How to Relax and Enjoy Music Production

The Lounge
#1

I’ve been producing for about 13 years, and it’s always been a struggle. When I was new, I would dive into the piano roll in FL studio, go nuts, and be thrilled with the result and unworried about improving. Quickly I became an anxious producer who would get stuck often. 90% of my tracks are unfinished.

I quit for a while and then impulse bought a digitakt to get back in. It was instantly fun again - unworried about the result, childlike enjoyment. And quickly again I became stuck as my gear and ambition grew.

I simply would like to be able to relax and enjoy myself. I think for many of you, this is a natural way to unwind and enjoy your free time. For me, it is not relaxing, but typically discouraging and draining. Whereas videogames and motorcycling are things I am naturally attracted to - things I don’t need a push to do - music production feels like work. I can’t seem to enjoy it for small chunks of time (an hour or two in the evening) and only seem to get anywhere if I spend a whole day bashing my head against the wall “warming up” and failing, then finally finding a needle in the haystack at the end of the day if I am lucky. When I’m at work, i frequently check elektronauts and electronic music blogs and can’t wait to get home to boot up my gear; when I am at home, I typically procrastinate and avoid it.

I have a few books on the topic that are sometimes helpful at getting me unstuck (Making Music by Dennis DeSantis etc), but I want to know how you all actually feel about making music, and what your approach is to “feeling good”. For anxious types like me, how can I go back to just enjoying myself, really partying and feeling the music the way I do at the best of times, but more often and more reliably?

I’m under no illusion that there isn’t a lot of sweat and work involved in finishing tracks, but I feel like my ratio of fun to work is way off.

Thanks!!

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Bi-weekly record-diving sampling extravaganza | 04 | The New Birth - Blind Baby
Elektronauts essential
#2

Great topic!

I’m not super ambitious, so I probably won’t have a lot of helpful tips, at least right off the bat. Question, though - are you aware, specifically, of what parts of the process make you anxious?

#3

It is work. I think your not making music for yourself though. Your making it for other people. This makes it even less fun. Id change your mindset so everything you do is with the goal of making yourself happy. "The feelgood " factor you mention is when you make yourself happy not others.

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#4

Not sure if this is a popular opinion, but for me, producing music has never been about enjoying the process. It’s always unequivocally been about the end result and how I feel about that end result. If you aren’t finishing tracks, I can see how that process would be stressful and not rewarding.

Jamming on my gear is another matter altogether, and I do find that that fun much of the time, especially when I’m jamming with other people. Maybe try to find some jam partners and worry less about the result.

But being in front of a DAW, working on a track / mix? That’s hard work; always has been.

There’s really not much “partying” in my music production process!

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#5

If I did not enjoy it I would find out why, then change that.

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#6

Thats what i did. Found ITB more like work, less like fun. So gradually switched to hardware. Now its just a total laugh. If the results are good I hit record. Simple.

Also found trying to get ‘out there’ totally sucked all the good stuff out of it.

Not chasing gigs anymore, not chasing labels. Making music just to keep my mind happy. If other people dig it, bonus.

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#7

I don’t really have any advice. I’ve been passionate about electronic dance music most of my life. First just listening to CDs and tapes in my room in high school, then going to parties, then DJing and eventually making my own tunes. To use a cliche’, it is in my blood. The music is always a part of my life in some way or another.

I learned in my MFA program you have to write a lot of crap to get to the good stuff. So your ratio of 90% unfinished/unusable doesn’t seem off to me.

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#8

Checking this forum and others is a social thing. It doesn’t really have to do with the actual music making process. So it’s not surprising that you are drawn to that part of it and less so the actual music / work aspect.

IMO

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#9

oh shit, of course - I’ll do that!

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#10

I’d also look into reducing your anxiety about it, a few things that might be worth looking into are meditation, CBD, L-Theanine, Ashwagandha, binaural beats.

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#11

Also, if it is supposed to be a hobby and you do not enjoy it, don’t put pressure on yourself. Look for something else that you enjoy more.

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#12

Two other things- (I guess I have a lot to say about this topic)

  1. It’s worth it to finish tracks. Choose one and just finish it. Then move on to the next. Even if it’s not 100% perfect. Get it to the point that it can be played out in front of people. DeSantis recommends this too (I have that book, it’s great)

  2. If you aren’t feeling good going into the studio, it’s highly unlikely going into the studio is going to change that. I need to be in a good mindset to work on music and tap into that side of myself. It usually involves turning off my phone, WiFi, and reconnecting with the part of myself that feels passionate about creating.

