I'm curious to hear from both new and veteran music makers what are the most difficult things they struggle with when making music.

I started making music over twenty years ago and at the time, making music for me wasn't as easy as it is today. In the early years, wrapping my head around the concept of midi and understanding how and when to use eq and compression where my biggest hurdles. I've since then mastered the more technical aspects of music making, however, the things I struggle most with now are arrangement and creativity. There are times when I get caught up in doing things in a technically proficient manner, which leads to tracks that sound sterile and lack feeling / tension. It's still hard for me to simply let go and just make music for fun because of my ocd for doing things "correctly".

What hurdles have you overcome and what things do you struggle with today when making music?

 

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Hello good friend @aymat
for that i suggest the subtractive arrangement method
also you can put on your sequencer a favorite arrangement(track on top) of yours or from an artist you admire & simple study it

for that i suggest reading books ,you can read a page from something,a paragraph of a story & let your imagination go wild :
then put that into your music next time you start a project
....or look at some art/painting & inspire yourself thru that too ...what does your intuition tell you to write after you see it ?
....follow it & you will have many ideas going ...
....also from some good friends have a look here :

 

For me i love the creative process of making a melody or a chord progression, a harmony or an arrangement etc. Just coming up with something that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up sometimes.... i could do that part forever.

The most difficult thing for me is then the technical process of home studio recording, mixing and mastering etc......all the 'knob twiddling' bits that are necessary to make the final product presentable. That gets me a bit frustrated.

 

The most important thing that I struggle with when making music is "Good Melody" and the flow of the song ( Rhythm part ) since these two elements should be catchy enough and convey what I intend to express I spend time on them but honestly, at least for me, they are hard to handle. Sometime I have the chord progression but the "Harmonic rhythm" is a mystery and I cannot find that "right rhythm" to go with the progression to lead you to eargasm ( I coined the word on the fly! )
I appreciate if you guys share any tips about how you predefine the flow of your song to be able to implement it properly.
Thanks

 

The way i mostly work is to 'visualize' the sound/song/track in my mind. i try to think of how it 'looks', what sounds can illustrates it. In fact i mostly start off with a story in mind and then try 'say' that in music. If that makes sense to you.

If i start the other way around i improvise melodies or progressions till i stumble upon one that i really like...that's a bit hit and miss though of course and i dont find that as satisfying.

The other thing i try to do is not always stick to the rules and norm. Why not bend or even break the rules sometimes? If it sounds good to me and is a bit different then that is much better

 

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Hello @MaXe i would suggest to feel(& not think) more the connection between your chords & the rhythms you want to create as a
"call" & "answer" thing & also study a lot the "groove" of your favorite records : listen & feel why things lock together
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i hope this helps you

 

Meaningful harmony and impactful transitions between sections are my biggest challenges... and the mix/master stage of self production.

 

For me, it's the temptation to "over egg the pudding".
Stepping away from the board and saying to myself, "It's done - finished..." is super hard.

 

I know it's quite the opposite of what you've asked for, but maybe you'll allow me to give you a hint. Separate the creative, the arrangement and the mixing stage as much as possible. Do these afterwards. Thanks to MIDI you can turn a piano phrase into a guitar or bell sound or vice versa. Adjusting compressors and equalizers has nothing to do with creating a song.

 

I don't like making basslines.

 

The listeners.

 

To Finnish

ed: it was not a problem to finnish music to begin with.
but the "better" I got, the harder it was/is to make the decision "That's it! its done!"

ed2: my input on the second part of the question, about doing things "sterile" or "correct"
"its all in your mind" the percived notion that you have to do things in a certain way in order to achive a already madeup goal that is attached with lots of different labels and values with different meanings.

You need to let go of all that. Set yourself free.
go look deep and search inside yourself. tap into your heart. The real You. Go create from that place

 

Last edited: Jul 5, 2018

I'm not sure if my answer is relevant to your question, but traveling is the most difficult (annoying) part of my making (playing) music. I also dread the amount of time that it takes me to arrange and record tracks. When it comes to composition my method is to record the most basic ideas whenever they come to me, and then don't listen to them again for at least a month. After you hear your compositions with a fresh ear you instantly know what to drop, what to fix, and what to keep.

 

I just wish i wouldnt be so hard on myself in the sense and actually let people here more of my own stuff instead of hiding behind others. So many hours of music is just laying on the hard drives, old tapes and so on that probarly never gonna be heard by anyone. And even if i think its some really good stuff its just hard to let anyone else hear it.

Maybe im jumping to much between styles in music that i write and get confused myself with the final result. As said its easier doing something for someone else that knows how they want it to sound. Then i can always blame that person if it gets bad. Not lacking confidence in the sense of not doing my own thing. Just not sure if its something for others to listening to.. And as No Avenger says, hint is to separate the writing process from the producing/mixing part. Just create the idea and be creative then go do the same thing with the mixing/producing part..

 

You learn very quickly when it matters. For instance, if you're making money from what you create, or someone has asked you to create, or it's part of a job, then you will quickly make your mistakes and learn. At the hobby stage nothing matters. No one is waiting for your work, and you don't need to get it done to get paid. All artists get themselves to the money-making level as quickly as possible. Music is your life right? Or maybe it's not. If it your passion, get on with it, and ge5t working. Anywhere. Any job that is closely related to what you want to do. Want to be a producer? Offer to help a local DJ, you have some ideas for jingles or whatever that he can drop in to his sessions. Anything. Knock on studio doors. You're passionate and you love music and you'd like to help out. Get working.

 

the 8bar loop

 

2 hardest things, getting albums over the finishing line & transferring pieces to score for orchestral performance.
Everything else just comes willingly . . .

 

Wanting every song or piece to be the best one I have ever done gets in the way as I then tend to over-think my process and overshoot my best ideas. Wishing each to be soley unique and seemingly uninfluenced can also ruin the mood and put me off track of my goal of composing more in plenitude. The sum of the two can vastly be greater than the parts of these two show stoppers when things pass below my self impossed hurdles.

 

patience

 

For me far and away it's second guessing myself on the original idea.

If I suddenly come up with a melodic line that I like, I imediately start thinking 'that was too easy, I must have heard it somewhere, it must already exist, it must belong to someone else.'

And I end up shelving it.

For years I worked with someone who was good at coming up with simple but good themes and didn't care what happened to them after that. That was perfect for me as I enjoy arranging.

The technical stuff I don't sweat as I seldom finish a master unless I have a purpose for it, and that purpose helps define how the finished work is resolved. Id Est: Is it going to be heard through a stereo, a P.A., a multi-channel 'installation.' etc. Is it going to accompany video, or stationary art, or be background music for an event, or just 'something to listen to.'