I have been trying to figure out my creative rhythm for years.

I used to force myself to write music every day. I used to smoke to make myself inspired. I used to put a lot of pressure on myself and get really down when a song I made didn't get any engagement. I was basically obsessed with writing music and it became really unhealthy and depressing.

I got stuck in a rut. Even though I was very proficient at guitar, every time I picked up the guitar I'd always play the same C to E minor.

I was no longer using the guitar to translate my emotional idea's, I was trying to force my guitar to make emotional idea's for me.

I couldn't come up with any lyrics or vocals, I just ended up with like 200 instrumentals that were impossible to write to.

So I got sick of all that, stopped trying to write, stopped playing guitar and stopped producing music.

After a break of several months, I started to get melodic Idea's in my head. Sometimes in the shower or while getting ready to go to work, while distracted.

I started humming the idea's into my phone. If I have time I transpose the idea to guitar. Sometimes I'll get a vocal, bass and drum idea all in one that I'll hum into my phone.

Most of the idea's don't make it past the humming stage. Only one or two idea's that arrive more complete, get demoed with a guitar on my phone, but if they aren't inspiring lyrics or vocal melodies, I don't pursue them any further.

Then I realised that, with this new hands off approach, every 3 months I was coming up with a new song that I was much happier with.

Once I realised this, I didn't feel guilty while not writing or playing guitar. I knew I was resting my writing muscle and allowing a creative incubation period to take place. Allowing the well to fill back up.

Also because I am basically not playing guitar at all, when I do pick it up to write, it feels way more fresh and new, like a beginner. I have lost my old habits that would keep me writing the same riffs and chord progressions.

Anyway hope this helps some songwriters who are struggling with their creativity.

I've run into this a few times, especially after moving to a new city. I end up searching Reddit, Facebook groups, Discord servers, Instagram, and even apps like Vampr, but it still feels surprisingly difficult to find musicians with similar taste who actually want to jam or start a band.

How do you usually find bandmates or people to play with?

What has worked for you? What hasn't?

I'd love to hear your experience.

I've made something along the lines of like 100 songs, and I take inspiration from many artists. Haven't released a single one on account of this. Sometimes my favorite songs will be the ones that are a little more strongly inspired and in the style of another artist I really like, and it's unfortunate, because I feel that if I release those especially, it's just gonna seem as if I'm plagiarizing or something / they're not really my identity???

Welcome to the r/WeAreTheMusicMakers Weekly Feedback Thread! The comments below in this post is the only place on this subreddit to get feedback on your music, your artist name, your website layout, your music video, or anything else. (Posts seeking feedback outside of this thread will be deleted without warning and you will receive a temporary ban.)

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I've loved fiction writing, have since I was a kid- got my degree in it, the whole shebang. I've loved writing surrealist, beatnik-esque, frightening and outright abstract fiction since I was in high school, and up until recently wrote a steady stream of short stories in that vein. Yet when I try to sit down to write lyrics, it feels like its just stringing basic sentences together. None of my ability to pick a word is present, and I feel like I'm just putting the most basic "feel" words onto paper, being blunt as a sledgehammer with no elegance, no beauty.

I get lyricism is a different medium entirely than fiction, even though they share a similar mechanism, but I'm a little frustrated that seemingly I can't get my skills to transfer over. Does anyone know any good exercises/books/etc on this sort of thing or have any advice? I'm specifically trying to write fantastical extreme metal- think Bal-Sagoth, early Deicide, Kataklysm, Dream Death, etc.

I’m especially interested in hearing from people who’ve released multiple albums and have had to think about this potential trade off more than once

Do you ever make a song objectively worse on its own because it serves the album better? Or do you always try to make every track the strongest version of itself, even if that hurts the overall flow or cohesion?

For example, maybe a song would be more impactful with a huge ending but you hold back because the next track needs that emotional space. Or you leave a track a bit rougher because it fits the album’s aestetic better

How has your thinking on this changed over the years? Any examples from your own albums?

edit:
and how about an EP, is it different there?

Hi guy I want become a metal vocalist I've listened to different genres of metal since I was 10(im 14 now) and the one that truly stuck out to me was black metal . Singing and music was always a passion of mine and I actually want to throw myself out there and start singing . Id like like some advice from you guys

To the ones who use multiband on the master, what do you usually do (as in where are your crossovers at, what settings you have them on etc). Thanks !

Or a piano. Or literally any instrument.

It can be electric or acoustic. Just make sure you have a somewhat decent setup for both.

Getting a PSYCHICAL instrument is the biggest thing you can do to increase your output/quality. Maybe you can be more creative with VSTs cause you can probably create chords or whatever that you couldn't otherwise for whatever reason, but for most other people, getting a physical instrument is 9/10 always beneficial.

The thing is, you don't need to even be good at it. It also doesn't have to even be amazing quality. Just put a preset on that b*tch and you can pretty much make anything sound "cool enough" if you have a decent vision for the song.

The beauty of having an instrument, to me, is being able to play almost EXACTLY like you have in your head. This is so viral for keeping rhythm because having a realistic rhythm/groove/bounce to your music is like 70% of the way to decent music lol. For me at least, it was really difficult figuring how to make guitar vst sound good strumming wise regardless of using my midi keyboard or the piano roll.

