got from the author Hemingway - he used to stop writing at the end of the day while he was still feeling it, so that he could pick it up again, feeling inspired the next day.
If you are writing electronic / or lyric-less music, it can be difficult to find a focal point for your track.
However, I have found that the sooner that I can find an appropriate name for the track, the more my song will take shape and the more likely I will be to finish it.
It’s like your brain subconsciously makes choices and associations that keep in line with that title. Even down to the level of sound selection.
So if you are listening back to your track and a lyric, image or memory comes into your head, try turning that into the track name, and this will help focus the production in a cohesive direction.
While I would never advocate plagiarism,
if there is something you struggle with - particularly arrangements can be tricky - just copy the layout of one of your favourite songs.
You can do this on two levels.
An exercise I used to do when I was struggling with improving my arrangements was to go through my favourite songs and write down exactly the arrangements in this style. If you do this, you will then discover patterns in arrangements and how they vary in different genres. This can be really helpful if you are struggling with this. This obviously can be applied to other things as well as arrangements, just don't go around ripping people off!
