When do you make music?

The Lounge General Discussion
#22

I can relate to this for sure. What’s helped me is not putting so much pressure on myself to create top notch works in 1 or 2 sessions. Focus on having fun with sound design and composing, the rest seems to fall into place afterwards. Also being realistic about output and knowing that not everything I create is going to be good. Sometimes I’ll have a pattern and just think, “this sounds like crap!” But I try not to get frustrated.

As for your stuff being loop-based, most music is loop-based or at least has some repeating elements involved. If you’re having trouble in that department, just try and add little variations / transitions / mutes / risers / etc… To your composition. This breaks up the monotony. It can be easy to get stuck in loop land with 64 step sequencers.

And to answer the original question as when I make music, whenever I have time and energy. I was just fudging around with some patterns a minute ago while my girls were playing. Only for like 10 minutes, but that 10 minutes is still worth it. Late night is usually my time to dig in, from 10pm - 2am, as long as no work the next day. Also sometimes if I wake up early enough, I can get an hour from 7am - 8am before work. Just gotta find time and force myself to get in the studio!

Don’t be so hard on yourself! Keep creating.

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#23

Usually right after work I take 45-90 minute siesta, then musicing from ~17:00 to 22:00. This kinda thing never worked as well before I started taking them naps. Can recommend :+1:

we are DINK so thankfully I got quite a bit of free time… It never feels like enough though!

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#24

Do you all also have dayjobs that make you feel totally feeling exhausted after 8 -10 hours? Is this normal? Or am i the only one that feels Like it?

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#25

22.00 to 1.00 works for me best, because the family is asleep and i’m really “awake”. i’m a freelancer so basically i could make music all day long but afternoon is just not my time to be creative - aslong i dont have to because i get money for it (my freelance job). i’m allways a little bit tired at daytime. but when the sun goes down i get awake and creative.

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#26

I’d just like to second that. When you have less time, it becomes more important to a simplified, streamlined setup that won’t have any inertia. Just one or two things things that you really want to play.

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#27

The eternal problem of little time and little energy when you do have the time!

I work in finance within the banking sector which is mentally quite intensive. I’ll regularly be shattered by the time I get home and then I’ve usually got to pick one of the kids up from football or drum lessons or the likes. Madness!

For me, I need to plan in advance. If I want to do music I’ll “clear” it with the missus and will generally make sure I get a couple of real good nights sleep so I’m feeling in the mood on a Friday/Saturday evening between 7-10pm (ish).

If I’m tired, I just don’t have the motivation/inclination to do anything music related.

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#28

Definitely relate, took some time for me to push myself to do stuff during the week. then i started leaving my digitone in the living room on my end table. i just reach over and got my couch buddy ready to rip. some of my best material i wrote on the couch lol

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#29

I’m in the same boat as a lot of people here. Working at a Manhattan ad agency is draining, and doesn’t exactly leave energy for music when I get home. I tend to get stuff done on the weekends, at least, as I’m single and don’t have any kids. :baby_symbol:

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#30

Can agree with the dayjob being exhausting. I work in cellular phone sales and it’s a mentally draining job. Plus I have a 2 year old and a 1 year old. If the stars somehow align on a given night, I can get that time to be creative.

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#31

I’ve been having a hard time lately myself.

Haven’t really made or put out anything out in almost 3 months now. I currently work 7 days a week between two jobs, each getting 8 or so hours a day. My significant other also works at one of my jobs, and we both usually work the night shift but our schedules aren’t always in sync which means a lot of driving around and figuring out good schedules. She also legally can’t drive so any type of driving is taken care of by me.

I always try to plan out music making time, and I’ll tell my S/O that I need this time, but then she makes plans for us either together or with work friends so I never really have the time.

The other night she invited people over and I just said fuck it and cranked out some Maschine beats in front of my coworkers. She thankfully understood that I need this to stay sane. To be real she doesn’t understand my passion for making music (her only passion is working) so it makes sense that she doesn’t take it very seriously when I say I need this time which is why she always makes plans instead of just letting me do my thing. I love her to bits but some times her constant need to socialize does take the few hours I do have to myself in a week which admittedly does make me pretty tense.

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#32

Funny! Today i also moved my Digitone into the Living room …

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#33

When I was a kid my mum’s violin teaching brought in money for the family, and we all worked around it—appreciated it, even if it meant listening each night to kids scraping the bow across the strings—for me it meant a nightly lack of supervision and the odd KFC when my dad was also working and there was no one to cook. I also started teaching guitar at 17 as soon as I was able as I had no other skills than deep fryer and lawn mower…

Wonder how I could turn my musical practice into something that could unify a family, rather than being this furtive nocturnal thing that maybe causes tensions.

This is a serious thought, I think music and children should coexist better, like they did when I was growing up.

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#34

I work at a store with a lot of downtime and feel lucky I get to make music on their time… otherwise hosting an open mic gurantees me with one solid jam per week (on electronic stuff… I also thankfully have many many nights out playing the bass).

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#35

I’ve been buying up silly toys and noise makers for my toddler to play with in my studio. Just got a synsonics drums for him this week.

Contact mics can be especially kid friendly as well. Then they can play anything.

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#36

Great point. I’m sitting I’m my living room now, and within view is a Model:Samples, a Machinedrum Mk1, an Arturia Minibrute 2, a TE PO-12, a Korg Monotron Duo, a Strat, a Jazzmaster, a P-Bass, a Loog 3 string guitar, two acoustic guitars, two Ukuleles and a Celtic Harp (my eldest daughter’s). The kids can play any of them if they want.

Tonight I was explaining VCOs to one of my 5 year old twins using the Monotron. Of course all she cared about was making it make weird noises when turning the knobs, but isn’t that what we’re all in it for?

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#37

Here’s to all the responsible musicians and parents holding down day jobs to support their families while also supporting their desire to make weird noises and turn knobs. We should all get together and drink beer and jam out :beers:

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#38

you’re quite right, that’s all there is about it…about all of it :wink:

#39

please do

#40

'been lurking on this thread, can’t contribute much, never held aspirations becoming responsible nor a parent nor holding a day job, just wanted to make some noise, turned out quite well (for a single entity), but i just begin to realize the deficit. good sound though :wink:

#41

You should try a deluge or OP-1 or, if you can bear it, an iPad/iPhone- take the music with you and compose what you can when the moment hits

But at the end of the day, music is something you enjoy doing. If you don’t enjoy it and you’re not getting paid find something that will leave you feeling more fulfilled

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