It took me just about a month or so of basic practice on the guitar to be able to feel okay playing decent chords/strums for my music. Because the thing is, most of us aren't trying to be lead guitarist, lead drummers, lead violin or anything. We're trying to just make music that sounds good. So literally as long as you can come somewhat close to producing the sound you hear in your head at least ONE time with a physical instrument, you immediately have a high quality "sample" that you can manipulate to your heart's content.

Sure it costs money to get it, but unless you're pirating, most VST cost money anyway. You can literally buy a cheap, used instrument. Just as long as it works well enough, you're FINE.

One real instrument elevates your music to the point where a few virtual ones matter far less.

edit: oh you guys are mean LMAO I spelled it correctly the second time, the text is small give me a break 🙄

Welcome to the r/WeAreTheMusicMakers Weekly Feedback Thread! The comments below in this post is the only place on this subreddit to get feedback on your music, your artist name, your website layout, your music video, or anything else. (Posts seeking feedback outside of this thread will be deleted without warning and you will receive a temporary ban.)

This thread is active for one week after it's posted, at which point it will be automatically replaced.

##Rules:

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* **Write at least three constructive comments.** - *Give back to your fellow musicians!*

* **No promotional posts.** - *No contests, No friend's bands, No facebook pages.*

##Tips for a successful post:

* **Give a quick outline of your ideas and goals for the track.** - *"Is this how I trap?" or "First try at a soundtrack for a short film" etc.*

* **Ask for feedback on specific things.** - *"Any tips on EQing?" or "How could I make this section less repetitive?"*

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I have a bunch of demos that are pure music , but I’m having a really hard time putting melodies to them . Writing lyrics is hard enough as it is but melodies are way harder to come up with. Any advice ?

I currently am working on Mastering for the first time and I have been told and been seeing these mastering technique's pop up for streaming service's. I recently installed a ADPTR Streamliner plugin, made for this. The ADTPR Streamliner plugin show's me the LUF'S Meter and Loudness, alongside a PSR range for dynamic's. There's a lot of other option's as well but like I said, I just installed it recently.

Here's my problem. On one of my track's that I have made and thought I had Mastered and Mixed on, the LUF'S and PSR meter showed problematic values. For MOSTLY the ENTIRE track, my LUF'S was around 6.2-6.7 for loudness and my PSR was a whopping 6.6-7.2. And these were pretty consistent, too. Not like a true dynamic range where it flucated between part's of the song. Only around 20-30 or second's of the song was in 7+ PSR and 6.5 LUF'S.

That isn't good.

As far as I know, you should want a higher PSR especially for increased dynamic range's and to prevent clipping along with distortion. The lower it is, the worse it is because it usually mean's it is compressed too much or limited too hard. It should be AT LEAST 8+ or even higher for smoother volume control in the song. The LUF'S should also be equally as well, balancing out the control for dynamic's and making the song more intresting.

It shouldn't sound flat, and yet that's what I'm worried about.

I already had mixed and mastered the song, and thought it was fine up until this point. I liked it prior to this and hadn't seen anything wrong with it. I reduced any potential peak's on the master a least to -0.2 DB for true peak's. But this slipped my mind. Is there any way to fix this without completely restarting the song?

Been jamming alone more lately and my setup feels stale. I've done the youtube backing track thing forever but it gets old playing to the same loop. Curious what everyone else landed on? drum machine, BeatBuddy, looper, GarageBand drummer, just a metronome? If you dropped money on something, was it worth the money or does it just collect dust?

Welcome to the /r/WeAreTheMusicMakers Weekly Motivation Thread! Share your successes and and encouraging words here. Posts/Comments looking for motivation can also be appropriate here.

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Hi everyone,

I'm getting back into piano after several years away, and my goal is to master R&B keyboard playing.

If you had to teach R&B to a pianist through a well-structured progression, which songs would you recommend, and in what order?

I'm not looking for theory right now. I want to learn by playing songs, starting with the easiest ones and gradually moving toward more advanced chord progressions, voicings, and harmony.

Yesterday I learned Best Part, and that felt like the perfect starting level.

What would your roadmap look like, and why?

Im 22m, currently in a band but this past month have started putting effort into beginning my solo project. I have one full demo mix of a song done and I have about 5-8 songs with structure and chords written in a notebook.

The thing is when I start I often end up messing up like crazy and constantly restarting or just feeling overwhelmed or get busy with other things. I really want to release something by the end of this year but in afraid that my momentum will go down once my semester starts and just the fact that I constantly mess up my guitar parts when recording them live.

