STUCK?! Here's Why and What To Do 💪 Music Production Podcast 328
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- Опубліковано 25 чер 2023
- How come we get so good at creating one short section of music only to get stuck when it's time to create the next section? If a song is a collection of different sections, why is it so hard to string a few sections together to make a song?
In this episode of the Music Production Podcast, we explore a big mistake that all but prevents us from finishing songs.
Show Notes:
What Bob Ross Teaches Us About Music Production - brianfunk.com/blog/what-bob-r...
Arrangement Templates - brianfunk.com/blog/arrangemen...
End Procrastination - Music Production Podcast #324 - brianfunk.com/blog/procrastin...
Brian Funk Website - brianfunk.com
Music Production Club - brianfunk.com/mpc
5-Minute Music Producer - brianfunk.com/book
Intro Music Made with 16-Bit Ableton Live Pack - brianfunk.com/blog/16-bit
Music Production Podcast - brianfunk.com/podcast
Save 25% on Ableton Live Packs at my store with the code: PODCAST - brianfunk.com/store
Thank you for listening.
Please review the Music Production Podcast on your favorite podcast provider!
Unique Ableton Live Packs for your music: brianfunk.com/premium-ableton...
My book: 5-Minute Music Producer - 365 Music-Making Activities: brianfunk.com/book
Join the Music Production Club! Get my latest work and tons of sound packs, samples, and tutorials, and get involved with our incredible community of music makers: brianfunk.com/mpc
Listen to the Music Production Podcast: www.brianfunk.com/podcast
Brian Funk
Web Site: www.brianfunk.com
Music Production Podcast: www.brianfunk.com/podcast
Free Ableton Live Packs: brianfunk.com/free-ableton-li...
My Music: brianfunk.com/music
Instagram: / brianfunkmusic
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Twitter: / brianfunkmusic
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What do you do when you get stuck?
Have been bingeing your podcasts tonight. Love the bob ross metaphor.
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoy it. Lots of wisdom from Mr. Ross that goes way beyond painting and art!
The conclusion is =
All of us have the same problems and all it takes a good man like Brian Funk to tell us that we are not alone, which first makes us feel better and then more likely to want to talk to other people in our incredibly friendly and helpful community !
Thank you Brian ! 👍🏻
Doing the podcast really taught me that everyone at every stage goes through these issues. That means we can't beat ourselves up about it and we have to put systems in place that can get us passed them!
Hi Brian! Long-time podcast listener, but this is the first time I've seen your face :) I came to UA-cam because you mentioned the "other video" at the end and I was intrigued. It turns out that's quite a good way to gain more UA-cam followers, I guess :)
Thanks for the great advice! I'm a writer as well as a musician, and I have countless unfinished story fragments, so I felt a little called out there! It's true... whatever art you make, if you spend too much time finessing a work in progress, it's doomed to remain a work in progress. Preach!
Thanks for listening and coming here! I meant to take that little part out of the audio version! I'm glad it got you here though!
I think this stuff applies to us all. I have way more ideas that I start or don't start than I do finished projects. Finesse is definitely counterproductive if done at the wrong time!
Love the analogy Brian. Did the same recently with a simple iphone recording of a band practise. Took the orginal stereo recording and duplicated it, using EQ, compression, reverb etc to make one 'good' track of drums, one 'good' track of bass, one 'good' track of guitars, one 'good' track of vocals. Individually all the elements sounded better compared to the original iphone recording, so put it together and it will sound better right? Of course, it was a total mushy mess. When I then just took the orginal stereo and applied just a hint of EQ, compression and reverb IN CONTEXT it was soooo much better, and easier! Been a follower of your podcast for a couple of years now and have learned loads from you. Thank you for all the sharing and educating!
That's a great example! More work and effort doesn't always make it better. Knowing when to quit is hard! It's pretty nice when the better results are actually easier to obtain. I'm happy to hear you've been listening for a while. Thanks for tuning in!!
That actually makes a lot of sense, thanks man
You're welcome! Cheers!
