Why You NEED To Finish More Songs... & How To Do It FAST!
How many songs did you finish in the last year?
...and when I say "finished," I mean you either signed it to a record label, self-released it, or publicly uploaded to SoundCloud for the world to hear.
If it's still on your hard drive, it doesn't count.
So, how many songs did you FINISH in the last year?
1? 6? 12?
If you finished 12 or more songs in the last year, pat yourself on the back! You have become a Prolific Music Producer! Great things are in store for you, and you have probably already noticed the results.
Your fan base is growing, offers for shows, remixes, and collaborations are coming in, and probably some income too.
However, if you finished less than one song a month, then you might not be seeing those same results.
But you have a good excuse, right? ....You want it to be PERFECT. So how can you commit?
Commitment Issues
I get it. Committing to a final version is scary.
It’s your baby. You love it, and it’s scary how people might judge you for it.
Will they like it? Will they hate it? Will they say it's so bad that you should give up this silly electronic music production thing altogether?
As long as you say it’s “not finished” then you are free to keep tweaking and adjusting it. If someone says they don’t like something about it, you can change it.
While this may feel "safe," the problem is you will take a very long time to finish. Possibly you may never end. You may even keep tweaking and changing it so much that you start not to like the song anymore.
If this sounds like you, then please let me fill you in on something that I wish I knew 17 years ago.
Perfection is the enemy of good
An Imperfect something is always better than a perfect nothing.
Imagine you finish three "perfect songs" in one year, and your friend finishes 12 good songs. I guarantee that by the end of that year your friend will have become a more talented producer, and probably more successful too.
You see, each time you write and finish a song you learn a lot. You then apply it to the next song.
In our hypothetical year, you would have done this three times, and your mate 12 times.
So while you were sweating, struggling, and pulling all-nighters to get your three songs "perfect," he would have been feeling like each one got easier and easier, and...better!
What I am getting at here can be counterintuitive.
You see, focusing on "quality" will give you less and less quantity. However, focusing on quantity will naturally improve quality over time.
i.e., Finishing more songs will make you a better producer.
Two other things could also be slowing down your songwriting output. Let's describe them and then offer some solutions.
Getting Stuck In The Loop (aka LOOP-ITUS)
example:
You had a fun writing session and ended up with a nice loop! So nice in fact that you are now listening to it loop over and over.
This is great, but you don't know what to do next.
You feel lost on how to extend the loop, what parts to add, what is missing, what sections to add, and what order to put them in.
To make matters worse, your creative buzz is starting to wear off, and fast!
This moment is what we call being "stuck in the loop," otherwise known as having "Loop-itus."
People with Loop-Itus tend to have a hard drive full of "work in progress" unfinished tracks.
Writers Block
example:
You have all your gear, software, and you have made some free time to write.
You stare at that blank DAW on the screen, and nothing happens. No ideas. Nothing.
Alternatively, maybe you get a few parts and ideas written, but now you don't know what to do next. The song was fun at the start, but now it feels like it's missing something and it's just not that special.
So you have lost all motivation and creative drive.
The Bad News
Each time you leave a song unfinished, you are throwing away all the hours/days of work you put into it. Equally, if you are spending too long endlessly tweaking a song.
So much work, and nothing to show for it.
Nothing to show your friends. Nothing to get signed. Nothing to play in the club, and nothing to build your music career.
It's not a nice feeling. It's the worst. It can make you feel like you are not cut out to be a professional electronic music producer.
The Good News
Fortunately, a clear path for finishing tracks does exist. It follows one simple straight line from start to end.
Now, if you were given the wrong advice, you might find that you tend to jump back and forth and go in circles. You are never getting closer to the end, because you are doing things in the wrong order.
It's kind of like jumping out of a plane before you put on your parachute. ...Sometimes order matters.
This lack of order is confusing and begins to derail your creativity. It inevitably leads you to a "roadblock." A point where it feels difficult, and much less fun. So you lose the creative vibe, and that is where the song gets stuck.
There Is A Solution
The good news is, none of this is your fault, you have just been taught the wrong things.
What you need is the right advice, the proper techniques, and the right system to follow.
A clear system that explains the straight and simple path of finishing a song.
You can then identify any "roadblocks," and fix them by strengthening and enhancing that skill.
With your roadblocks gone, and a clear map of what happens when, you will finish music faster than ever before.
An excellent place to start would be my FREE E-Book:
How To Finish More Music, & FAST!
24 Tips To Help You…
- Break Out Of The Loop
- Crush Writers Block
- Put An End To Endless Tweaking
- Finish Music Fast
If you have trouble finishing songs then this is for YOU! Don't put up with it. You can get past it TODAY!
