Why can't I finish tunes?

[OfficialDAPT]

Whenever I start a song, im never never able to finish it. After I get partially into it, I get frustrated because I don't know where to go next. Im not sure if this means im just not meant for it, although ive only been producing for a few months. My thoughts have been maybe im not creative enough or I just dont feel the music. I generally enjoy making music although I don't like it when im frustrated. do you guys have any clues as to what my problem might be? Ive tried making house, trance, electro, techno and drumstep and I have the same problem as I do with making dubstep

[untightled]

I don't know

[dubfordessert]

heres some ideas xo

1. once you've come to block with a tune, leave it for a while and then come back to it. literally weeks later.

2. "design" it in its entirety before you even attempt to put it into effect so you know whether the idea can be developed or not. (i.e. come up with your motif, a few possibilities for developing it, etc etc. sketch the entire track out before you start to put it down.)

3. one problem i have producing is that i forget how repetitive music is, and so i think i need to shake it up a lot more often and in a bigger way than i actually need to to keep things interesting. so i "spend" too many ideas in too short a space of time, and my track ends up a minute long. variation does not need to be huge.

[Shum]

I don't know

[OfficialDAPT]

Thanks for the advice. Before recently I began songs with the into but now I start with the drop, but it doesn't seem to be doing it for me. Can you expand on what you mean when you say design it in its entirety?

[dubfordessert]

shrug, just like when you plan an essay you plan how many paragraphs it's gonna have and what lines of argument you're gonna use. except with sets of bars and motifs and melodies. draw it up on paper or plot empty patterns in your playlist as placeholders. (why should a tune have a drop in it?)

[OfficialDAPT]

I was only taking about dubstep when I said I start with the drop. and I might be wrong but doesn't planning out the track kind of make it lifeless? I mean shouldn't the arrangement come from inspiration?

[dubfordessert]

no, and my question applies to dubstep too, there's like a massive amount of dubstep that doesn't have a drop, or in which the drop(s) isn't really an important part of the structure. if you restrict yourself to ideas like that it can inhibit creativity really

inspiration and planning aren't mutually exclusive, and really feed off each other. music isn't random (unless you're japanese brainwave guy), it has structure

[societyloser1]

1. If you get frustrated, drop the tune, start another one (
2. Do this like 2 or 3 years (and maybe you will finish a tune one day)
3. If you still suck, you aren't made for music... If you are the new big artist, thank me later!

I'm now at a stage where I make like one tune a day... After 3 hours I'm tired, and it's finished for me... I don't give a fuck about it anymore! And I must say, my tunes are getting quite good!

[lloydy]

Variety is the key,make an 8 bar loop with beats bass and a vocal sample,make it simple copy and drag over for another 8 bars now start editing.Edit as much as you can,start with the beats at the end of the first bar use a double kik next bar miss the first kik and use a double snare......The vocal you can chop in half create another track with some bitcrusher or filter(or both) set up with some lfo modulation,now place half of the vocal on that track.Now you have 3-4 little edits in your next 8 bars,build on this and you will wonder why the fuck you couldn't get there in the first place.
Also sound design,when you make a bass you like just create 4/5 tracks all with this bassline but with slight variations and no i'm not only talking about lfo speeds,you can use different waveforms different types of modulation.Once you have 4/5 of these patches layer them together,even more variation and they should sound good together sonically.
Trouble is when you gt caught up loop monging it is a very tough place to get out of,i was there for years lol.
Variation is the key to making interesting tracks,make sure you have enough going on when you create your 8 bar loop and then you will have an endless amount of editing you can do.
I hope this helps.

[TCW_UK]

I've literally just come out of this. Here's my story (lol).

I was using Reason 5 for at least 2 years with Logic Pro as software I only really used at college. Anyway, recently I came into some money due to a situation and I bought myself a MacBook. I was really excited to start using Logic and make tunes on that and leave Reason in the past as I feel it was holding me back. I started making tracks on Logic and would find myself with a 4 bar loop I thought could work, and then not being able to do anything with it. I must have started, and this isn't an exaggeration, at least 30 projects.
Last weekend I tried using my 4 bar loop to make a track, even if it wasn't very good, which it wasn't, just so I could get used to arranging tunes again. It worked, and as I said before, it really sucked. Today I took a 4 bar loop I have been working on for a couple of days, turned it into a full track which is now in fact the one in my signature.
I found to help me get there was to stop making music when I got stressed. I listened to songs of the similar genre and tried copying the arrangement. Even though it was a copied arrangement, it was still a full song, which sort of gave me my confidence back. It then made me realise I can do it I just need to stop stressing.
The track I finished today was not a copied arrangement because of what I did, and I had re-aqquired my confidence.

