What keeps you from composing?

[javahut]

Originally Posted by djshire

^This. The internet is such a distraction.....

Yeah. The internet is distracting. Yet, so full of GREAT information, if you look in the right places and keep your BS shield high.

Friggin' information overload addiction sometimes, though (all the time?). Heaven & Hell, all in one. Isn't everything? I'm conflicted. In political terms, that'd be independent... leanin' WAY over to the TRUTH side of things. Or maybe I'm wishy-washy. 'Er... stuck in the middle. But I'm NOT REALLY! Just take a listen to my sounds & my audio, MAAANNNN!!! I'm "way-out" there!!!

Saturday Night. On the internet. And a glass of wine. My how "interesting" things have become . Like... Late Night Call-In radio used to be ..., but you can pick...(and make!) ...your own tunes!!!

[roger_from_American_Dad_voice&Face("reallysposedtobePaulLyndefromBewitched")] ...and you can also micro-edit everything to death... [/roger_from_American_Dad_voice&Face("reallysposedtobePaulLyndefromBewitched")]

and think up stupid $h!it to type on the interwebs

why can't I get anything done???

[Teknobeam]

Originally Posted by javahut

Yeah. The internet is distracting. Yet, so full of GREAT information, if you look in the right places and keep your BS shield high.

Friggin' information overload addiction sometimes, though (all the time?). Heaven & Hell, all in one. Isn't everything? I'm conflicted. In political terms, that'd be independent... leanin' WAY over to the TRUTH side of things. Or maybe I'm wishy-washy. 'Er... stuck in the middle. But I'm NOT REALLY! Just take a listen to my sounds & my audio, MAAANNNN!!! I'm "way-out" there!!!

Saturday Night. On the internet. And a glass of wine. My how "interesting" things have become . Like... Late Night Call-In radio used to be ..., but you can pick...(and make!) ...your own tunes!!!

[roger_from_Family_Guy_voice&Face("reallysposedtobePaulLyndefromBewitched")] ...and you can also micro-edit everything to death... [/roger_from_Family_Guy_voice&Face("reallysposedtobePaulLyndefromBewitched")]

and think up stupid $h!it to type on the interwebs

why can't I get anything done???

Well, just watched Radiohead on "Austin City Limits" (only the really good stuff get's to do that show. . I never really payed much attention to Radiohead,, but wow. they delivered a dynamic show, right up there with Beck and many others and completely diffeent genres.. Certainly not perfection musically,, but then that minutia isn't really important. Go for the expression and the content. Don't make a perfect painting...make an original painting. Sometimes people will hold off composing something until they are ready to take it all the way, or have the time to commit to that. Don't wait until the time is right with anything..strike while the iron is hot. if inspiration hit's you while you are playing around with something..go with it, capture the essence of the idea on tape. You can come back to it later. I personally believe that a serious artist has to eat live and sleep it. No day jobs. It's a cool hobby, but that can also spell frustration.

[JimmiG]

I work full-time and I have a long commute, but I don't feel that's what interfering with making music. I still have ~5 hours every weekday and the entire weekend when I could potentially make music.

Usually I get distracted by something else, or I'm just not in the "mood" to make music. Even though I know that in order to get in the mood I actually need to sit down and force myself to work, it doesn't always happen.

[kacperson]

atm im looking for a new full time job,i dropped bouncer job and decided to pursue and start a normal career and sent my applications to few interesting comapnies. When i sort out this stuff hopefully being again employed soon i will be able to produce music again in peace..

[pearlywhites]

Nothing. Have most of my sounds already in Logic.

[kirkelein]

Always something fun/interesting do see/do on the fabulous interwebz. I always procrastinate because I'm "not in the mood", but every time I sit down and do something, it's surprisingly rewarding. If I could only teach the irrational side of myself this fact...

[Praxisaxis]

I have two kids and a wife. I used to have a day job, which I quit so I could re-build a music career (and allow my wife to work full-time); I'm aiming at full-time tertiary teaching. I'm doing ok with that (finishing my PhD and doing a lot of contract work).

All I can point out is that you need fire in your belly, like nothing else. Doing music seriously is not easy; it never really has been. The bottlenecks are different these days, but bottlenecks have always been there. You have to work harder than everyone else you know, you have to compare yourself to the work produced by people who are comfortable and financed, you frequently recognise that someone else achieves more than you seemingly spending less time and effort, you have to break your own boundaries, and on top of that, you often have to work more than just one or two jobs, and some of those may not pay money. Even after all that there is no guarantee you'll be satisfied, and nobody really laments the many people who never "make it."

Unfortunately, if you're one of the many who have a perfectly valid explanation for why you can't do any more than what you currently are doing, this in itself will not gain you any ground, as there are always many more music maniacs banging on the door... like it or not it's a tremendously competitive business; most of us fail in attaining what we set out to once upon a time. The only way around it is to stick with it "just for fun" and hold no other pretenses, or to massage your own little niche, and manage by cultivating "diversified income streams."

