Is music making a somewhat painful experience for you?

  On 4/11/2013 at 12:42 AM, ambermonk said:

Boldly go where no artist has gone before - that's my advice, sonically speaking.

If that is even possible these days... Well, it is, but it's hard to do something unique...

Good thread. I'm a perfectionist too, and it is a huge problem, just like everyone else has already said. I think everything mentioned so far has been good advice / analysis.

But to make a concrete suggestion: find someone to collaborate with. It takes a lot of pressure off, will provide inspiration, and will make making music more fun. Better still if you can collaborate together in a room live, or even work out a way to "jam" spontaneously.

Entering 32 vs 30% into a tracker, painstakingly, over and over again (not making fun of this; it is exactly my problem) is only one way of relating to music. Another entirely opposite way is to relate intuitively, by feel, without a screen or anything (or with as small a screen as possible, anyway), in real time. That is only sort of possible in most electronic music situations, but you can try and get close.

Doing ONLY painstaking work is like going to the gym and ONLY working on your glutes. You may become famous for your glutes alone, but you'll probably just crack up or hurt yourself instead.

Being overly critical of yourself is not the way to be when it comes to making art. I understand about the critical parent thing, but you need to learn to let loose. Think of making music as a brain-teasing puzzle to try to make it fun for you. "How can I solve this? Crack that mystery" etc.

I used to do the same thing. Criticize every thing I dd when it came to music. I got nothing done. The only time I ever finished tracks was when I zoned out and allowed myself to explore my subconcious. I've been getting more and more serious about music lately, thinking of things more in terms of music theory and what not, but even when something turns out bad I don't feel too negative or down about it. I look at it as "what went wrong and how can I do better next time". You'll learn a lot more from doing that then never allowing yourself to do anything.

If all else fails, meditate before you make music/art. Nothing set in stone, just say to yourself "I'll take 10 deep breaths, clear my mind and have fun". Give it a shot. Best of luck!

I've been there.

For me it's a case of every time you go to produce, ask yourself stuff like "How can I approach this in a way I've never done before?", "What features of this synth haven't I explored yet", "What does a turkish market sound like timestretched and bitcrushed to fuck?"...

...Is way better than "I'm gonna make a great aphex style tune", "I wonder what gear Chris Clarke uses?" "I wonder if this will be THE tune"

Making music is pure fun for me. Having to deal with other people in that context can be very painful, though.

sometime this year i'll be moving into a new place that has a great little room all windows looking out into a garden that i can set up a small studio, i'm sure this will help creativity and motivation.

  On 4/22/2013 at 12:43 AM, yek said:

sometime this year i'll be moving into a new place that has a great little room all windows looking out into a garden that i can set up a small studio, i'm sure this will help creativity and motivation.

I am a little jealous

i've been making nothing but loops since ages, i don't even know how synthesis works, or how a filter works, basically i don't even know what i'm doing when i'm making music, yet i have endless fun doing it. probably because when i'm making it, i just see it as practice, in the purpose of someday making interesting tracks once i've learned how it all works.

one piece of advice that someone gave me recently: whatever you want to do, you will end up failing. so get on with it. accept failure. what's important isn't to succeed, but to try, and practice. man up

Deal with the basics first, i.e. melody and rhythm and impose lots of creative limitations like only using a few pieces of gear. Accept that a lot of what you write will be shit to start off with but just try to enjoy the process.

every time i sit down to make trax i start making involuntary groaning noises because that's how good it feels

the other day i woke up in the hospital & people told me i'd had a stroke & i was like WTF NO I WAS JUST MOLESTIN THE BEAT