Thanks B
I always stretch out my ideas to be 3 minutes minimum. It was more of a laziness thing because I couldn't be bothered to keep replaying song ideas on my phone when I'm walking the dog. What eventually happens is I start to hate the arrangement and think of parts to add to it.
Ha that's a great idea! During my morning drive, I usually want to listen to what I did the day before. So I got into the habit of just creating a quick mix so I can export it. That's had a similar effect on me. I can hear what needs to be done next!
@@BrianFunkMusic It sounds like torture but sometimes I leave the same song on for an hour on a loop. I let my subconscious do all the hard work.
@@alanredversangel Me too!
Making sure I'm developing a song off a motif, theme or something musical, something that generates a feeling response. When the harmony is in place it's much easier to throw in a new chord or develop a melody, remove an instrument etc.
I think the mixing and plugins can give us that instant gratification, whereas quite often the writing requires more fleshing out and practicing... then if you do go down the crazy fx route it generally still works because the song is there. Becoming aware of old habits and flexing the writing muscle.
It's so tempting to work things up too early! It's a way of hiding from the hard work of generating ideas out of thin air. While I like to make the ideas I'm working on sound good, if I go too far, it almost always dooms the project!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
@@BrianFunkMusic yep for sure. I love trying to make different genres but starting with guitar I have the most direct connection to creating music I like.
Love your videos!
@@daynemin That's pretty much how it works for me too. The guitar is where I feel most competent!
So true. I'd wager probably majority of my sessions don't tend to lead to a full piece of anything. But when a track finally does click together it is a nice feeling. Feels like a lot of mental games though to push myself to even sit with Ableton for enough time and try to get ideas going sometimes.
Mine too. There's definitely a lot of taking a swing and missing. But just like baseball, if you make contact you gotta run! Once an idea is born, it's worth seeing through!
Hello Brian and thanks for sharing your experience with us! Agree: Ableton Live can be a trap if I focus too long on the session view. It's crucial to think « structure », and to jump into the arrangement view asap. I usually start with very basic instruments sounds: piano, bass, drums, and voice to mimic extra events. If I can build something "workable" from these, then most of the composition job is done and to focus on the orchestration (switching instruments, replacing sounds…) is just pure fun. I admit this is theory and doesn’t guarantee to make something interesting from each song I’m staring with. Accidents remain so important to bring the unexpected in the process. And I still need to get surprised from what I’m doing…
I know a lot of people that like to work in a similar way. They use generic sounds to write and then replace as they go. I don't think it's much different than being in a band with a common palette of guitar, bass, drums, voice, etc.
By "voice to mimic extra events" do you mean you just sort of mouth the sounds you want, like a "swwwwoooosh" for a white noise riser, in order to just move forward with the composition? If so that's pretty awesome! I could imagine that once in a while the voice event has a lot of character and charm!
@@BrianFunkMusic :) Yes, this is what I’m doing in order to move forward with the composition. To find the right combination of timbres could be time consuming and ruin the composition process. It could happen that I keep the vocal event and filter it or merge it with other sounds. This is not an absolute method, of course the most efficient is to compose with the final instrumentation from the start…
@@jeromevion4983 Yea if you know where you are going with the song from the top, that's the easiest!
Yep. I am feeling this bigtime. All geared up weekend music after 50 hour workwerk...ooo, that bass lick is si cool. Let me play it for an HOUR before I push record on my DAW...but the DAW is pretty mysterious despite video after video showing me compression and fades and gain staging ... meanwhile I'm just trying to cut and paste some stuff and move it around without sticking it out of phase.
Oh man I know what you mean. And it's especially painful after a full work week... stuck in the loop!!! Knowing is half the battle. Good luck to you!
@@BrianFunkMusic thank you. I really appreciate your video obviously and it's all about the balance. Remember what I think John Lennon said to George Harrison, just finish the song all at once...even if you dont have the words. Good advice from one of the Masters right?
@@LearnWithStephen Yes, I love that advice! Thanks!
