How To Write More Music – In this blog I’ll discuss my top techniques and tips to write more music, and finish your songs!
No matter how far along the music journey we are, we can all struggle with finishing the songs we have started. Sometimes when we first start writing/producing, it can be very easy to look at your idols and wonder how they can churn so much music out.
In this blog we will discuss our top tips to get you writing music faster, and to start finishing your songs consistently.
1. Production Reports
A production report is basically a review of the music you have written, mixed, or produced. To do this, either grab a pen and paper, or even better open up a program you can type into (I highly recommend Evernote).
The next thing you want to do is hit play on your recording, and simply list everything you don’t like, need to change, what sounds bad or what doesn’t work. The key here is to listen all the way through as it will give you complete context.
The reason why this is so good is because most people listen back to their work in its entirely. They notice something they don’t like and instantly go to fix it. The problem with this is, it’s like falling down a rabbit hole. You instantly forget everything else you wanted to fix. You also may not get the chance to listen to the piece in its entirety, which then doesn’t give you proper context. Instead now you are going to have a list of things you want to work on and any ideas for the track. Your not going to forget them cause they are written down.
2. Limit Your Options
This one can have a huge impact on not just on your productivity but also your creativity.
With DAWs we can have so many sample packs, presets and instruments, that sometimes we spend half of our time just searching for sounds.
However, if you choose to limit your samples and instruments you’ll be forced to come up with new ideas and get even more creative. For example, I was bored with Ableton and my producing slowed down as I spent more and more time searching for instruments and samples. I ended up deciding to only create with my Elektron Digitakt + only 6 drum samples. This forced me to record my vocals and guitar lines into the Digitakt. The Digitakt also has only 2 effects (reverb + delay) so I couldn’t spend forever messing around with effects. In the end I produced 2 different songs in 1 night.
A few limiting ideas
- Only use 8 samples, or 1 drum kit
- Try using only 1-2 synths
- Limit yourself to 8 audio/midi tracks
- Only use 4 chords
Perhaps try all of these ideas at once? You’ll be amazed at how creative you become.
3. Accept Your Music Will Sound Bad
It may be hard to hear this, but no matter how good you become at music, no matter how successful you are, you are going to write bad music. The crazy thing is, you’re probably going to write more bad music than good, but you will also write amazing music. Once you accept that not every song is going to be amazing, or sound exactly how you were expecting, you will naturally stop obsessing over making it “sound right” or “work” and you will just finish it.
This is something you will have to remind yourself forever, I for one, still get caught up on a song sounding bad and try to fix it. If it sounds bad, just finish it and forget about it.
4. Commit to finishing
This one everyone struggles with and is the key to actually finishing your music. It’s obvious, but we often overlook it.
Simply put, you need to commit to finishing your songs.
It is so easy, to fall out of love with an idea or loop and want to start fresh and make something new. Or sometimes we we don’t like the track, abandon it, and start writing a new song.
The problem with constantly abandoning songs is that you don’t get to practice every step of the songwriting process.
You will become really good at generating ideas, but you will begin to lack finishing them and mixing them.
Even if you don’t like the song, you may like it in a couple of months, or you may be able to show it to a singer who loves it and wants to purchase it from you.
I have stacks of tracks, fully produced and finished just sitting on my hard drive. They probably will never be heard, but finishing them improved many of my skills.
So when you think of abandoning the song, commit to finishing, and you will soon get into the habit of finishing more tracks.
Conclusion
I hope this helped you, and do not be afraid to reach out if you have any questions 🙂
If you’d like One-to-One music production lessons, then check out our Ableton Live Lessons.
Good luck writing and producing your music!
Much Love,
Zak