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Motivation slump


Paul Bush

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Hi guys,

Do you ever suffer from ``motivation slump´´ after investing severl hour`s brain banging and head scratching, of  trying this trying that on a song when what at first seemed to be a a corker of a hum-dinger ended up as a stinker and then put to  one side for later in the  ``try again  later tray ´´ ..So  day`s pass by a or week maybe and then one thinks `I dunno I´ll give that another try it wasnt that bad  ´.....And  its sill not hitting the spot after once again hours of trying this and that ....problem is , you have  now invested even more time and enegy in this Turkey ..and it`s still not cooking . At what point do you give up ? ..I have such a song where  is built up solely on stop and go recording weeks months have gone by but I still just cant give  up on it although in my heart of heart I know it is still a half backed and bad  basted turkey ..then the worst g happens when someone say`s `` what are you crazy ? that`s a great song ´´ the fact that it`s opinion of your half deaf eighty year old gandma who is an expert on nothing less Des O´Connor is neither here nor there , Once again and with a gusto we spring into action with a new found wave of high  motivation and self belief stuffing in hand ready to fill out those empty cavities and so we start from the beginning  once again .... I have such a song and will post it somewhere in the future not for praise or adulation No ! I just want  confirmation that the bloody thing was a Turkey from the beginning ...pass the stuffing ...regards to all Paul DB

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I finish one song for every 50 I start.

Such a low completion rate can lead to a paralysis of indecision and procrastination. I've gone months without any creative output because I wonder what's the point when it's probably just going to suck.

What keeps me going is that wonderful feeling you get when a song suddenly clicks and you start to actually enjoy listening to it.

It's always a surprise when that happens. Sometimes I spend weeks on a piece that goes nowhere. Other times I'm sure it's going to suck and then one day it doesn't. Rarely do I know up front when I've begun a project that it's going to come out OK. It's like putting one more dollar into the slot machine: sure, it just took my money the first 50 times, but you never know.

Here's a tip. Every failure is going to have some little kernel of goodness in it. Might be a riff, a beat, a clever lyric or a cool synth patch. 5 seconds of brilliance buried in 5 minutes of crap. Those gems are like pocket change; toss one into a jar every day and over time they'll add up to something of value.

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I doubt that there's anyone here who doesn't have a HD full of such things. In my case even the "finished"  ones never really are because I've never done anything where I think.....Y'know what? That really couldn't be any better. A while back when something or other occurred that reminded me of the constantly perilous state of my own existence I thought that maybe I should  go through my HD and delete the very worst offenders in case I die unexpectedly and someone ends up hearing them and realises that the ones that are halfway decent clearly exist only due to the law of averages (monkeys and typewriters and all that) and that for some inexplicable reason I spent half my life doing something I wasn't much good at, but then I remembered that it's hard enough to get anyone to listen when I'm alive, so somebody poring over them when I'm gone is probably not something I need be too concerned about.

Edited by paulo
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All the time. Things tend to go in fits and starts. I have currently hit a creative roadblock on my main project. Of the three planned songs two are pretty much ready for vocals, but I don't have singers lined up yet. The third song is proving a road block.

I tend to dive into more technical things at these times. I have been getting a lot deeper into some of my VSTis, like Superior Drummer 3 for example. I also find the lack if inspiration or momentum makes one a lot more prone to G.A.S.

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I've got a bunch of midi covers that I have if I start losing motivation on original work. Old Jazz songs from 40's to 60's, some I am doing as backing tracks for others. I find I'm learning more from editing the pre-arranged midi covers. The whole song comes finished minus the vocals and it's all in midi of course, just midi files, some bought, some free. All you have to do is edit the midi to your contentment and assign instruments/effects and mix etc. So these songs are always "finished".

Enjoying it so much, I am going to put vocals on one of them just for fun. I love the old Jazz standards, even though I was not born in that era. I may even threaten to post it in the songs section.

Edited by Tezza
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Well Ive opened a can of worms there then.... I do have a small library of riff`s for the times when my creativity  is wanening I  pop back and give them another go  sometimes something pops out mostly not , I  have a riff thats over  twenty years old and I still  hit a brick wall and cant get further but I´m not man enough to delete it  I´ll still have another go at in a couple of months y´never know ?????

