[alphx]

Every now and then I get this feeling like I am fucking invincible and I can just own the world if I make music THIS second.
90% of the time I am not home, and I am incapable of writing score sheets without a piano nearby so theres that, and the other 10% I sit behind my DAW and realise I suck and get kicked back into reality...
Anyone ever get this feeling? and what do you do to "harness" it, because clearly I am doing it wrong. Feel like this now. but Im typing this out so maybe someone will give me another idea rather than just sitting down behind ableton and start mashing keys with no avail haha.


Just sharing a thought.

[aeoR]

I feel like this every other day, super world domination feeling, and then fucking quit and sale the studio haha but what is the difference between a guy who makes music and have good ideas and the other that had success doing it? I think it's perseverance .. so I keep going, like you should probably.

Even though, sometimes you'll feel like you're making music against your will while you could enjoy doing something else, practice and practice will get you better. And I mean any kind of practice, experimentation of music.

Then a day will come that you will be comfortable and enjoy every second of making music.. I know because I've been thru all this.

[Dugg Funnie]

Ya I'm a bit cyclothymic like that too, just sort of plow through it regardless. Acknowledge those feelings either positive or negative and then become completely indifferent to them and just do the work. I'll being working on a song and one day I'll fucking love it and seriously think "Holy shit, this is amazing I'm gonna win 7 grammy's and 2 oscar's for this shit, omg they'll form a religion around this beat and it's phatness will echo through the halls of time until it is nothing more than lore to the advanced bio-cyborgs of planet E-228-X1" then literally the next day when I open the DAW and listen to it without having changed anything yet "maybe I should just kill myself, seems plausible at this point, I meant this sucks why even bother, I'm gonna die either way". And that stuff used to really fuck me up but I just sort of grew indifferent to attachment to outcomes and make my music because it brings me a sort of inner peace and fulfillment that I enjoy.

[Djreject]

It usually is a sign that you may be stuck in a comfort zone, try to pay attention to what you're doing in the studio: are you always using the same vst's ? do you always start by laying down the drums ? do you produce the same genre of music since the beginning of last summer ?

Sometimes the only thing you need is to do is to work out of your comfort zone, you mentionned a piano, maybe you can try to work only with a sequencer for a while, or maybe you can forget about traditionnal harmony and just go nuts, or work with limiting.

Originally Posted by alphx

Every now and then I get this feeling like I am fucking invincible and I can just own the world if I make music THIS second.
90% of the time I am not home, and I am incapable of writing score sheets without a piano nearby so theres that, and the other 10% I sit behind my DAW and realise I suck and get kicked back into reality...
Anyone ever get this feeling? and what do you do to "harness" it, because clearly I am doing it wrong. Feel like this now. but Im typing this out so maybe someone will give me another idea rather than just sitting down behind ableton and start mashing keys with no avail haha.


Just sharing a thought.

[erik mitchell]

For those inspired moments when you can't get to your DAW, record yourself "beat-boxing" into a phone. I will many times have some sort of melody, beat, or idea in my head and just upload it straight to my soundcloud account. Then when you are able to work on music, you can build upon that

[SoloSaga]

Originally Posted by erik mitchell

For those inspired moments when you can't get to your DAW, record yourself "beat-boxing" into a phone. I will many times have some sort of melody, beat, or idea in my head and just upload it straight to my soundcloud account. Then when you are able to work on music, you can build upon that

This is not a bad idea. But yeah, I do the same thing. I'll be humming some sort of sick melody that I made in my head, and I'll be like "Wow, I'm pretty good at this. This could really be a catchy song."

Then I sit in Ableton trying to recreate that, and I realize that it was off tempo in my head, or I just lack the technical talent in the program to recreate the beat.

Advice? Just keep pushing on. I'll have phases, which last about a month or two, where I'll be working on stuff constantly, and then I'll just not be in the mood. Then I'll listen to a wolfgang tune or Feed Me, and instantly get inspired. I'm kind of unstable like that.

[Johnny_Newman]

I will go straight to staff paper & notate whatever idea it is. Even if it's just a piece of 8.5x11 paper or a napkin... I'll notate the staff & bar lines and figure it out. - Then I have it for whenever I'm able to get in front of Finale. - but, that's my own personal work method.

[EXZIZT]

I've been playing the piano for quite some time, and I have still to be able to hear a song in my head and know definitely what notes they are. Wish I could whip out a napkin just like you and write it down. Although, I just beat box or hum the melody that I'm hearing. It works.

[Rene Leino]

Originally Posted by alphx

Every now and then I get this feeling like I am fucking invincible and I can just own the world if I make music THIS second.
90% of the time I am not home, and I am incapable of writing score sheets without a piano nearby so theres that, and the other 10% I sit behind my DAW and realise I suck and get kicked back into reality...
Anyone ever get this feeling? and what do you do to "harness" it, because clearly I am doing it wrong. Feel like this now. but Im typing this out so maybe someone will give me another idea rather than just sitting down behind ableton and start mashing keys with no avail haha.


Just sharing a thought.

I get this feeling all the time . When I'm not home I get an awesome idea, but when I get home and put the idea in the DAW I get a real reality check... At first the idea sounds good but I get stuck and just rage quit.

