For real music, release records and play shows is my motivation. No reason to practise an instrument if you can’t show it off. For making experimental stuff, I just make whatever sounds I can get out of the machines or field recordings and arrange them so that they please me. I then send the recordings to different tape labels and see if anyone wants to release it. If I didn’t make full compositions or experimentations that were, to me, release worthy I would stop and concentrate on something else. Play video games or something. Synths are a lot like video games, you have a system you need to understand and to understand it, you need to keep playing. The difference is, the possibilities to create with them are truly endless.
There’s always a crowd for any type of music, provided you actually care enough to get gud and make something people want to hear. I always aim for something I can play for other people, show around. I guess that’s half of the motivation, the other half just being that I love playing with sound, be it a synth or a contact mic or a no-input effects chain.
I used to fret about this regularly. At least partially drove me to selling most of my hardware (“if I’m not productive with it then why have £££s sitting there doing nothing “). It’s taken me a long time to realise that feeling like this is just a part of the process for me so I’ll go off and do other things like gaming or movies until I feel “well shit, I’m wasting time here “ and the music bug bites.
I accepted long ago that what I write will not be all that pleasing or impressive to 99.9% of people so figured fuck it, and just doodle until an idea turns into something interesting (or not as is often the case). Every now and again I’ll strike gold and run with it. I suppose one day I’ll collect the best of these ideas into an albums worth of content that I’ll be proud of.
It’ll sound corny but even all of these half Unfinished ideas are part of a journey and you’re constantly learning. So maybe it’s time just to pivot your expectations and to try and strike at what you enjoy musically. I’ve been in your spot, it can be frustrating, but chill and persevere. It’ll come. The Dude abides.
The commitment to a genre or a very stable setup can be enviable. Totally understandable.
But if you’re mostly making music for your own enjoyment, make sure the audience of one (you) is happy with it. That’s the first step for me personally. The second is sharing some of my music with a handful of close friends who are hobbyist musicians like I am. (They usually return the favour and we throw around comments about what we like and don’t like about the tracks.) The third step is sharing some of the music here.
I’ve spent years of my life thinking “what’s the point”. And not just as regards music - actually I didn’t make much music during those years. Kinda came to the realisation that there is no fucking point (as in, a grand plan) in most things. Might sound nihilistic but personally I’m much happier nowadays.
We sound similar. I fond comfort in the fact that when you die there is NOTHING!
My post does make me seem maudlin- I’m totally not! Just trying to find some momentum from somewhere. There’s loads of good advice all over this thread
I play guitar and sing in two bands that actually make money so when I’m at home, all I want to do is mess with these weird wonderful boxes (OT, OP-1, DN, MPC, Zoia, etc.) and make music that sounds nothing like rock and roll guitar-based music. I channel that inner 12 year old who wanted a drum machine and sampler more than anything. Listening to music from off the beaten path inspires me. Forum members explaining how they use their machines inspires me. Getting a new piece of gear inspires me.
I don’t have a problem with motivation as such - I’ve always got a good number of ideas and concepts for EPs or albums that I want to pursue. If anything, it’s finding time to commit to writing music. I do have a problem with thinking if there is any point to it… ultimately, I get records done here and there and simply put them on Bandcamp for folk to listen for free if they’ve an inkling. I can’t even be bothered with promoting it - maybe tell some mates and post here is the best I manage. I’m in my mid-40s and ultimately I’ve no desire to gain anything from my music other than writing it.
But ultimately, I know that in 3 or 4 years time I’ll be half-cut on a few beers and fancy listening to something and having nostalgia for something I wrote previously, especially if it was something I collaborated with someone else on.
I’ve been a runner for almost 16 years and it’s the same discipline.
Even if it’s 15 minutes that’s enough to retain your skill set. You don’t need to do 16 hours on the weekend. 15-30 minutes a day is good enough. If you get bored with a task work on another skill. The main thing is consistency and showing up with something.
The biggest mistake I made was saving everything for the weekend. I always had an excuse on the weekdays. So picture this 15 x 5 = 75 minutes and one hour on the weekend isn’t much time, but if you keep at that habit you’ll learn to be efficient.
I don’t have a problem finding motivation to play music. It seems to come from a literal compulsion. I have to remind myself of my motivation to stop, as in “you have to go to work or you will be homeless”. However I don’t seem to have much motivation to “be productive” with it these days. I don’t really record much anymore. I think I’m okay with that for the time being.
As far as picking a genre goes, I’ve always been a little bit confused about how people can do that. I’m all over the place. I rarely have any idea what I’m going to do when I turn the gear on. Since getting some elektron boxes I’ve been trying to keep different projects thematically cohesive but project to project vary wildly. In my AR I have one reminiscent of “cop” era swans right next to one akin to 1981 style NY boogie. The music will tell you what to make.
It goes wrong that particular moment you ask yourself “what’s the point?” . It’s the brain speaking which is searching for answers for a problem it created itself” . Does it have to lead to a finished track. Should every few sentences a writer does have to become a book? Does every writer need to be good in grammar and coverart at the same time?
