What are your biggest barriers to starting or finishing songs?

[curiouscheetah120]

Hello everyone,

I am a composer and producer while my collaborator is a songwriter. We wanted to start this topic as we are also technologists and we believe software built around these barriers could help. Some guiding questions:

⁠What are the steps you go through to make a song and what do you use? ⁠Which of these steps do you find most difficult, tedious, or expensive and why? What are your strengths and weaknesses in making a song and how do you currently work around them?

[Tatlock Holmes]

Do you mean writing a song or making a demo? I'm a little confused as to which you mean as you refer to songwriting in the heading and making a song referring to the expense involved in your post.

 

Assuming you've left this to the interpretation of the reader -

 

Songwriting;

The most difficult part for me is having a title or idea that's good or interesting enough to be worth developing. Often it'll only sustain a verse and a chorus, or even just a few lines before it runs out of steam. I think that technology and processes notwithstanding, the biggest barrier to songwriter is not having something to say that's worth turning into a song.

 

Producing Demos:

I used to do this a lot until I could no longer ignore what a boring process this was. A lot of repetition and tweaking and re-doing parts over and over again - but the biggest problem of all is that the song is rarely properly finished when the demo is - there's always something you want to change. I prefer to see songs now as having more of a life of their own so that you can play them in different ways and make small adjustments every time if you want to as time goes on.

Edited June 2 by Tatlock Holmes

[MisterB]

My biggest hurdles don't really have anything to do with music. I mean, getting the idea started can be a little tricky, but once the idea starts to flow, it comes together in a decent amount of time for me (I was able to create a five track EP start to finish, in my spare time, in February, so I know I can do it). The hurdles for me are essentially procrastination. This is caused by some mental hurdles and some physical. A seek for perfection is the main mental hurdle. I'm not that great at any element of music making, so I constantly second guess myself. My main physical hurdle is fibromyalgia which can be very debilitating, and kills any mood of inspiration or desire to get anything done for days and sometimes weeks at a time.

 

I'm no longer a performing musician at all (I occasionally do a solo on a MIDI wind instrument, but that's about it), but I do still have some theory swimming around inside my head, and a huge desire to create songs. For songwriting, I typically start with Toontrack EZ keys 2. I create my own chord progressions, then use EZ keys to create something of an appropriate piano part. Next, I use Dreamtonics Synthesizer-V to help me write the lyrics and melody line. At this point my chord structure is quite fluid, and frequently changes as I create the lyrics and melody line.

 

The arrangement of the song is normally determined by what I have by the time I have the basic verse and chorus written. I have a well curated collection of other virtual instruments to help me create the arrangement for a performance.

[Mahesh]

8 hours ago, MisterB said:

so I constantly second guess myself

I find this extremely relatable. The procrastination coming from self doubt is soo real. It's either the most ideal perfectly made art piece or nothing at all. lol So frustrating!

[john]

3 hours ago, Mahesh said:

I find this extremely relatable. The procrastination coming from self doubt is soo real. It's either the most ideal perfectly made art piece or nothing at all. lol So frustrating!

 

There’s a line where you cross from healthy internal debate into second guessing. That’s one of the benefits of writing regularly. Get used to considering and making decisions and then sticking to the decisions you make, except in exceptional circumstances. Yet again, this is an area that regular participation in critique as someone offering critique can really help. During critique you use all the same tools you use when writing a song. 

 

Obviously, when you offer critique you have no skin in the game. It isn’t your song. You don’t have to make choices. You do observe, analyse, suggest and debate. It is a good idea to form an opinion about what you would have done if you were the writer. It is their song. They will decide what happens with the actual song. As a procrastinator, going through the stages of looking at a song and deciding what you would have done, gets you into that head space. It gets you comfortable with looking at options and making choices. By exercising that muscle, you get into the habit of making informed choices. When you then write your own song… go through the same processes. That familiarity will help!

[VSThost]

Biggest hurdles are not related to music. Distractions, lots of high-priority 'side missions', prerequisites, personal problems, ... Hugh.

[Peggy]

2 hours ago, VSThost said:

Biggest hurdles are not related to music.

This is so true for me, too.  It comes down to time management of responsibilities, family time and free time. 

[john]

24 minutes ago, Peggy said:

This is so true for me, too.  It comes down to time management of responsibilities, family time and free time. 

 

When you take it as a whole, being a modern musician is easily a full-time pastime. It takes time to adapt, learn, integrate, and where possible automate using the right tools… and that all takes research and a constant learning curve… which is of course more time. the good thing is that as long as you work on focused tasks and don’t get sucked in by perfectionism, learning is a cumulative process. Learn and improve like layers of an opinion instead of spikes of perfectionism in specific areas. So much of music is about having all the roles covered and evolving them together, ever improving. Even with the big stuff. You can write and record a brilliant song… that no one gets to hear because you didn’t learn about marketing and promotion, or the ins and outs of the music industry or the internet.