Losing Interest In Your Tracks early

[dotcurrency]

Guys, I'm looking for a way to beat my new trend before it becomes a serious habit:
Over the last few weeks, I've gotten into this thing where I'll start a track for a few hours, get up until the drop IF IM LUCKY, then lose all interest in the project and drop it. I have about 6-7 projects that I've started these last few weeks with no intentions of finishing them. I know having more than one project you're working on is a good thing, but these tracks simply do not peak my interest AT ALL. It's like once I've started I'm thinking "this sounds pretty dope." Then I start to hate the melody/chord progression within a few hours and end up dumping the project all together because I've got so far into it it's to much work to rearrange the chords/melody/etc.

I rarely ever get to the actual drop of a song. I started producing about a year and a half ago and that along with a barrage of other things were my main problem when producing. Now I'm pretty much back to where I was a year ago, and it's sucking the life out of my motivation.

I'm trying my hardest to pin-point why I'm losing interest so fast.

[Crimsonghost]

Try building the drop and making a track around that.

[dotcurrency]

Try building the drop and making a track around that.

I never start from the drop. I find it really hard to do this idk why. I think its because when I do it this way, I find nearly impossible to get my intro/breakdown to fit well with the drop.

[fragments]

I don't see a problem with starting tracks then dropping them. You can always cannibalize them later. For every track that I upload to SC or let people listen to I've probably started 3-4 and never finished them. It takes me about an hour before I'm sure whether there is anything worth while going on in a track.

[titchbit]

I strongly disagree that it is good to have more than one project going at once. That's how you get into this situation. Maybe if you are on a roll and putting out chunes and it really works for you to have multiple projects going at once, then sure who am I to say don't do it, but it's clearly NOT working for you, so stop and force yourself to finish a song even if you don't like it. This is what it is to be a producer. You have to make music even if you go through periods where you dislike your music. If you aren't willing to do this, then you could always quit and not be a producer anymore I guess....

[fragments]

I strongly disagree that it is good to have more than one project going at once. That's how you get into this situation. Maybe if you are on a roll and putting out chunes and it really works for you to have multiple projects going at once, then sure who am I to say don't do it, but it's clearly NOT working for you, so stop and force yourself to finish a song even if you don't like it. This is what it is to be a producer. You have to make music even if you go through periods where you dislike your music. If you aren't willing to do this, then you could always quit and not be a producer anymore I guess....

True to a point. But if you really aren't digging a tune and it's only an hour or so old, what are the chances anyone will like it? I think you have to strike a balance and be willing to through something in the junk drawer and move on. If one doesn't like something after an hour you think it's worth forcing yourself to finish after that?

[titchbit]

well, if this was just one junk tune, sure, throw it out. but 6-7???? I'd say force yourself to finish one. practice makes perfect. and he's only practicing starting songs and in fact he's "practicing" failing at finishing them. he's getting no practice in the middle and end processes of producing songs. even if they aren't great tunes, finishing tunes gives you valuable experience to have under your belt.

[Ben - Axonic]

I think that if you yourself are losing interest, then it's fine to drop a project, because if your heart's not in it, chances are it won't ever reach a point where you or others listening to it are satisfied by it. It's important to realize though that any project, scrapped or not, is always a form of more practice, they'll always help you in the long run. I'd try starting from different points in the track, like the drop, to try and get some inspiration or just for the sake of doing something new.

[dotcurrency]

Firstly:

you could always quit and not be a producer anymore I guess....

My god...don't say that.

well, if this was just one junk tune, sure, throw it out. but 6-7???? I'd say force yourself to finish one. practice makes perfect. and he's only practicing starting songs and in fact he's "practicing" failing at finishing them. he's getting no practice in the middle and end processes of producing songs. even if they aren't great tunes, finishing tunes gives you valuable experience to have under your belt.

I have forced myself to finish quite a few songs,
one being a track I finished up 2 days ago:
..
And I forced myself to finish it for the same reason I'm making this thread. I mean, I liked the track for the first few days yeah but then I suddenly hated it. Not gradually, but very suddenly. I did finish it, though. Never to be exported as mp3 but yeah...heh

I'm not at all saying I'm losing interest in producing, it's just that I'm losing interest in what I create far too fast.
What I'm saying is my "Finished:Unfinished" ratio is shit and it hurts.

[Triphosphate]

How long does it take you to get tired of your tracks? Maybe look at your average project time on all these unfinished tracks and get an average. Then maybe give yourself time constraints and make it into some sort of game? Like finish a track in 8 hours, for example, if you feel you're fast enough to get stuff done in 4 hour sessions over two days or something.

For the sake of practice I gave myself a project where for one month I would try to work on a new track every day, wether I finished or not I was forbidding myself to go back to it for the rest of the month. This accomplishes 2 things, first, you get faster because you wanna finish as much as you can before the proverbial guillatine drops. Second, after the month is over you have 30 'prototracks' you can mess with and they might even sound fresh again.

