I used to make music every other day, then it became every week, then every 2 weeks and now it’s once in a blue moon. I still love thinking about sound design and love music. But just haven’t been motivated to actually make it. Is it time to take it easy or to force myself to make something till I get back into a rhythm. Music isn’t my job just a passion.
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If it is something that you want to do you might want to plan and schedule it.
Rather than just switching on gear and seeing what happens (which can be disappointing), if you think ahead of time about what you want to achieve it can focus you more into being/feeling productive and satisfied.
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I’m exactly in the same league, but in my case I even thinking more radical: get rid of everything
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You have a point
99% of the time my finished projects come from sudden urges to sit down and do something. And I write and master from night till 3am. I never considered doing this based on a schedule. The closest I’ve gotten to this is when for a brief period of time I made it a point to generally write at night without that sudden “inspirational urge”
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I agree about planning. Being a pretty poor planner myself, i’ve found more success in breaking down the overall music practice and processes into components that I can visit as wanted/needed during a period that I set aside each day/3 days/weekend/evening or so.
e.g. I have a recurring music session scheduled in my calendar for 30 minutes. I love it enough to want to honor it, so no matter what I just show up in the studio for it. when I get there i have a buffet of things i can choose from depending on my mood.
examples:
- Patching
- beat making
- new tool learning
- old tool learning
- concept exploration
- music theory/transcription/larceny
- EQ
- complete old tracks
whatever. some famous genius author was asked how/why/when inspiration and he said idk i just show up at 0900 everyday to write and i’m suddenly inspired.
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I’m the same. I feel unmotivated to make tunes like I used to. In the past during similar quiet times I found that concentrating on one aspect helps. i.e. use only one machine and only one pattern and see how far you can take it. Using all four Electron boxes is overwhelming with possibilities so it’s good to strip things back and focus on one thing at a time. It’s like the Netflix syndrome where so much choice means you can’t find something to watch.
Also booking a gig might help. I booked myself into the local EMOM a month in advance and worked my arse off building a set. Good to have something to focus on, it’s motivating.
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people always want to purge when they feel this way but isn’t it like relationships in a way? why label it, just do what works. if it’s not working make a change. if you’re content with once in a blue moon that’s fine, if you’re feeling like you want to do more and you’ve just lost your drive, finding opportunities to be creative is a good start but it doesn’t always lead to creativity. looking for excuses to be inspired is much more productive.
sometimes doing things that stimulate your mind in other ways can help give you a push towards creating music. if you have an idea or hear something in your head, try and have something like a musical sketchpad close at hand which is easy to get an idea down on, even if it’s just a few notes. Sometimes that small start will then eat at your brain until you go back and expand on it.
having an idea to work from is inspiring, just start small unless you really think there’s some benefit in “making it official” and taking a break. just make sure that in the meantime your gear doesn’t start seeing other people.
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Most inspiring thing I find is listening to lots of music or any other art. Also just taking a walk and doing life things. None of the best music was made without inspiration. Ironically writers block or inspiration block as a topic have made some of my favourite songs.
Art is conversation. If you’ve got nothing to talk about or not enough words to use you’ll struggle to make anything.
Getting a ready made commission to write some music is a great way to get back into things too. I initially got into releasing and recording music solely through writing birthday presents.
Art needs purpose. It can be abstract purpose but the less abstract the purpose the better the art tends to be.
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I had been slowly losing motivation for some time. May sound odd but when Dave Smith died I felt like I was done.
I was no longer inspired by the music I originally aspired to make. A lot of it just feels like paint by numbers and ‘content creator’ music.
Ultimately I sold essentially everything I had, minus my SP1200. Even that has been a constant up and down as to whether to sell it and move on. Perhaps I’m just attached to the prestige. Crazy really considering how much I’ve sold in the past without thinking about it.
Structure and organisation can help (for example, having a setup you can just switch on and go). For me, having an appropriate amount space with proper seat and layout is probably the most important. Make things easier to use.
But mostly I’d say don’t force it. Someone once told me (regarding art and illustration), that being an artist isn’t solely about the making of art. If I take all your paint and materials away you don’t suddenly stop being an artist.