We forget that artists, composers, writers create pieces that are not worth publishing and just left to the side. This is also part of the natural artistic process. I think there is not enough sorting and editing to weed out the bad stuff today. Labels and book editors had that role in the past and also pushed artist to perfect their work. I also think we over think the artistic process or think we need the latest tools and tech to create.
It's such a battle right? Not that I want it to be the way it was, but there must have been at least something a little nice about someone else deciding what is good and what is not!
I couldn’t agree more with your points, I have the same problem with my production. It’s a tough habit to break.
Ps. Killa album Dark Street is my favorite track on the album btw
Thanks for listening!! I will let the guys in the band know :)
hello Brian! i always come back here to get some tips and tricks from you.
would you consider creating a short one on what to do with draft projects? oh my god, I have so many. I feel like they are always dragging me backwards like a toxic relationship. should I get rid of them? going back to them takes a ton of my time!
I know what you mean! I have tons of unfinished ideas. I think many of us do. I do advocate for trying to finish as much as possible, even if it isn't great. It's a great exercise in simply finishing music. We practice the beginning stages all the time, but finishing happens the least often. I did a podcast on that idea way back in the beginning: brianfunk.com/blog/2017/3/5/2-make-bad-music
Also, here's another video where I talk about making decisions almost recklessly. Get used to the habit of deciding and moving forward: ua-cam.com/video/4acXs-kNbVI/v-deo.htmlsi=_yTCAZ22TLMUpP1p
Another idea is to mine your unfinished ideas for seeds to start new ideas. You might have started with a cool beat but then the rest of it didn't really work out. Why not reuse the beat? Here's a video on that: ua-cam.com/video/H29lD-z7gIQ/v-deo.htmlsi=xwt064mKHGJIOW6v
And finally, remember that it's ok to not finish everything. Sometimes it's helpful to let go and try something new. I don't know if I would just delete them, but maybe put them on an external hard drive or some cloud storage.
I think there's a lot more to be said about this topic, and maybe it will become a topic for a podcast or video! Thanks for the idea. I hope those resources help for now!
I feel called out, lol.
You're my inspiration :) And so am I. And so is pretty much everyone else I know! 🤣
Thanks man, I really am in a rut right now. I finished two songs which turned out epic, am on the third one and in my mind this is supposed to be even easier to produce. But since June i have not been able to finish this simple song! Anything i play just doesn't sound good like the previous two songs. I just don't know why. This song is supposed to be the easiest to produce!
The bad news is it never gets easier! You have a couple tracks you are proud of and now you want the next one to live up to or exceed the other two. Sometimes we compare ourselves to others and sometimes we compare ourselves to our selves. Either way it can make us feel like we aren’t doing enough and that causes us to get stuck. Try allowing yourself to make a song worse than the other two! Think of it as practice finishing. Even finishing a bad song will teach you techniques that will help in the future.
I also recommend focusing on quantity. When you are making lots of songs, you don’t mind taking chances and having experiments that fail. But when we focus on just one, it becomes precious and delicate. It’s hard to make decisions because each decision is overly scrutinized.
The good news is you are not alone! Everyone deals with these feelings and struggles with them! Just keeping going!!
Thanks Brian@@BrianFunkMusic
Hi, I'm sitting right now wondering what my tune's about it has a catchy riff but i just don't know what it makes me feel. Words escape me. I used to be pretty good with lyrics now i just don't know what i'm trying to say or who i'm saying it too. So your post is right on the mark.
Getting that idea down is the key, and it's difficult! I get in that situation a lot. That's usually when I start singing gibberish for a while, recording the whole time. Then I listen back for good melodies and phrasings. If I'm lucky, there will be a good line in there that I can build off of. Other times, I might sit with a notebook and free-write while the music is playing. I'm really just trying to see what the overall mood is and then hoping that maybe something I write will be useful in identifying a theme I can use.
A lot of times it just means picking something and going with it. There's not a right answer. The more I think about it the harder it gets to find. So, I'll try to write out lyrics on an idea I might be a little unsure of, knowing that I can always start over and rewrite it. That's often enough to get the momentum going and the picture starts to clear up... Good luck!!