Premier Rock Forum

I have like 3 weeks off and have planned to spend the time recording a bunch of song ideas I've been sitting on. I've been really excited to work on the project, but now that I have the time, I cannot make it happen. Here is my daily work flow:

I open my DAW, and stare at it with no tracks added for about 3 minutes. Why is this can of computer duster empty, I just bought it? I get up and go put mics on the drums, and I am not recording drums. Then I troubleshoot why my 4th headphone mix isn't working, even though I just need one. I sit and stare at my DAW again. I add a track and assign an input. I wonder what color it should be? Nope... Nope... Nope... Ok, green is fine. I should make a post about how it's hard to start working on stuff... Wonder what's on Youtube... 2 hours later I plug a mic into the wall and turn on my amp. I should go make a click track or load up a drum loop to play along with, but mybe I'll make a breakfast burrito first. Better go to he grocery store and get the good crumbly cheese, I'll work on this later.

Repeat the next day.

I'm a professional procrastinator. Anyone else gotta deal with this?

Feeling this pretty hard. I haven't been able to write a new complete song of my own in well over two years now. I've tried new toys but just can't seem to get there. Can't stay focused & bring things to completion.

I think for the last 20 years this has been me too. This year though, I have been very productive.

What worked for me was just getting into a disciplined routine. Wed night is my "music night" where after dinner I go and work. I have to record "something" it can be a whole guitar part, a riff, drums, just something. The rest of the week I still do stuff, but Wed is work. Now I have a whole system of working on ideas during the week to get ready for Wed.

Also, I have a goal; all these songs are demos, I dont need them to be perfect, these aren't going to be released, so I dont kill myself chasing for "perfection." It still needs to sound good, but this releases me from focusing on things that are not important. The goal is to get these songs down as proof of concept to show the guys, if I blow a note or two, whatever.

^ Good advice.

I'd also say just casually strumming a guitar for even short amounts of time with frequency helps. Once you start doing a little thing you think is neat you start thinking either of where it goes next or what other instruments should be doing around it.

Most songs start off as scraps. Remove grander goals and find a scrap you like. From there it's not some abstract question of inspiration, but instead a compositional problem that needs solving. You have a skill set for solving those problems.

Adderall + coffee should do the trick

Kniferide wrote: Sun Dec 19, 2021 5:03 pm I have like 3 weeks off and have planned to spend the time recording a bunch of song ideas I've been sitting on. I've been really excited to work on the project, but now that I have the time, I cannot make it happen. Here is my daily work flow:

Maybe you don't want to record the songs? Let them go and spend three weeks coming up with a new tuning for your toms or a new order for your pedals or make a painting. Whatever gets you in the zone, who cares what gets done!

I too have trouble getting motivated, and literally every sentence above, by every FM, is somewhat familiar.

In mid 2020 I had a desire to record some solo tracks but only got one completed (which I am proud of), but the experience did teach me a lot about myself! First, if I’m looking at a blank page, canvas, DAW or whatever, that’s when the inertia is super high. It takes a certain effort to get shit rolling, even if I have ideas already there. I’m not sure what the deal is with that, but it’s as though I need time to get my brain wired up to create. Once that hits a critical mass, things start to go a lot smoother. This is applicable not only when I’m doing music, but also in my day job, which is business software, and even more mundane stuff like making dinner or reading a book.

The other thing I try and manage is perfectionism, which is really deadly in combination with my inertia issues. I think with art that’s really tough to manage and the saying that “all art is unfinished” is so true.

I dunno, I could type out a lot more about this, including managing distractions and keeping a good headspace, but I mostly wanna say “I hear you” and I think this subject is great to talk about.

For me it's not so much procrastination as 'ok I have some time off.. how bad do I really want to sit at my computer making yet another project on Reaper 5 people will hear' so maybe feeling a bit defeated in that sense. Working on a new project means listening to some rough mix 50 times and editing and layering and reevaluating, etc. I even have some drum tracks recorded in a nice studio that I'm dreading working on for those reasons.

losthighway wrote: Remove grander goals

Leeplusplus wrote: Maybe you don't want to record the songs? Let them go and spend three weeks coming up with a new tuning for your toms or a new order for your pedals or make a painting. Whatever gets you in the zone, who cares what gets done!

Yeah this sort of sums up where I'm at. I've been playing my new acoustic for 6 weeks now and ideas are just flowing out. I'm trying not to think of it as writing a new album or whatever, just doing it for fun. This is all supposed to be fun right..

I hear all of this. I go through spurts where I'll start and finish something 90%. Then it sits.

What I personally need is an editor. I probably have 2000 decent riffs we've recorded over the past 5 years at "band practice" that I've never turned into songs. But also didn't catalog them in any meaningful way. I need someone to take my riffs and organize them into songs.

My understanding was these 2000 riffs were all decent, and the effort wasn't so much "red light/green light" as much as turning them into recordable songs. Which of course can be a shitload of work and I'd consider more than just an editor.