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#13

I would almost provide the opposite advice: Don’t worry about creating tracks. Maybe just focus on experimenting with sounds, exploring beats and melodies - take the pressure off by removing a ‘success’ metric.

Enjoy the sound and get lost in exploration but don’t worry about creating music - especially for others.

At some point you’ll fall into something that clicks - but hunting for it will be draining.

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#14

Well… not sure I can relate here. I’m after the path of least resistance. “Finishing tracks” is usually about taking an idea and making a quick arrangement with it. Jam for 5-10 minutes, then make quick edits… apply some master comp+eq and… done. Not perfect ? Doesn’t matter. Feel like it could be better ? Then change it now… or later. Or never.

90% of my tracks are unfinished.

Yeah, me too, so what ? After decades of music making, I have literally thousands of unfinished tracks. Wha’s the problem ? It’s all material for future finished tracks.

For anxious types like me

You repeated “anxious” at least twice, but what does it mean ? Do you have external pressure upon your works ? If not then why being anxious ? Not a rhetorical question. Do you feel like you “need” to be on a certain level ? Because it’s probably wrong.

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#15

I think I have a lot of anxiety about spending a lot of time on this, talking to people about how I own synths and drum machines and make music, but not really having very much to show for it. I’d like some output. I do have a handful of things I am very proud of, but I want more. And feeling better about the process will help me make more, I think.

And actually, I relate to the first parts of your post - my definition of “finished” is still pretty amateur, and I’m OK with that. My bar is kinda low already.

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#16

Great topic. Been in this spot so many times…

The main things:

I think you simply want to grow in what you do, which is a great fire to have. However I suspect you want to grow too fast. And because of that you forget to balance the things that feel like work with the things that bring you enjoyment.

Let’s say you want to play a specific complex piece on a piano that contains fast parts that your hands currently simply cannot play. You can try to play the piece from the beginning every time and the beginning is fun because it’s more accessible. But when you get to the fast part things get difficult and going through the beginning to hit that wall every time is incredibly discouraging.

A solution that works for me is to give myself a few tasks that I know will be fun and small enough to see the end result quickly and will improve my skills to be able to eventually climb over that hill. So to stay in the example of the piano piece: doing 15 minute a day sessions where you specifically work on getting faster through specific finger training sessions. And the remaining time focus on experimenting.

So I’m music production: find out what it is you get stuck in. Come up with little tasks you can do in 15 minutes to half an hour that you can do to improve over time. And spend the rest of the time you have on sound experiments. Do weird things, out of the box. Twist knobs, not parameters etc.

Eventually you’ll feel the urge to finish a project having learned new things and having reloaded creatively.

Music production is hard work and it’s normal that it feels like that sometimes. Gaming is easier in that it’s aimed at instant gratification. So try to come up with ways to get a bit more instant gratification into your production process by coming up with fun tasks that you can focus on :slight_smile:

When you just started with music or when you first started with hardware, this was probably exactly why you found so much enjoyment. Because in the beginning everything is new and you learn new things every time. The little tasks are baked in automatically at that early stage.

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#17

Possibly hard to empathise with if anxiety isn’t in your wheelhouse (you’re lucky!!) - but if you’ve invested heavily into something it can create a pressure to do that thing, and then when you want to do other things it can form a kind of guilt or anxiety because you’re not doing the thing you’ve invested in.

I totally get what you’re saying btw @matteblacksmoke you’re definitely not alone!

Breaking those patterns of what makes it feel like work can be important. It’s something I’ve had to do a couple of times.

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#18

Exactly - you get it

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#19

Nice to get attention from Dave Mech!

I’ve been doing this for a while, and it does help. Today, I wrote out a variety of tasks that I’ve begun working on. It does feel good, and I don’t expect to come up with gold by the end of it, but I still feel that fear that the day will end and it will feel like I didn’t get enough done for the hours I put in.

But I like your approach for finding ways to get more quick gratification in my process. I think the best days are when I don’t slave over parts too much and I’m happy with the earliest results.

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#20

This is good advice, and I’ve pursued it in the past but haven’t done it in a while.

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