My creativity is gone...

P

Picassoo

New member
So far ive been producing for 2 months, this is my latest beat.. "Nowhere Near" - Drake Type Beat (Prod. by Pay$o) [BANGING] - YouTube , my problem is that i feel like my creativity is slowly fading away. I don't know if im lacking ideas because honestly, i dont know anything about music theory or piano, i sometimes go on youtube and see how other beats are made but it doesn't help me. I'm wondering how do these top producers make such a high quality beat without losing any ideas? I feel like I've used up all my ideas and when i try to make a beat, it sounds repetitive or not interesting anymore. What do you guys, or these top producers do in order to have unlimited of creative ideas? How can i improve as a producer other than making beats on FL? Because making beats is only going to get you so far that, even though there is so much to learn. What should i do? Trust me I've rest my ears and i still cant get anything to kick in.
 
Sounds like your trying to hard. Just relax. Every idea that you come up with isn't going to be a platinum hit. Learn some music theory. It will help you take your ideas further. Listen to multiple genres of music. Learn new effects chains and processing techniques. There's alot to take in. Just chill and take it slow. The ideas will start to come.
 
Last edited:
You are the same guy that was complaining about learning theory, but did not want to actually learn anything. You should take a long break from music and do something else. Music isn't that serious. Leave the music to the pros and enjoy it for what it is.
 
Don't stress yourself about not being as creative as you've been hoping for. It takes time to mature in everything, including music creativity.
 
take drugs like alpha pvp to aid focus and leave the generic hip hop beats alone and carve your our niche be original and to the idiot said that music isnt serious leave it to the pros the music in the industry is garbage so thats why im serious about producing ..**** this shitty hip hop crap
 
Meryn Perving said:
take drugs like alpha pvp to aid focus and leave the generic hip hop beats alone and carve your our niche be original and to the idiot said that music isnt serious leave it to the pros the music in the industry is garbage so thats why im serious about producing ..**** this shitty hip hop crap
Click to expand...

I listened to your Soundcloud. Word Of Advice: Leave it to the pros.

Crying about the quality of music or the state of the industry is not important. Music is a form of entertainment. If one song or artist sucks, listen to something else. People act as if music is the end-all-be-all of life. It is entertainment. It doesn't really matter after a certain point.

Get serious all you want. You are probably not going to make a big difference in the world of music. That is ok. Most people that make music will not either. Life will go on and you will be another "serious" musician unable to pay the bills with your talent.
 
So your telling me that i should take a long break from making beats, while other people are working harder than me. Basically i should give up because the pros already have their own sound, and made it to the top.
 
Picassoo said:
So your telling me that i should take a long break from making beats, while other people are working harder than me. Basically i should give up because the pros already have their own sound, and made it to the top.
Click to expand...

Yes.

If you want to go pro, get to work. If not, quit.
 
If your creativity is gone, and you don't know anything about music theory, wouldn't it make sense to maybe...you know...learn a bit of theory?
 
Picassoo said:
when i try to make a beat, it sounds repetitive or not interesting anymore.
Click to expand...

That's probably because each of your beats is repetitive and not interesting.
You're being honest with yourself and allowing yourself to become dissatisfied. That's a sign of potential!
Dissatisfaction is one of the most powerful things in the world, but you need to be able to control it and channel it to push you forward rather than letting it crush you.

I listened to all of the beats on your YouTube channel.

Here's what I'm hearing from your beats:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
----BBBBBBBBBBBB
--------CCCCCCCC
------------DDDD

There's very little variation. The only way you're currently adding interest is by stacking more and more patterns over the old ones.
I know how that goes. I've been there before.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Beauty is in the details"? I had a friend who went to art school (a painter), and he kept emphasizing this to me.
You can draw a stick figure and everyone will know that it's supposed to be a man. It won't look that pretty or win any awards, but everyone will get the idea.
To take it a level higher, you can draw a correctly-shaped head and body, and it will look a little nicer.
If you add correct skin tones, it takes it to the next level.
If you add detailed lighting effects on the face, it takes it yet a level further.
Finally, if you start adding scars, slight disfigurements and imperfections, it starts to look almost real, and very compelling. It becomes something which people like to look at.

You need to focus on the detail in your beats. Right now, each one sounds like a basic sketch (a "stick figure" in my analogy) -- it sounds like what one of my beats might start out as. You don't need to throw these beats away, but you do need to build on them. Drop some things out. Make slight variations in the patterns. Mix things a little bit differently. Learn to use automation to vary your sounds over the course of your beats.

Pros stay interested because we pay attention to the subtle, detailed nuance in everything. We argue about small sonic details which are so subtle that they affect our listeners' ears at only a subconscious level. This is how pros stay interested in ANY field. It also happens to be how older people stay interested in life itself (trust me, as you get older, you see the same basic patterns over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over...).

-Ki
Salem Beats
 
Last edited:
Salem Beats said:
That's probably because each of your beats is repetitive and not interesting.
You're being honest with yourself and allowing yourself to become dissatisfied. That's a sign of potential!
Dissatisfaction is one of the most powerful things in the world, but you need to be able to control it and channel it to push you forward rather than letting it crush you.

I listened to all of the beats on your YouTube channel.

