Only been producing 5 months and the progress I've made, according to people who perform music often, is phenomenal. However, the past 2 months I've lost interest in producing music. I don't know what it is. I'm either too busy because of school starting up or want to spend my time relaxing doing other things.
Since people who play music very frequently tell me that the music I'm producing is actually starting to sound legitimate. I have been gaining a little bit of confidence but I just feel like the creativity and passion isn't there anymore or ESPECIALLY BECAUSE WHEN I TRY I GET BORED OF MAKING MUSIC VERY QUICKLY FOR SOME REASON.
What's wrong and is this normal? I have inspiration and confidence from hearing people tell me how far I've come in such a short time but there's just something missing and I feel too busy or get bored quickly. Am I crazy?
I'm going to get fairly deep into this because this is a subject I've been intensely interested in for a very long time.
Part of the reason you were interested in making music in the first place was probably the allure of
novelty and
mystery (does that sound too obvious?).
When you first get into making music, you're excited by how new and fresh the experience is.
Even though you don't have a clue what you're doing, you confidently tell yourself that you'll figure it out.
However...
As you start to put more and more time into making music,
you start sticking to particular ways of working through challenges.
The hobby goes from being
an enchanting dream full of possibilities
to
a myriad of routine, automatic habits.
But that's not all.
Not only do get stuck in the drudgery and monotony of habit,
but you also eventually start to pressure yourself to live up to an ideal.
You see, when you were just starting out, you were just testing the waters.
If it turned out that this wasn't for you, it wouldn't have mattered.
You played around without a care in the world.
However, as soon as you started putting more time and money into it,
you gave yourself the pressure of recouping an investment.
While everyone else was out enjoying their normal lives,
you were locked up in the lab working.
(and if you were stuck in your habitual creative ruts, you weren't even enjoying it!)
You also might have spent all of your spare cash on music stuff!
You might feel that you deserve more respect and acclaim than you've received for your 5 months of dedication.
"You don't want all of that time and money to go to waste, do you?!"
The pressure is so subtle.
So we've got:
- Boredom of routine.
- Pressure to succeed.
So what are you to do to solve these problems?
People might make suggestions like,
"Go out and do something else for a while",
"Learn a new style",
"Collaborate with other producers",
"Pick up some new plugins",
"Learn music theory",
"Get laid/stoned/etc.",
etc.
These might work intermittently, but they're unreliable, and you won't easily understand why they're working
(or why they're not).
If you expect these strategies to work without understanding why,
you might as well also go out and play slot machines in Vegas as an investment strategy.
Now, I'm a reader.
If I held your attention this far into my post, you might also be one.
If you're not one, I suggest you become one so that you can start to better understand how that organ between your ears works.
I'm going to make two book suggestions:
The first book covers the topic of creativity
(and its opposite, habit) by building a model of the brain that's easy to relate to.
It uses this model to explain why you're prone to fall into boredom and habit over time, and suggests strategies for breaking out of ruts.
The book's name is
The Mechanism of Mind by Edward DeBono. You can get it
used from Amazon for a few dollars including shipping.
The other book might feel like a bit of a stretch, but you'll have to trust me on this one.
It's an absolute classic, often credited for kickstarting the entire discipline of Sports Psychology
(also known in more general terms as the Psychology of Peak Performance).
The author suggests an effective paradigm for handling the high-pressure situations you'll often find yourself in as you become more successful.
This book's name is
The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey. Once again, you can pick it up
used from Amazon for a couple bucks with shipping included.
I know that you probably didn't come here to be told to go read.
However, if you pick up these two books and read only a few pages at a time in the bathroom, you might find them helpful.
If you just want some quick inspiration
and some how-to tips on how to create particular types of beats,
check
these guys out.
-Ki
Salem Beats (+Reviews)
(EDIT)
P.S.,
This is a wake-up call:
You have a LOT to learn.
Your music is NOWHERE NEAR the level it would need to be if you were to plan to make a living off of it.
Don't feel too self-satisfied with your current level of progress. Be happy you've made it this far, while acknowledging that you have a LONG path ahead of you.
You can quit music if you want, but this demon of a problem will follow you in everything you put serious time into.
Might as well learn to deal with it now, right?