Just chill out about it, don't get too worked up about it and don't let it get to you so much. At points, I wanted to quit the whole thing, sell my equipment, curl up in a ball and cry.

[Huts]

For the sake of actually finishing songs listen to some of your favorites and note the arrangement. It's usually something along the lines of intro (32) > drop (16) > response to drop (faster hats, different bass, added element) (16) > breakdown (16-32) (filter in some drops or other elements etc) > drop 2 (maybe change up the kick/snare and use the same bass patches but playing different notes/rhythm) (16) > response to drop 2 (see above) (16) > outro (32). while this isn't going to hold true for every song and isn't an end all be all template it should atleast help you get started.

When I first start a track I try to think of a theme, or have a general starting sound (often a sample) that will be the basis for the track. For instances if you have a jazzy pluck bass you know jazz songs have horns, piano's, and a certain sound to their drums. Now just build on that for each section of the track. It also helps to have a bunch of sounds/patches already made so once you get a direction for a track you don't have to spend hours tweaking bass patches you can just go into your samples folder and pull out what you need.

[Insahn]

I've been dealing with this same issue for a while now too. I do have a few things that I've finished, but for the most part, since I've moved into electronic music/dubstep/whatever I haven't been finishing much. But the things I have gotten the furthest with have been the ones that I forced myself to get out of loop mode with as quickly as possible. I typically start by fleshing out a nice 16 bar loop. If you listen to your loop over and over and over and over again it just becomes something that, oddly, you can't see going anywhere the more you listen to it. That's just the nature of hearing a loop over and over until you've killed your own creative brain function in trying to come up with the next part. You have no problem creating the loop until it gets too busy and your brain doesn't know where to go. The ideas are there man, but your brain gets used to hearing the loop you've created as exactly that, a loop and nothing more. You've got to create the loop, not listen to it any more than a few times, and immediately begin stripping it back to almost nothing more than maybe a hi-hat loop and a thin pad sound. This could serve as your temporary intro until you get further along. Now your brain will start to think it sounds thin and you will naturally start adding things back in every few bars or so to build progress, you should naturally start to hear what should come next and what the track needs just as you did with your initial loop only now you are building arrangement instead. You have essentially uncockblocked your mind. You never get to this point if you just sit listening to the same loop over and over hoping that an intro idea or bridge idea will come to you. Maybe some people can, but I sure as hell can't. Hope this helps.

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

Sometimes trying a new style of music works wonders. I am not much of a house guy but I finished a house tune in about 12 hours and I hardly ever finish anything.

[OfficialDAPT]

thanks for all the feedback! I really like your idea lloydy about creating varied bass sounds. Its not that I don't know how to structure the song it just feels like im being too repetetive. And then when I don't know where to go next I feel like curling up in a ball to cry like you said. I then just rage quit ableton and the thought pops into my head that maybe I'm just not good at this which is a possibility.

[OfficialDAPT]

Insahn: you just hit the nail on the head that's exactly what's happening. My question is how do you make the loop good without listening over and over?

[TCW_UK]

thanks for all the feedback! I really like your idea lloydy about creating varied bass sounds. Its not that I don't know how to structure the song it just feels like im being too repetetive. And then when I don't know where to go next I feel like curling up in a ball to cry like you said. I then just rage quit ableton and the thought pops into my head that maybe I'm just not good at this which is a possibility.

I used to think I wasn't good enough. That's not the case, just think positive.

[Insahn]

Insahn: you just hit the nail on the head that's exactly what's happening. My question is how do you make the loop good without listening over and over?

Try to minimize the amount you have to listen to it. You might find yourself just listening to it for the sake of it. I have done this a lot and its a horribly bad habit because you start really getting into your loop, really getting overly excited about it without thinking about where it needs to go next. You start thinking its awesome before you've actually created anything. This is not what you want to do because it will ultimately reinforce loop monging. You want to listen ONLY as long as you need to to figure out what it is you want to do next with the loop. Don't listen to it more than twice, stop, and create. Some good advice from ill.gates, If the idea isn't working within 5-10 minutes drop it and move on so your creativity isn't bogged down.

[OfficialDAPT]

I really like your advice, how long have you been producing? And where do u start as far as intro or "drop" in a song to get the ball rolling?

[nowaysj]

1. If you get frustrated, drop the tune, start another one (
2. Do this like 2 or 3 years (and maybe you will finish a tune one day)
3. If you still suck, you aren't made for music... If you are the new big artist, thank me later!

I'm now at a stage where I make like one tune a day... After 3 hours I'm tired, and it's finished for me... I don't give a fuck about it anymore! And I must say, my tunes are getting quite good!