Here's what I'm hearing from your beats:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
----BBBBBBBBBBBB
--------CCCCCCCC
------------DDDD

There's very little variation. The only way you're currently adding interest is by stacking more and more patterns over the old ones.
I know how that goes. I've been there before.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Beauty is in the details"? I had a friend who went to art school (a painter), and he kept emphasizing this to me.
You can draw a stick figure and everyone will know that it's supposed to be a man. It won't look that pretty or win any awards, but everyone will get the idea.
To take it a level higher, you can draw a correctly-shaped head and body, and it will look a little nicer.
If you add correct skin tones, it takes it to the next level.
If you add detailed lighting effects on the face, it takes it yet a level further.
Finally, if you start adding scars, slight disfigurements and imperfections, it starts to look almost real, and very compelling. It becomes something which people like to look at.

You need to focus on the detail in your beats. Right now, each one sounds like a basic sketch (a "stick figure" in my analogy) -- it sounds like what one of my beats might start out as. You don't need to throw these beats away, but you do need to build on them. Drop some things out. Make slight variations in the patterns. Mix things a little bit differently. Learn to use automation to vary your sounds over the course of your beats.

Pros stay interested because we pay attention to the subtle detailed nuance in everything. We argue about small sonic details which are so subtle that they affect our listeners' ears at only a subconscious level. This is how pros stay interested in ANY field. It also happens to be how older people stay interested in life itself (trust me, as you get older, you see the same basic patterns over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over...).

-Ki
Salem Beats
Click to expand...

Now thats the real deal.
 
Last edited:
You need to understand who YOU are, not who he or she is. Developing your own sound and techniques will make your music stand out. It is not an overnight thing man. Take it easy and start with the basics...

Good Luck
Irife
 
I wrote a recommended article regarding this. I advise you check it out. It has helped plenty.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
theProducer said:
Now thats the real deal.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you know, just about every piece of popular music builds on one of maybe ten different basic chord progressions, and follows a macro-level pattern which doesn't deviate much from "Intro, Hook, Verse, Hook, Verse, Hook, Break, Hook, Outro".
Despite this, the songs sound distinctly different from one another. The distinction comes from the sum of a thousand little details.

I'm going to tell a little story to illustrate my point:

Back when I was maybe 7 or so, my mom would bake cookies and put maybe 40 of them in a cat-shaped jar on the kitchen counter. I wasn't allowed to take them whenever I wanted, but I reasoned that if I "just took one", nobody would notice, so one day I snuck one cookie and left 39. I didn't get in trouble that day.

The next day, I would do the same thing, reasoning that "Nobody will notice one cookie missing". To me, it didn't look like there was much change from day-to-day.

Little did I realize, however, that my mom didn't check the cookie jar every day. In fact, by the time she checked the cookie jar, weeks later, more than half of the cookies were missing. Small, gradual changes had added up to make a huge difference.

The moral of this story is that you should be aware of the powerful effect of the sum of several subtle differences.
The "listener" is like my mom in the story. Your listeners don't become acclimated to all of the tiny changes you make -- they hear the sum total of each of them, all at once.
As the producer, you take my perspective, and need to realize that every "cookie" missing is going to add up to a big difference down the road.

I hope you liked my story. ;)
Detail makes a big difference in the final result.

-Ki
Salem Beats
 
Last edited:
I totally get you Salem. One of my favourite chefs Marco Pierre White says "Good cooking is about doing lots of small things well."
 
theProducer said:
I totally get you Salem. One of my favourite chefs Marco Pierre White says "Good cooking is about doing lots of small things well."
Click to expand...

Yeah. The issue the OP has is that he's creating and listening only on a "macro" level.

In keeping with your cooking analogy, he's basically saying, "OK, I threw a raw steak on the grill, flipped it once, and and it's 160 degrees Fahrenheit on the inside now, so it's safe to eat. I am Master Chef! Man, I'm out of ideas. Cooking is boring."

-Ki
Salem Beats
 
Last edited:
it takes a lot of listening and thinking to train the ears to start listening at a lets say "nano" level only then can the hands make something that is considerably nano. I do not think this can be fast tracked.

Ive worked on the analogy a bit :P

Yesterday I went to a steakhouse, it tasted amazing. I cooked a steak today and It was nothing like the steak I had yesterday. I have no idea what to do im out of ideas.
 
theProducer said:
Yesterday I went to a steakhouse, it tasted amazing. I cooked a steak today and It was nothing like the steak I had yesterday. I have no idea what to do im out of ideas.
Click to expand...

Noob response:

Man, maybe we need to just stop with this "steak" stuff, it's overplayed and overhyped. All of this steak, and fish, and chicken... it's all too "mainstream". Even snails are getting too "mainstream". I'm original and "indie" -- I cook dead rats I find on the side of the road. Nobody's doing that yet, it's so original. You don't like my rat-tail stew?! You're just too mainstream.

-Ki
Salem Beats
 
Last edited:
Thanks salem, I understand what ur saying. But when I look at these top producers and trust me I study them, they dont have these "nano" type sounds. It sounds basic at the macro level but somehow they make it sound interesting. Thats what im confused on. I go on Youtube and I listen to these top producer instrumental and they sound so simple. People say the simplest beat are the best one. That is why im overwhelmed.
Thanks for the article too D-Funk
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top