If your 40 and making music or sounds for years now you don’t seem to have problems with motivation. Music is selfexpression and if you’re colourfull and feel drum n bass on monday, jazzy on tuesday and drone noise metal folk during winters you can consider yourself lucky.
I can very much relate to your story. To answer your question:
I put myself in one of the following mindsets:
creative state (no rules just have fun and record) or
mixing state
finish song state, let it be mastered and cut on vinyl for my own collection. That raises the bar and make some tracks final and physical as well. A dubplate is not cheap so that helps a lot deciding what to keep and what to delete.
Im going to ask you a question because you sound very very similar to me.
“Are you afraid of success”?
Seriously it s a recognized condition and one that makes many people fail time after time because they NEVER complete anything. You see when you finish something your judged. And that can swing both ways. I don’t want to bare my soul to others, but when its done your expected to share(although there is no reason to). So if your afraid of completing something that possibly could be successful(as you mention you spend a lot of time listening to other artists). Then you can NEVER win. You have to change that mindset(I did). And say I don’t fear success i don’t fear failure over and over like a Mantra every day till its in your sub-concious permanently. Then you will get to the end of your projects every time. Because its a win win. Okay TED speech over
I don’t bother worrying about motivation. I make my studio as comfortable as possible and make sure it’s more appealing to spend time in there than other parts of my apartment. This involves keeping it tidy, investing in a good chair and monitoring system, making sure all my software and gear is ready to go whenever inspiration strikes. Naturally I’m gonna feel compelled to open ableton up and work on stuff if I’m spending time in there anyways, even if it’s a quick loop or a few EQ tweaks. Keep a few art books you like around to flip through, maybe a game console hooked up to your monitor or something. Make it cozy.
These sections particularly made me say in my head: FUCKING SAME! I’m 38, I’ve been in guitar bands, and I’ve produced some solo and some collaborative electronic stuff, but in total, I’d probably say my stuff has touched on in the following in pretty much chronological order: grunge, nu-metal, digital hardcore, hip hop, electronica, folk, post-rock, dubstep, trip hop, bedroom pop, synth wave, and now I’m about to do something vaguely techno based (because it’s totally new to me!), although none of my music has ever 100% committed to any one of those genres and I always tried to blend different sounds/ideas more than anything. My high school friends used to call me ‘the king of the fads’, as in I could never make up my mind and that I had a new interest and always wanted to do something different. Also, I liked @sabana’s point about not wanting to be successful and essentially self-sabotaging. To me, being known for one tune that you have to play live forever and ever seems like the very definition of torture for a musician to me. So, I prefer to stay in the ‘studio’ (he says as if he has a back catalog worthy of The Beatles haha) and work on new things even if they never see the light of day. And I think, finally, I’m very happy with that. I used to be motivated by reading interviews and listening to things and thinking I want to do that, I want to be them, and that I want to be known for doing something innovative/groundbreaking like my heroes. But my motivations were all wrong. None of that happened, ofc, but I did enjoy making the music in my own way. To have made it even better, I should’ve done things entirely because I found them fun to create and that’s what I’m going to do from now on. So, yeah, keep you projects manageable and achievable (at least until you’ve found your ‘sound’), and don’t try to create a masterpiece that will be remembered for all the ages. Instead, just do your thing because it brings you joy in the moment, get it out there, and then largely try to forget about it. (Though, like @jeye_musik said, I do love a nostalgia festival, where I dig back through the stuff I’ve created over the years – it brings back memories of where I was, what I was doing, and also how far I’ve come along since then). Anyway, super long post because you really hit home with the bits I quoted above. Nothing more to add, except to say I hear you and to nod in agreement with everything else that’s been said. Stick at it!
It really is, and it helps a lot! I used to worry all the time about feeling unmotivated and lazy but then I realized if I just sat down in my studio every day, even for an hour or two, I’ll usually open up ableton and do SOMETHING. Even if I just sit in there with the intent to watch YouTube videos or whatever. Got myself a nicer chair and soon I was sitting in there every day just because it was comfier than the other chairs in my apartment. Now I open my daw at least once a day, which is up from maybe twice a week like it used to be. It sounds like goofy advice but it’s what worked for me! Looking back I think worrying about staying motivated so much kind of led to me dreading getting into the studio. It’s a lot of pressure! Work together with yourself and the habits will follow!
being motivated to do something isn’t an easy task, especially when there’s no real deadline or anything that pushes you to get busy doing things but…to overcome that, i found that no matter what, one needs to find something to do (or even nothing sometime), whether it being a quick session of half an hour where you just test something with the machines, experiment with a sound, even just recabling everything can sometime lead to a different mental process and sparkle new ideas. lots of good things have been mentioned already to keep yourself motivated.
it’s definitely not an easy task, again; if you’re not signed to a label or don’t have an upcoming gig or anything else that really needs you to be working on something, then it has to be you having to find something to do. getting into the music business and being able to be in there and make a living with it isn’t a thing that everyone will end up doing unfortunately…but one can always try right? and if what you do pleases you, and maybe others too, well, that’s already something.