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Both.
Creative work is effort and there comes a point when natural inspiration is in short supply. Then we learn that actually, we were just shopping for ideas all along, and the only way to get more ideas is to make more stuff.
Equally, we all have times where the motivation is in such short supply that doing anything feels painful. Sometimes you have to lean into that. You can’t always be harvesting the crops. You have to plant the seeds, and sometimes the way to do that is to step away from doing stuff to recharge.
For most people, a balance of both is needed.
Sometimes it happens to me.
When it does, I set myself a tiny goal to achieve, like ‘turn on one switch to one instrument’.
I do it, then before I know it I’m immersed again.
It does help to mentally divide your time up, if you don’t feel like writing then organize samples, do some mastering, learn a new technique etc.
Definitely helps to learn multiple instruments. Can never be bored when you have triangle practice to look forward to! 
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Sad I won’t get to see that 
Have been in discussions with some people over here in Ireland to get an EMOM going but life/work/life-admin constantly gets in the way at the moment!
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This problem is tied in to the open-endedness of electronic music. Whereas using an acoustic instrument is bounded by physical limitations of your ability to play a certain piece, with technology, especially modern computer-based instruments, the boundaries are so distant as to be infinite. A lot of people get around this by limiting the realm of exploration to fit in with the style of music they enjoy already, at first imitating what they’ve heard before. This sets a definite goal, which is usually to get involved with the people successfully making music in that style, and is how scenes and genres are born. Perhaps you’re beyond all that and experienced enough to have demystified most of what got you interested in the first place. Nothing is providing that same original impetus to get involved, which is fine, but also means you need to set your own parameters. I find that trying to use sounds which I would usually overlook can be interesting. That said, I’ve been on an extended break from music for years now after losing faith in what I was trying to accomplish. It happens, don’t beat yourself up about it. I also find when I’m busy with other things I forget about it entirely, which puts it all into perspective. Also this post was not AI generated even though the first half reads like it could have been!
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For me, if I find that I’m losing the habit, I strongly believe in habits, then when I sit down to do something I try to break all my old habits. Such as start with the drums instead of melody. Try a different key. Just try to do and make something new. If I’m forever writing essentially the same music, it’s no wonder that I get bored.
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Do you happen to spend most of your time on the internet? Because that may be a cause. It is for me, at least.
So many things to watch that there’s very little time to be bored. And I don’t produce if I’m not bored.
And so many things to buy that you’re always one thing away from being geared up. And why produce now when you’ll have new sounds and workflows to explore next month.
Nowadays it’s easy to get stuck in a Wall-e type of endless consumption. Sometimes you have to unplug everything (well, except for the synths).
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It comes in waves. Sometimes creativity flows and other times it might be time to do something else. I experienced that it will come back eventually. So i’d say take it easy and don’t stress it.
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Don’t avoid making music. Just avoid watching Social Media. You’ll find a place in this Universe much quicker.
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I think it is hard to tell the difference really, but I’d note that over an almost thirty year timespan (jesus christ) I’ve drifted away several times, but returned each time.
The things that made for a longer span when I had drifted away was selling off a lot of gear (usually for cross-continental moves). It wasn’t having the big pile of gear that makes it easy to pick music back up so much as one or two simple devices or instruments and a DAW installed. I always keep an up to date interface, so the plan now is to keep a bass and a simple synth no matter what.
By simple synth I mean a synth with keys I can play with my hands that doesn’t have a complex UI (my threshold for this is high, the Summit would meet this criteria, the PX might not). I’ve got more than one of those right now, but I don’t plan to slim down to zero ever again.
I know that I’ll get super into other things as months go by and I won’t make much music in those episodes, but I also know I’ll come back - I always do. I’m a serial obsessions sort of person.
With a traditional instrument, when you lack inspiration, there is always practice and rudiments to do. It’s less structured on a digital instrument but you can also do the same. Or, if you don’t want to spend time doing it, put it away for awhile.
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We live in unspired times, it would seem.