Is music making a somewhat painful experience for you?

It is for me. And it's not just with music, it's in everything. I had very strict and critical parents and teachers. I was praised for being intelligent, but when I make mistake it's like it's unacceptable and I attack myself. I get stressed, my brain works less efficiently, it becomes more painful. Vicious cycle.

I know how I want to make music, but I feel so very crippled by this pattern.

Just wondering if any of you have had this and whether or not you've had much success with dealing with it.

Things I find that have been subtly helping is just noticing the thoughts and trying to replace them with more kind nurturing and helpful ones. Acknowledging mistakes, being inquisitive, and not deciding that I'm dumb for making said mistakes.

Yes. I just stopped giving a fuck.

Yes. I second not giving a fuck. Unfortunately, dealing with environmental brainwashing takes time.

It took me a long time to recognize that music making by itself does not require any energy. That means if it is an ordeal, it is because you have concerns and ulterior motives with it. So my advice is just to forget about those concerns. Perfectionism is a poison. Unless pouring your blood, sweat and tears into your art really gets your rocks off, forget about the struggling noble artist fantasy.

CSM abstracted my point pretty well for you :)

Try transmitting your emotions through the music. If there was a correct way of doing this project of music would already be complete.

I'm still very much a beginner having only had it for a month but I'm finding Ableton to be a very liberating experience. Having been brought up with trackers I've composed with absolute precision and I'd be more worried about the numerical figures of any machine or effect rather than the sound it made ("mmm, that machine has a filter cut off of 30%, better make that 32%"). Although Ableton still can have that precision, I'm finding that it kind of hides it from you so that you concentrate more on stuff that sounds good, and allows you to do so quickly without getting bogged down.

I think that the biggest part of any artistic practice to to learn how and when to work loose and work tight. The better you become at working loose, the less important and relevant you will find working tight to be.

Problem with me is I'm not critical enough. I'll do shit and won't even think twice about it and my music reflects that. Stressing over it though isn't right either. If music stops being fun for you to make then why are you doing it?

I'm hyper critical, so much that I end up ruining all my tracks, which in turn has turned me off music making completely.

What chim and impakt said. Music making should be fun.

If it's completely impossible for you to get anything done atm, take a break.

i don't think music making (or any artistic endeavor) HAS to be fun. or has to be fun at all points of production. I don't like the last 25% of making a track or doing a drawing. At that point I'm getting it ready to present t other people. But the first 25%-50% is the best part, and it is fun for me. My advice is to keep your options open in the beginning and let things flow without too much structure, then put structure on your ideas gradually. Try to silence your inner critic in the beginning, then let him out later, but dont let him destroy your work.

making electronic music is fucking awful

making art is DAH BEST

talking about art in anything but a philosophical or emotional way is DAH WORST

I echo the don't give a fuck.

+

This might resonate with OP:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/nl/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

I think it has something to do with expectations.

If you expect yourself to become successful in making music, to point you can make a living out of it, you might have unrealistic expectations. I think that is something we all dream about. But to be perfectly honest, it's only very few people that are that good. And everybody wants to make music these days (which is a good thing of course). But we can't all be professional musicians.

So just do it for yourself and have fun with it. And maybe you actually will become good enough, and to be a successful musician one day. But don't just do it because you feel like you have to, because of unrealistic expectations. That kills all desire to be creative in my opinion. It has to come from enjoyment, and not some weird sense of responsibility.

  On 4/10/2013 at 1:05 PM, chimera slot mom said:

Yes. I second not giving a fuck. Unfortunately, dealing with environmental brainwashing takes time.

 

It took me a long time to recognize that music making by itself does not require any energy. That means if it is an ordeal, it is because you have concerns and ulterior motives with it. So my advice is just to forget about those concerns. Perfectionism is a poison. Unless pouring your blood, sweat and tears into your art really gets your rocks off, forget about the struggling noble artist fantasy.

Very interesting thoughts! Thanks for sharing! :)

  On 4/10/2013 at 4:15 PM, slightlydrybeans said:

I think that the biggest part of any artistic practice to to learn how and when to work loose and work tight. The better you become at working loose, the less important and relevant you will find working tight to be.

Ah yeah, I think I know what you mean there :)

  On 4/10/2013 at 4:18 PM, ZiggomaticV17 said:

Problem with me is I'm not critical enough. I'll do shit and won't even think twice about it and my music reflects that. Stressing over it though isn't right either. If music stops being fun for you to make then why are you doing it?

Yes indeedily. Unless you're a masochist or something. Although that would still sorta be pleasurable..

  On 4/10/2013 at 4:28 PM, Gocab said:

I'm hyper critical, so much that I end up ruining all my tracks, which in turn has turned me off music making completely.

I feel kinda similar, but haven't quite got to that stage yet. Hopefully never will!