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You know what,

If I worry about being good, or loved, or respected, or a star,

I will never get anything done.

I understand the sentiment that you start something that sounds like a good idea and turns into a bad one, or a bad idea turns into a good one. 

The question for me is why do I try, and the answer is to express myself.

I've been called weird around these parts more often than I have received a positive response, and I still keep cooking.

I eat every day, and more often than not I cook my own meals.

Some days I just grab whatever is around and toss it together.

Other days I try to make something by the book, with a twist of course.

But when I'm done eating, I always feel full.

Maybe I wouldn't make a dish again, but at least I know I had something to eat, and I would share my meals with anyone who is hungry. 

Some of the best meals are the simplest, and take little thought at all.

So I guess the whole thing is who we choose to be, or are capable of being, and the standard at which we measure ourselves.

And in the end, your life doesn't depend on whether you make music.

Now I a feel like I am down the rabbit hole, the circuitous path, towards the meaning of it all, and the fact that I always end up in the same damn place.

Here or nowhere?  Nobody can tell me. 

I know that is the nature of the coffee house, fart. boob, revelation, inanity,  suffering and joy.

Paul, I hope you find the key.

 

 

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9 hours ago, Jesse Screed said:

You know what,

If I worry about being good, or loved, or respected, or a star,

I will never get anything done.

I understand the sentiment that you start something that sounds like a good idea and turns into a bad one, or a bad idea turns into a good one. 

The question for me is why do I try, and the answer is to express myself.

I've been called weird around these parts more often than I have received a positive response, and I still keep cooking.

I eat every day, and more often than not I cook my own meals.

Some days I just grab whatever is around and toss it together.

Other days I try to make something by the book, with a twist of course.

But when I'm done eating, I always feel full.

Maybe I wouldn't make a dish again, but at least I know I had something to eat, and I would share my meals with anyone who is hungry. 

Some of the best meals are the simplest, and take little thought at all.

So I guess the whole thing is who we choose to be, or are capable of being, and the standard at which we measure ourselves.

And in the end, your life doesn't depend on whether you make music.

Now I a feel like I am down the rabbit hole, the circuitous path, towards the meaning of it all, and the fact that I always end up in the same damn place.

Here or nowhere?  Nobody can tell me. 

I know that is the nature of the coffee house, fart. boob, revelation, inanity,  suffering and joy.

Paul, I hope you find the key.

 

 

myself,  anhedonia...

Edited by David Sprouse
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46 minutes ago, David Sprouse said:

myself,  anhedonia...

David, I wonder if you are posting this in jest.  I know how you like to exercise the "english language."

If though,

you truly are so,

consider this

there are those who feel joy,

and those who give joy

when I listen to your postings on the song forum

I most surly feel joy

whether or not this confession rectifies your disjointed juxtaposition I can not say

but through you flows a thread

tied to the fabric of the whole

which would be nothing without the fringe

sleep softly in that reality

 

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20 hours ago, Tezza said:

I've got a bunch of midi covers that I have if I start losing motivation on original work. Old Jazz songs from 40's to 60's

Word, I do a similar thing and it's great advice for anyone who enters a slump. I do doom metal covers of TV show theme songs and some artists songs which I intend to post soon. Cool thing about it is the song is already written and you just have to do your own take on it, and not verbatim either.. it's a cover, so just take the general gist of the song so people know it's that song and then make it your own. Doing this keeps you productive and working even when temporarily burnt out from your original stuff, and it's fun and cool and you get to keep honing your songwriting skills.. it just happens to be on a cover. Another cool thing about doing stylistic covers is while not everyone is gonna be immediately interested in hearing someone's original song, many more will be down to check out a unique slow doom metal cover of The Golden Girls theme song just out of sheer wtf curiosity.. then once you hook them like a gat dang sword fish you take them home and put them on your wall where they will be forced I mean happy to listen to your originals till the end of.., so to speak. But what's important is that you keep yourself busy and writing, be it an original or a rework, because on the way to turning out quality s#!t is a numbers game; it's about being prolific. Like, I'm an NY style pizza maker by hobby, and I can say w/o a mf'n doubt that I make the best d@mn pizza in this town (Seattle), and that's because over the last 3 years I've made over 1000 of them. 

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