Do I tell my students all that? These days, yep, pretty much.

[ozy]

Originally Posted by Lune

What keeps you from composing?

nothing.

they should kill me before I quit humming melodies

[kacperson]

Originally Posted by kirkelein

Always something fun/interesting do see/do on the fabulous interwebz. I always procrastinate because I'm "not in the mood", but every time I sit down and do something, it's surprisingly rewarding. If I could only teach the irrational side of myself this fact...

everyone have it...what helps me to fight this is some self improvement books like b tracy etc,matter of prioritazing things and shiet,helps for persons like you (and me)

[mattg082]

Work and girlfriend are the major ones. However, when I was single and worked a lot I made time and slept less sometimes. For me it's def. the relationship with a women that takes up my time. Either I'm working or when I have a day off like today my girlfriend wants that time. So at the moment if I'm off work and my girlfriend is at work or has to study I have time.

[cixelsyd]

Originally Posted by sakamoto

Sex.. why no one wrote? strange...

What is this thing you call sex? Is it a new form of synthesis? Is it analog or digital? Where can I get one?

[Griffard]

Originally Posted by mattg082

Work and girlfriend are the major ones. However, when I was single and worked a lot I made time and slept less sometimes. For me it's def. the relationship with a women that takes up my time. Either I'm working or when I have a day off like today my girlfriend wants that time. So at the moment if I'm off work and my girlfriend is at work or has to study I have time.

I totally feel you there, obviously I love my gf, but I wish there were some way she could help or be otherwise entertained by my composing/working on music stuff. I never have huge chunks of alone time to work on things. Also have trouble getting going on projects with small amounts of time.

[RyanMathis]

Work, girl and 4 month old! Between those three there's no time left for music! But I still try.

[apartment dog]

Happiness & Free Stuff

[fluxburn]

Personally I'm just really into music now since I don't have a 9-5 and am working with other artists and really trying to make the music happen now. I wrote these lyrics for a rock song, "working the 9-5, working the 9-5, F man, ruin you life."

The last stint I had working Corporately for 2.5 years, I was literally crying on the way to work a couple times near the end, since I really wanted to write music, but work was always busy and I was needed there. I literally started oil painting to deal with the lack of creativity in my life due to the corporate world. With no official hours for my job now, I can stay up all night researching music, write music all day, work and not eat for a day. That's how hardcore I'm into music and working.

I read this book a couple years ago, "The Creative Class" by Richard Florida which clearly explains my personal disposition. "Some people are so creative, they can't work." I think what he means quite accurately is that you can work if you are highly creative, but it sure helps to have multiple jobs and a lot of output for creativity. IT is so uncreative besides some scripting and it's just depressing since people are complaining constantly to management, even though you are doing the best job humanly possible. I worked in sales previously, talk about stress, damn. Working 80 hours a week to make $100,000, crap man just save $50,000 and do some simple day trades a couple days a month.

Peace.

[mattg082]

Originally Posted by Griffard

I totally feel you there, obviously I love my gf, but I wish there were some way she could help or be otherwise entertained by my composing/working on music stuff. I never have huge chunks of alone time to work on things. Also have trouble getting going on projects with small amounts of time.

Yeah...I actually had a gf for a long time who made music with me and was even in a touring band with me. it was great to spend so much time together like that and have fun. However, she was just like a touring musician so needless to say that didn't work out lol

[JimmiG]

Originally Posted by Praxisaxis

All I can point out is that you need fire in your belly, like nothing else. Doing music seriously is not easy; it never really has been. The bottlenecks are different these days, but bottlenecks have always been there. You have to work harder than everyone else you know, you have to compare yourself to the work produced by people who are comfortable and financed, you frequently recognise that someone else achieves more than you seemingly spending less time and effort, you have to break your own boundaries, and on top of that, you often have to work more than just one or two jobs, and some of those may not pay money. Even after all that there is no guarantee you'll be satisfied, and nobody really laments the many people who never "make it."

This is why I love making music as a hobby. If I don't feel like producing anything for 6 months, the worst that happens is that a couple of thousands worth of gear goes unused (not really since I will still spend several hours a week noodling around and maybe saving patches for later). The income is always there from my day job.

Originally Posted by mattg082

Work and girlfriend are the major ones. However, when I was single and worked a lot I made time and slept less sometimes. For me it's def. the relationship with a women that takes up my time. Either I'm working or when I have a day off like today my girlfriend wants that time. So at the moment if I'm off work and my girlfriend is at work or has to study I have time.

Horrible ROI on those girlfriend things. Just not worth it to me, but then again I haven't been in love since my late teens (10+ years ago). Just not worth it.

