Frustrated musician

[motorollin]

I was classically trained in the piano and self taught a little bit of guitar (just sloppy strumming really). About 8 years ago I started experimenting in composing electronic music. At the time I was using Cakewalk Home Studio with VST plugins. I then used ReWire to connect Cakewalk to Rebirth, and then about 6 years ago I moved over entirely to Reason.

In Reason I have written quite a lot of tracks, but only about 5 or 6 finished ones which I would actually consider much good. I have a few unfinished pieces which I think have potential. But I just can't finish them. Occasionally I sit down and listen to the unfinished track and really try to work out where they're going. But I can't find anything to come next.

Composition has never come easy for me. It has always been a long, drawn out struggle. Only once have I sat down and written a whole piece without stopping. It was a 6 hour marathon, and I still consider that track to be my best.

I haven't written anything now for probably at least 2 years. I sometimes feel like I've written all the music I will ever write. I can't even improvise any more. Sometimes I sit down at my keyboard and I feel like I'm about to play something. I can almost feel it in my hands like a kind of energy waiting to come out in the form of music, but still I can't find anything to play.

:-(

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moto

[motorollin]

Glad I'm not the only one. I guess we all need some inspiration :-)

I used to find it quite helpful to write a lyric, then use its rhythm as the basis for a melodic component of a track. You would think that there would be no end of subjects to choose from these days, but when it comes down to it, it really is hard to put your opinions on a subject in to words which (a) fit in to a song, (b) are somewhat interesting to listen to, and optionally (c) rhyme (though I think rhyming lyrics are overrated, and often sound very contrived).

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moto

[motorollin]

For some reason these lyrics seem to sum up how I feel.

In fences that you cannot climb
In sentences that do not rhyme
In all that you can never change
The one you're looking for

It gets you down
It gets you down

There's no spark
No light in the dark
It gets you down
It gets you down
You've travelled far
What have you have found?
That theres no time
There's no time
To analyse
To think things through
To make sense

- Thom Yorke, "Analyse"


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moto

[motorollin]

CannonFodder wrote:
May I be so bold as to suggest Prozac? ;-)

Been there done that. Stifles creativity even more :roll:

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moto

[motorollin]

@Karlos
I know how that feels. I used to wake up in the night and have music in my head. I would have to get up immediately and write it down otherwise it would be gone by morning. I would have scraps of paper by my bed with roughly drawn staves of fragments of music and notes on instrumentation, rhythm, or even lyrics. Other times I would actually dream a piece of music, but after waking up I couldn't remember enough of it to create anything from it.

These were the only times I felt like a real musician instead of a phoney :-(

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moto

[motorollin]

Capitalism is the devourer of art. Hmmm, could be a good premise for a song... ;-)

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moto

[motorollin]

bloodline wrote:
I always plan my peice in painful detail, before I even go near a keyboard/sequencer/sampler... just pen and paper.

I have always had a problem planning music, partly because I'm never really sure where my music is going, and also because when I do get an idea I find it almost as hard to express it in note form as I do to create the music itself. What form do your plans take? Written notes? Musical notation? Or something else?

bloodline wrote:
Don't set your sights to high, often you'll want to write some powerful emotional peice with a very specific message... this is destined to failure unless you've got 10years of experience under your belt.

Well, I started learning music when I was 4 years old, so that's 20 years experience - I would really expect to be more advanced than I am now :-(

bloodline wrote:
Just choose a topic that interests you, then try to emulate a song you like...

I do try to take little bits from other music, like synth sounds I like or drumming styles, though of course I never blatantly rip anything off :-)

Thanks for the advice - it's given me a lot to think about.

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moto

[motorollin]

@CF
No, I much prefer to create something from scratch than to "sample" other people's work.

@Cymric
Why would I bite your head off for that? It's actually a very good idea. Thanks for the suggestion! If anyone wants to hear some of my stuff, finished or not, PM me.

@Bloodline
Would you feel comfortable letting me see some of your notes? I think it would be helpful to me to see your creative workflow and maybe learn from it. I do sometimes think I'm too analytical of music and not emotional enough. That's a hard habit to break. As for practice, I did used to copy other people's stuff for practice. I once found an a capella vocal from Fatboy Slim's "Praise You" and reworked the whole track. I was really pleased with how it turned out and I learned a lot. Maybe I need to do that again!

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moto

[motorollin]

bloodline wrote:
Sure, I've got pages of the damn things lying around... they probably won't make much sense to you. But should give a good idea of what I mean... I'll have to dig out my scanner...

Great! I would really appreciate it. My email address is in my profile. Thanks mate!

bloodline wrote:
the initial idea should be emotional (that takes special type of person, I'm lucky enough to have someone like that in my band)...

Well I am a *very* emotional person. But I find it very difficult to express my emotions (because I'm a manly man :-P ) I suppose learning how to express emotion through music is a skill which has to be nurtured.

bloodline wrote:
then working out the rest needs to be analytical (which is more my area).

My years of training in music theory should hopefully come in handy here.

bloodline wrote:
Exactly! do that with as many songs as you can.

Will do :-)

I've spotted something which has changed between the time when I started composing a lot of electronic music and the time when I stopped: I have stopped listening to new music. When I first started writing electro, I had just started listening to Kid A by Radiohead. I had never heard anything like it before, and I was absolutely amazed by it. Their subsequent albums were also sources of inspiration.

Apart from a few albums, I haven't really bought much music since then since very little music is interesting to me these days. I am still listening to the same music I was back then. I think I need something new to listen to to open my mind a bit. Suggestions please :-)

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moto

[motorollin]

That doesn't count, it was practice :-P I can see the value in using samples of other people's work as a starting point. But creating a whole track from scratch is much more rewarding to me than basing something on somebody else's work.

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moto

[motorollin]

@CF
You got PM :-D

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moto

[motorollin]

I understand what you meant by "select few" Cymric - and thanks again for your suggestion. I have forwarded links to a couple of mp3s to a few people here.

Cheers

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moto

[motorollin]

FluffyMcDeath wrote:
Work with others.

I considered that actually. But it's hard to commit the time to it :-(

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moto

[motorollin]

Right, I need something new to listen to. I've been browsing the new releases on the iTunes store, but can't find what I'm looking for. I really want something in the same vein as Radiohead's Kid A/Amnesiac era. Any suggestions?

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moto

[motorollin]

Just had a quick listen on iTunes and it sounds pretty good. Not what I would normally listen to and I think it will take a bit of getting used to, but having said that I hated Radiohead when I first heard them. The albums I keep coming back to years later are always the ones that took a while to grow on me.

I've just ordered the album from Amazon so I'll let you know what I think. Thanks for the suggestion! Maybe one day I'll love it as much as Kid A :-) Everything In Its Right Place still does something to my brain which causes me to collapse in a stupor as soon as I hear those opening 4 notes from the Rhodes...

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moto