Do you ever get an idea going, and have a sudden surge of motivation, to then lose it after it’s “good enough”? I’ve been struggling with this for many years, and it has resulted in a large ratio of half-songs:completed-songs.
Recently, this has also been happening when I try to re-record completed songs. I’ll lay down a few tracks, and come to a stop (either time-related, or a difficult part). Then, I have a hard time picking up where I left off.
How do you overcome hurdles, related or not?
Are you me?
For me, when I get to things that are hard for me, it stops being fun and turns into work, which makes it hard to continue, what I’ve been working is on improving my workflow so that I can get through some things faster.
By far the biggest improvement to my workflow has been concentrating on getting better sounds at the recording stage. Anything that isn’t solid when I record just becomes a lot of work later on and not much fun so I’m spending more time in this phase right now than I used to but then mixing is easier.
Yep, and this is where feedback from fellow musicians, engineers and producers is vital imo, when working towards a finished article.
It’s all too easy to be your own judge and critic, and in the process settle for “yeah that’s near enough”, as opposed to having an outside ear(s) giving you a nice bitchslap of reality and pushing you to dig a little deeper that you might otherwise have done.
Of course I’m only speaking from a personal perspective here, but I’m sure others can relate.
I think this is very standard. I promise you that I have WAY more unfinished tracks on my HD than u do lol
with me its so bad that i have some SOLID freaking stuff that I will completely forget exists. I see some file on my HD and I click it and it sounds great and i vaguely remember recording it…but there it sits with little hope of ever being “finished”
With me personally id say its a mixture of just being a junkie for those first bits of creativity along with some character flaw of being too lazy to put in the grind of finishing stuff
TBH I dont envy the creativity of guys like Prince, Paul McCartney etc. I envy their work ethic
on the flip side they say that Leonardo Da Vinci only finished like 5% of the stuff he started
Totally relate to this. I have several songs in exactly that half-finished state now. For a while I was pretty good about getting something finished (or finished enough, after bashing here etc) before starting on anything else. But I have been failing in that for the better part of a year…
Have you heard of Jocko Willink? He would say discipline. If you’re rather serious about wanting to get past the hurdles, maybe check out his podcast.
Another resource I’m reminded of is a book I read a long time ago called The Path of Least Resistance. Towards the end of the book he talks about the creative process from start to finish. There is most definitely a portion that is not fun. Feels like a grind. You just have to do the work.
I don’t think there’s any point in toiling over something until it’s perfect–it’ll never be perfect. But there’s definitely value in finishing things. No secret really though. Well actually, one misconception perhaps–you don’t need motivation in order to do something. I learned about this from a book on depression. It’s a misconception that action should follow motivation. What often is the case is that motivation will follow action. So again the “trick” is to just do it. 
yeah me too is you too…we are all related in this too
the blast comes, the flurry of fun and tracking comes, capture it before it flys away…and it usually flys away and then comes getting serious Part #2 and the fun level drops… the groove somehow isnt the same and theres parts of version #1 that just has something version 2 doesnt…version 3is pretty good…by version 4 its now a “thing” with very little vibe of version 1 but maybe better than 1,2,3 in some ways technically which is pleasing to the ears (lets say the window air conditioner noise and tv in the background is removed when tracking version 4)…
we’ve not even come close to something worth mixing yet… and the next song blast arrives making the unfinished one uninteresting.
I thiink my “HR goal” example was always McCartneys Come and Get It…he came in supposedly, the song written, and recorded the demo in 1hr in EMI, while John & Yoko sat in the control room too…he had engineers doing all the work…which the sound is almost ready for release.
He gave the song to Badfinger and they had the hit with it…but the whole demo process being 1hr…and it has vocal x 2, piano, bass, drums… done. in 1hr.
They did whole album mixes in a week …I cant seem to do a song a year?
That’s a great place to start. I need to identify which areas need work! I totally feel you, when it starts to not feel so fun. Thanks for responding.
That’s one area I could improve in. My “good enough” usually relates to “I’ve worked hard enough in this session”. I should start putting my material out there more. Thank you!
That is totally me! “Yeah, this sounds awesome!” doesn’t work on it ever again. I think I have a “thrill of the chase” syndrome, or something. I like your perspective on work ethic. Thanks for replying!
We must be related. The last song I actually finished is my wedding song Moment, and that was back in October. I guess when I have deadlines, I tend to work unfrivolously. Since then, I’ve started around a half dozen projects. I should try to put more purpose in my work!
That’s definitely something I needed to hear. I tend to procrastinate or bide my time, when there’s something I don’t particularly want to do (bedtime, taking the dog out). I have not heard of Jocko Willink, but I’ll check out his podcast, thank you!
This is all too familiar! Ooh, a piece of candy! I also relate to the different versions just not amounting to the passion and rawness of the first one. I’ve been trying/wanting to re-record a song my friend and I made for quite a few years, but it just feels deflated. Perhaps like Christina said, I just need to “do it”.
That’s the part I call “inspiration”. Yes, it can be fleeting. It comes from a “mood” I think. It’s great for coming up with ideas and getting them started, but the necessary follow-up work then can become a grind if there isn’t a degree of incentive.
It has happened to me for a long time. Part of the one-person-band syndrome I guess. When you have a band or group of musicians, there’s more accountability and peer pressure. If you slack off you’re letting everyone else down. If you book time in a studio and everyone goes in, there’s time and money on the line. You’d better get your ass in gear, or you’ll end up looking like a fool and piss people off. But home studio? No deadlines, no pressure, no accountability - unless self imposed.
Some of the greatest music came about IMO in the heyday of the big record companies, when you had to contractually record an album … and producers, engineers, and studios were standing around waiting for you to create some really slick sounds. Yes it was a lot of pressure, but that sometimes does the trick. Songs that were written on the spot sometimes have the greatest groove, even if the lyrics are nonsense. Or like Fleetwood Mac who spent a year in the studio - practically living there - eventually some genius will come out, and having competing songwriters lights a fire under everyone’s ass. Your name and reputation are on the line.
I guess you gotta have something to ‘prove’ to yourself or somebody else. 