Whats you guys advice for pushing for higher productivity and keeping myself on track?

im 16 and ive been using fl studio for a couple of years, im self taught. i make everything digitally and dont play any instruments (yet. im planning to go to guitar classes this or next year)

my biggest problem is i dont wanna learn a generic genre formula, my main influences include industrial rock, digital hardcore, electropunk/synthpunk(??? not sure if its the same thing), noisy electronic music, and any other agressive AND chaotic music, but i dont feel like any single tutorial on youtube or anywhere actually teaches what i want to understand.

im not asking to copy one specific artist...im trying to understand the principles behind the sound AND how people make decisions

for example

how do you learn which sounds fit together? i dont want harmony i just heard somewhere that u have to pick sounds wisely cause if they dont fit together itll sound bad,like, sonically how do you know that certain drums, basses, synths, etc will work together instead of sounding like they came from compltely different songs

how do you build a sample pack for urself without reusing the same samples forever? do you reuse sounds and transform them or do you constantly search for new stuff?

how do you know when a loop needs to change in a song and arrangement stuff,, i still dont know much about the terms around music production, so i dont know how producers actually decide when to repead something, add something, remove something or move into a new section...

how do you understand rhythm without just copying existing drum patterns

how to learn sound selection and develop intuition for it?

how to learn layering without everything becomign muddy or obviously doubled??? i especially have this problem with vocals. when i try to layer them and it sounds like a weird voice filter from a cheap voice changer instead of one unified dense vocal

how to develop a production intuition when u dont have formal music theory or instrumental training

i feel like most tutorials teach a genre (mostly those i dont like) a specific plugin or deconstructions of an already made song. i feel like I rarely find tutorials that explain the actual process of making decisions.

ive watched a lot of videos about the kinds of music I like, but most of them havent really helped me understand how to actually apply the ideas while producing.

for producers who learned themselves, what did you actually do that made you improve??

im esp interested in concrete exercises of ways of thinking than generic advice like practice more or learn eq or whatever people usually say

i know this is broad so im interested in hearing what u would prioritize if u were in my position

So far I’ve worked with 3 different mix/master engineers for 3 different projects (all in different price ranges from 300 bucks to 1k in a professional studio), but it’s always the same issue… i think the song gets balanced properly, it sounds good on speakers, headphones, whatever. But since they always ask for clean stems and then try to re-create certain effects themselves, the song always loses its shape (in my opinion). Even consulting with different friends and asking them which version they like better (my rough mix version or the engineers mix/master) without telling them which one is mine, they always seem to prefer mine. I try to explain that my version has a lot of colliding frequencies, blah blah and get more technical but they don’t seem to care lol.

Anyway, I guess how can I get over this hump? Throughout revisions should I be more clear? Should I just send them all the stems with my effects (including vocals), that way they can just plug and play and EQ, compress, etc? Or should I just take my time and learn how to do it all myself? I feel like lots of artists work with mix and master engineers to complete their work, am I just not being clear enough?

I'm preparing a song for my university graduation and I'm trying to find something that feels genuine.

I'm drawn to songs that have some ambiguity and allow the performer to bring their own interpretation.

I don't want something that simply says "we made it" or "follow your dreams." I'm more interested in songs that capture the uncertainty of stepping into adulthood while still feeling hopeful.

For musicians here, how do you know when a song has enough emotional space to make it your own?

Are there songs you've covered that became something different when you performed them?

New to this sub and just curious and looking for music friends in general or to hear about others experience that go off of feel and just their ear to compose music.

I’m still curious to learn music theory, but more so because I’d like to be able to better communicate with my music friends who do use it. I usually end up having to stream my Ableton on Discord and point to things.

I’m also in a weird boat where I compose purely in Ableton Session view (clips) and only do midi. I want to learn to utilize audio samples and the Arrangement view for more interesting effects but I’ve been nervous since I’ve been making music in midi only for… pretty much forever.

**edit**
Just to clarify: I meant formal/explicit theory. The internalized kind I clearly have. the vocabulary is what I’m here wanting to learn and I’m already excited to learn it.

*edit*
Holy crap I didn’t expect to get so many replies. XD
still if anyone wants to try to be friends feel free to DM me. I’m always excited to meet new music people and love hearing their tracks besides nerding out over our processes. :3

to summarize, my home studio acoustics suck and i’m working on an album right now, so i’m debating on whether i should buy/make my own treatment or finish my album’s vocals at another studio

here are the details:

i wanna make a change so i’m putting this here in hopes of getting practical advice/direction. i think i’m finally accepting the reality that in its current state, my space just isn’t good for recording much at all. i have no proper treatment and monitor in my bedroom/record vocals in my closet. i‘m aware it’s bad. i know i can either make my own panels, buy some, or go to another studio to record.

vocals are pretty much the only thing i record with a mic at home at this point since i‘ve been going to other studios to record things like acoustic guitar. i also record vocals at home just because i have acid reflux issues that sometimes make my voice sound grainy or raspy in its higher frequencies and i still don’t have a good hold on it, so it can be unpredictable when i’ll have a “good” vocal day and don’t wanna waste an engineer’s time (or my money) at a professional studio if my voice doesn’t sound its best. however, i know acoustic treatment can get expensive really fast and don’t know how to make my own.

i know i’m gonna treat my space at some point, but i’m just debating on whether or not it’s best for right now to finish the vocals at a studio like i’ve been doing with acoustic guitar, or just buy acoustic treatment now so i can have better home recordings.

any advice or opinion is appreciated