  On 4/10/2013 at 4:29 PM, Friendly Foil said:

What chim and impakt said. Music making should be fun.

 

If it's completely impossible for you to get anything done atm, take a break.

Thanks! I may well need it :) -- I know that listening to lots of other people's music seems to help in the break period. Must seek out more of your guys' work!

  On 4/10/2013 at 7:57 PM, Hanratty said:

i don't think music making (or any artistic endeavor) HAS to be fun. or has to be fun at all points of production. I don't like the last 25% of making a track or doing a drawing. At that point I'm getting it ready to present t other people. But the first 25%-50% is the best part, and it is fun for me. My advice is to keep your options open in the beginning and let things flow without too much structure, then put structure on your ideas gradually. Try to silence your inner critic in the beginning, then let him out later, but dont let him destroy your work.

Ahh, very interesting.. Thanks!

  On 4/10/2013 at 9:07 PM, Djeroek said:

I echo the don't give a fuck.

 

+

 

This might resonate with OP:

 

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/nl/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

 

 

 

Thanks! I'll check it out! :)

  On 4/10/2013 at 9:21 PM, Ceerial said:

I think it has something to do with expectations.

 

If you expect yourself to become successful in making music, to point you can make a living out of it, you might have unrealistic expectations. I think that is something we all dream about. But to be perfectly honest, it's only very few people that are that good. And everybody wants to make music these days (which is a good thing of course). But we can't all be professional musicians.

 

So just do it for yourself and have fun with it. And maybe you actually will become good enough, and to be a successful musician one day. But don't just do it because you feel like you have to, because of unrealistic expectations. That kills all desire to be creative in my opinion. It has to come from enjoyment, and not some weird sense of responsibility.

Ah yeah, that's interesting. I do wonder how my desire to be exceptional might be fucking me up. Constantly fantasising about being as good as Clark or what have you might not be the best idea..

the only thing that stops me from making music is not knowing how to do it, mainly at creating sounds and shit...

i sometimes go through periods where i kinda get really annoyed with it all, but they generally pass...

1. Just don't give a fuck.

2. It's your life, if you want something that might or might not be socially accepted, just do it. I've learned that things that most things are socially accepted because it's what everyone knows and sees, we can change that.

3. People will eventually accept that you don't like the norm and that you're not the way people want you to be.

A week or two ago I was talking with my bro about stuff like this and I came up with what the world looks like if divided into separate groups... First there's gigantic grey square, which is what most people do and where most people live [grey because they hardly think about what they're doing], they're all on the same page. Second are these small, squiggly lines under the square in different colors. All these lines are separate groups and are all different from the square and each other.

So there the mass and other groups [us] and we don't even agree with each other.

Also, it could be worse, you could be gay and don't agree with the world.

  On 4/10/2013 at 9:07 PM, Djeroek said:

I echo the don't give a fuck.

 

+

 

This might resonate with OP:

 

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/nl/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

 

 

 

I know many here will mark this tedtalk as wanky, but I thought it contained some very valuable ideas! Thanks so much for sharing! :)

I'm finding tweaking a load of random sequencer shit recording it, chop it up then messing around with the best bits is working quite well as having a different mindset at different stages helps to hear things differently that wouldn't occur first time and keep you from getting bogged down in fine details.

Also if your getting bored move on and come back to it later.

It's occasionally like pulling teeth, but the main thing to remember is that unless you're insanely lucky and talented, most of the stuff you come up with WILL suck to start with. You wouldn't expect to be playing shostakovich after a week on the piano, composing stuff is exactly the same.

Consider it 'practice' to start with, you'll slowly get a better understanding of rhythm, melody, programming and production as time goes on and as you make more tracks. Don't be a perfectionist, don't think the track you're currently making is 'the one', and if you're stuck just start another one.

  On 4/10/2013 at 4:28 PM, Gocab said:

I'm hyper critical, so much that I end up ruining all my tracks, which in turn has turned me off music making completely.

this is my problem also, i always think twice and relisten 1000 times until i hate everything.

but this thread enlightened me a bit. making bad music while having fun doing so is probably better than making good music while you hate it. probably turns out the bad music made in a good mood is pretty good ;)

I doubt many artists totally conceive a finished track from start to finish in their heads first time round.

I wonder how many Analord tracks never went anywhere or the many variations Autechre do that never make the final cut. Richie Hawtin said back in the golden Plastikman days that for all the time he shut himself in a dark room alone with his kit only around 10% of the time he was being creative it's just a mater of sticking to it and spending the time (hence why I've done fuck all).

I feel stuck technically. I've used FL Studio for nearly a decade. However, I do find that setting a track on loop and freely tweaking virtual knobs is more liberating than being stuck trying to construct a skeletal sequence, no matter the software or hardware used.

Also, don't worry what other people think, and don't try to copy other artists outright. Boldly go where no artist has gone before - that's my advice, sonically speaking.