[enossified]

What stops me from composing is lack of melody ideas

What stops me from making more music is disinterest in recording covers and negative collaboration experiences...sucks when your partners suck even more than you do

Plenty of live gigs to satisfy my musicmaking jones, so not recording a lot isn't that painful.

[WrxSTI]

The computer. At this point I'm probably just going to give up. I've trialed numerous DAWs, synths, I've tried going about it every which way but 1.5 years later here I am yet to finish a song (or even make a halfway finished one). I've learned a lot about sound design and mixing but ultimately it does me no good. Music making is supposed to be fun, and that only happens when I randomly land that great arpeggio or sound but then have nowhere to take that because I have no musical ideas to pair it up with (for the remaining 6-7 minutes of the song...).

I think I can safely conclude that the ITB workflow is never going to take me anywhere. I wouldn't mind arranging the bits and pieces in a DAW but I think that the sound design, and coming up with leads, pads, sections, etc. (the actual creative part) ultimately has to be done interfacing hands-on with a dedicated synth, without getting bogged down staring at a monitor and being able to instantly and at will change everything, get caught in mixing a 4 bar loop for endless hours when you don't actually have anything to mix, but a kick & bass & some percussion.

So if need be I am going to put off music making until finish college when I can hopefully make some money and buy some nice modulars, then record those into audio and arrange them into DAW. That's the only way I will be able to work I think. I just imagine if I was nowhere near a PC and operating a machine with my hands I would be way more creative and use my ears a lot more... anyway.

[Lune]

Just my two cents- but I have read numerous times about people starting at the loop level and getting stuck. I think you might find another approach could be more fun working from the top down:

1. work out three broad themes, a melody (M), chorus (C) and bridges (B)- these don't have to be fantastic sounding for you first compositions
2. Arrange them so you know what order they occur and how many times-
example: M B C B M B C B C B
3. Then take a part of these tunes to create bass lines, etc and
4. Add drums and effects

Working from a broad outline sets the overall tone first and lets you quickly join parts- then you go to the details, beats, loops, mixing, etc.

It is important to let yourself create bad music at first- the main goal is to get familiar with how to sketch a unified piece and join it together smoothly. The more you do this the more inventive your tunes will become. many of the great composers wrote crap at first- but they wrote and kept writing- that's the key! Think about it, didn't your English teacher tell you to come up with an outline before writing a paper? Working on a loop is like writing a sentence not knowing what your paper is about.

Now if you really want a near technology free speedy creative way to do this that won't bog you down in computer details- just get a 4 or 8 track recording device that has a microphone and hum the parts

[bluesparc]

I just get distracted and go off on tangents too easily.

[ksandvik]

The less I worry about goals and rules, the more productive I became.

[dionysiananarchy]

inspiration, drinking tooooo much, partying with other fun things, mood, but i try n get at least an hour in a day, usually 2 or 3, i do life coaching, it pays well, and gives me a lot of free time,

i am recovering from gear research addiction, its really bad,,, what a time killer,

[crufty]

dongles

[chevybusa]

I WISH I KNEW!!!!!! It f@#$ing sucks, I've had the worst writer's block I've ever experienced for over a year now and it's killing me, I don't know what happened, I went from writing and recording hundreds of tracks (well, a lot of them were just snippets of ideas and stuff) to ZILCH, it's like somehow my brain just completely rewired it's musical part, I just can't seem to write or do anything creative to save my life, it really sucks...I;ve been using the time to get better at REALLY understanding synthesis like how oscilators, filters, envelopes, etc. etc. work and all that, as well as working on mixing and mastering and REALLY understanding things like EQ and compression and mulitband compression and all that stuff and stuff like that, as well as forcing myself to learn classical pieces and do solo piano arrangements of various pop tunes, but it sucks, I really miss actually being able to do creative stuff....

[zaxmalloy]

Originally Posted by bluesparc

I just get distracted and go off on tangents too easily.

Say amen.

[Ossicle]

Originally Posted by sniggles

Borderlands 2.

+ 1

[percussa]

Originally Posted by Lune

Answering another thread on this site caused me to wonder if I am a rare bird on Gearslutz because i actually don't have much time to compose.

You're not the only one :-) Music is my life. I started playing piano at a very young age, switched to electronic gear at the age of 15, and I had my first record at the age of 17, etc.

At the moment, I don't have any time left to spend on composing music. All my time now goes to percussa and the audiocubes. Although I love what I'm doing right now, I hope one day I'll have time again to compose some music.

[Yoozer]

Originally Posted by dionysiananarchy

i do life coaching

Physician, heal thyself!

[blavatsky]

Netflix and other TV distractions
Internet wandering
Drinking
Bad Mood/Worn out from work
Bad patch cord / mic / issue with a synth/guitar that gets me OCD and derailed
Tweaking settings/patches without ever getting anywhere (sometimes fun though)
Start recording something....erase....start....erase...start....erase