[alphx]

Originally Posted by Johnny_Newman

I will go straight to staff paper & notate whatever idea it is. Even if it's just a piece of 8.5x11 paper or a napkin... I'll notate the staff & bar lines and figure it out. - Then I have it for whenever I'm able to get in front of Finale. - but, that's my own personal work method.

You are a fucking genious if you can do that and i envy you with all my heart. Because that seems to be the only downside of making music vs. being a painter or something, because you just have a sheet of paper to draw on, but with music you have to draw symbols for sounds which you cant see/hear on a sheet of paper. how did you learn? I mean i have been playing instruments for about 70% of my live and i cant write music out of my head for shit unless i have a piano on me

[Djreject]

Originally Posted by alphx

You are a fucking genious if you can do that and i envy you with all my heart. Because that seems to be the only downside of making music vs. being a painter or something, because you just have a sheet of paper to draw on, but with music you have to draw symbols for sounds which you cant see/hear on a sheet of paper. how did you learn? I mean i have been playing instruments for about 70% of my live and i cant write music out of my head for shit unless i have a piano on me

Ear training

[twilitez]

I get that when i build a loop that i end up listening to for half an hour because its just that good. Then i fail to actually arrange that into a proper song and it fades away a bit.

[apistat]

I think it's normal to for these things to come and go. I often have days where I'll open up five different tracks, listen to them all and make no changes. Then I occasionally have days where I'm super-productive and turn a single idea into a fully fledged piece of work.

Like aeoR said, it's all about perseverance.

[PeterBeckhart]

When I'm away and I hear something in my head that I want to remember, I usually write a quick note on my phone with details on what I was thinking about so it will come back to me when I'm home. Or sometimes if I'm in a good location, I record myself singing whatever it was that I hear on my phone.

[Rene Leino]

Made my new song 6 hours straight yesterday.. I'm afraid I'm gonna do the same today

[Hakuin]

I'd say it is a pretty uncommon thing for me to feel absolutely invincible regarding the creative inspiration, but it does happen, say, once a week.

I used to find I would turn right to trying to write a new track or continue producing a song that I was confident with, but sometimes I found I couldn't make anything out of this. I would plug away to no avail and then quit for the day tired and kinda down. Since music is my only art excluding fractal generation and MaxMsp visuals, I found other means of harnessing the creative burst.

1. For instance, I try to write a song.

2. If I I find it doesn't work, well, then I will just practice my live pa set with my Mc-909 and Alesis A6 Andromeda. This works because I play mostly live pa and only midi for final production. Some people can probably pull this off with midi.

3. If I'm not feeling that, I will, say, play my synthesizer and just play some chords, leads, or write new patches. Often I will loop a drum pattern on my MC-909 and groove over it with no goal, but to have have a freakin blast. This usually results in some nice combo which I save or expand at that moment.

4. Other times I will cue up a piano patch and run some scales or improvise.

The key is: If you notice, i usually start with really structured activities. This is because they are the ones I really want to get better at, but they require so much effort that they can kill creativity really fast. If i find the creativity wavering and my progress is too slow, I scale back my expectations and focus my efforts on a easier and more quickly gratifying means of expression.

Let me know if you find this works! Always trying to give better advice!

[Empty Reach]

Last night I decided that I was going to try and learn to play the keyboard, its 8:35am now and I'm still fucking around with it. It's tricky but I have half of Clubbed To Death down already.

Gonna learn R.E.M. - Mad World next because Im a depressing fuck

[joshmg]

I always think of some sick melodies or a good song to remix when I'm not near my computer or a way to get it written out!

[alphx]

Originally Posted by Hakuin

I'd say it is a pretty uncommon thing for me to feel absolutely invincible regarding the creative inspiration, but it does happen, say, once a week.

I used to find I would turn right to trying to write a new track or continue producing a song that I was confident with, but sometimes I found I couldn't make anything out of this. I would plug away to no avail and then quit for the day tired and kinda down. Since music is my only art excluding fractal generation and MaxMsp visuals, I found other means of harnessing the creative burst.

1. For instance, I try to write a song.

2. If I I find it doesn't work, well, then I will just practice my live pa set with my Mc-909 and Alesis A6 Andromeda. This works because I play mostly live pa and only midi for final production. Some people can probably pull this off with midi.

3. If I'm not feeling that, I will, say, play my synthesizer and just play some chords, leads, or write new patches. Often I will loop a drum pattern on my MC-909 and groove over it with no goal, but to have have a freakin blast. This usually results in some nice combo which I save or expand at that moment.

4. Other times I will cue up a piano patch and run some scales or improvise.

The key is: If you notice, i usually start with really structured activities. This is because they are the ones I really want to get better at, but they require so much effort that they can kill creativity really fast. If i find the creativity wavering and my progress is too slow, I scale back my expectations and focus my efforts on a easier and more quickly gratifying means of expression.

Let me know if you find this works! Always trying to give better advice!

you sir are a genius. I will do this. I guess when i will fail at composing ill just play a mixlr set or something or just play piano or what not. this is actually really helpful.

of course big thanks to everyone else too .

I have since dropped my last three WIPs and am now working on an old school dubstep track because i made a nice subbass sine patch lol (i know thats not something to be proud of but it actually sounds like a familiar music to me which is a first )




MAX