[titchbit]

For the sake of practice I gave myself a project where for one month I would try to work on a new track every day, wether I finished or not I was forbidding myself to go back to it for the rest of the month. This accomplishes 2 things, first, you get faster because you wanna finish as much as you can before the proverbial guillatine drops. Second, after the month is over you have 30 'prototracks' you can mess with and they might even sound fresh again.

I really like this idea.

I have forced myself to finish quite a few songs,
one being a track I finished up 2 days ago:

well, ya didn't say that before. I thought you weren't finishing any tracks. if you are, then that's good obviously. btw, how can you see the total time you spent on the track? mine would be sooooo high cause I leave ableton open in the background while I go on the internet and shit.

[chekov]

whenever i feel like this about a tune i just leave it for a few days/weeks or even months then come back to it when i'm feeling it again

[dotcurrency]

How long does it take you to get tired of your tracks? Maybe look at your average project time on all these unfinished tracks and get an average. Then maybe give yourself time constraints and make it into some sort of game? Like finish a track in 8 hours, for example, if you feel you're fast enough to get stuff done in 4 hour sessions over two days or something.

For the sake of practice I gave myself a project where for one month I would try to work on a new track every day, wether I finished or not I was forbidding myself to go back to it for the rest of the month. This accomplishes 2 things, first, you get faster because you wanna finish as much as you can before the proverbial guillatine drops. Second, after the month is over you have 30 'prototracks' you can mess with and they might even sound fresh again.

Let's see!
Here's one. Right at the drop I lost all inspiration and ended up not touching it again: http://puu.sh/3m94E/05d4614499.png
Here's another; a more embarassing one 3 hours just to get up to the breakdown. 3 hours on a simple bassline, ska guitar and drums. I'll admit though, I spent quite a lot of time on my intro drums on most of my tracks: http://puu.sh/3m9da/d750a3dd0c.png

The rest of them are too embarrassing to post haha, but my average would be about 4 hours. 4 hours is a lot of time for about 50 seconds to 1.15 minutes of a song, especially one with not that many elements in it This is why im stressing so much. I'm struggling to get a good skeleton of a track going. Who knows what I'll go through when adding more incidental elements towards the finished track.

It's not like I get to the drop and go "welp, fuck that I have no clue what to put here" I actually try quite a few different things, take a break, come back, and to no avail, I cannot seem to keep interest in the tune.
It would be the same thing vice versa if I started with the drop.

well, ya didn't say that before. I thought you weren't finishing any tracks. if you are, then that's good obviously. btw, how can you see the total time you spent on the track? mine would be sooooo high cause I leave ableton open in the background while I go on the internet and shit.

Yeah my fault for not saying that. And not sure about ableton, but in FL it's under project information where you can put the key/bpm/genre info and stuff. And same, luckily FL doesn't count the time that FL is minimized/background running. So thats actual working time. Or just time I spent staring at the project

[Add9]

For every track that I upload to SC or let people listen to I've probably started 3-4 and never finished them.

Man I wish I had that ratio. For me it's like maybe one out of 20 that makes it to soundcloud. It also doesn't help that I name my tracks like "lskfdjgh" so I can never find them afterwards, lol

[Warwolt]

If you're losing interesting in your tracks early, why not try to do more new things while producing? Try out some new technique, try to produce with a tighter work flow, mimic some sound you've heard before, experiment with a synthesizer, something that just gets you going. While you still can have it in mind, you could try to do stuff that isn't just "making this dope beat" and hope the idea for the beat comes naturally from you just using the tools you've got.

[Icetickle]

You need to push yourself, don't be weak.

[fragments]

For every track that I upload to SC or let people listen to I've probably started 3-4 and never finished them.

Man I wish I had that ratio. For me it's like maybe one out of 20 that makes it to soundcloud. It also doesn't help that I name my tracks like "lskfdjgh" so I can never find them afterwards, lol

If I had more time for production my ratio would likely be the same as yours. I do finish more songs than I let people hear. As some one said you need to make it a habit to finish trcaks aswell

[mistayif]

take a break from producing, do something else to get that inspiration and motivation back.

making tunes shouldn't be something you force yourself to do, it should be something you enjoy. a lot of people who are starting out at production seem to think that just because so and so are making x amount of tunes a week, that they need to match that work rate. do everything in your own time, enjoy the whole music making process. when you are happy and enjoying what you are doing, you will see noticeable improvements in the results. a little birdie once told me quality over quantity.

[Add9]

nothing motivates me to produce like listening to other producers who are really good. Often I won't be in the mood to produce at all, then I'll listen to a track I really like and have enough inspiration to go for like 5 hours in a row

[titchbit]

As some one said you need to make it a habit to finish trcaks aswell

this this this. you are making a habit of not finishing tunes, and each time you do it, you are reinforcing that habit. force yourself to finish a few, then it will start to flow better i think