Frustrations with your music (Complain here)

[eggy in a bready]

Rocking too hard? Autism and/or paranoid schizophrenia it is then. Maybe a dash of Parkinsons if its unintentional.

 

[slslipfilth]

After reading all of these posts, I'm glad I'm not the only one with the same frustrations.

-Been playing since I was 15-16, now on my early 30s.
-Lost my passion/motivation to play over the past 5 years or so.
-Feel like I'm playing the same way each time I pick up a guitar
-Have plenty of songs written down to release a few EPs. Had the idea to record 2-3 different EPs under different names for certain styles.
-Perfectionist--but I have slowly been moving away from that in order to actually finish something.

Just recording is so boring and time consuming, could spend hours on 1 songs. Not very good on programing drums either.
What sucks even more is when I have ample time to play guitar/record/write, I have no motivation and when I do its usually like a hour or 2 before I have to go somewhere or go to bed for work.


It sucks cause I listen to some bands either well-known or apparently good enough to get a record out that I don't find very good and/or bland and I feel like I could come up with the same kind of riffs or even better.
Even with bands that are good, I feel I could come up with something similar but just don't feel motivated to do it.

What I really want to do is just pay someone to record and edit the music with drums while I do the playing. Have them tell when to play a riff again or change a riff here and there......kind of like Murderface does in the recording scene of Metalocalypse. MAybe not as extreme like that but you get the picture....

I just want to put something out there and kind of see if others would enjoy it....and continue off that.

 

[gnoll]

Every once in a while when I come up with something I'm convinced that it must be some of the greatest music ever written in the history of the universe and I can't sit still because I'm so excited. But then at other times I think that maybe I actually really suck at music and I'm just deluding myself whenever I think something I did is any good at all. I feel it's pretty hard to evaluate your own music.

 

[DrakkarTyrannis]

Every once in a while when I come up with something I'm convinced that it must be some of the greatest music ever written in the history of the universe and I can't sit still because I'm so excited. But then at other times I think that maybe I actually really suck at music and I'm just deluding myself whenever I think something I did is any good at all. I feel it's pretty hard to evaluate your own music.

You should get a 5150

 

[Daddiikong]

Mine are all internal. I don't practice like I should at all. In fact, almost never. The bass stuff I play at church is so easy I pretty much sight read it. My son and I are recording a Christmas song right now, (in the vein of TSO and August Burns Red) and I laid down the bass track and 4 guitar tracks down yesterday stupid quick. I never even practiced. I am going to do my lead tracks today.

My son said "Wow, that's the quickest you have ever recorded stuff." I responded "Imagine if I practiced!"

I just wish I wasn't so lazy...

 

[Daddiikong]

Who else never really revisits stuff they've done, be it bands, riffs or whatever? I just almost never go back to stuff I've already done. Maybe once every year or two out of boredom or curiosity. And its not a "i think it was crap", I would just rather make new music.

I was talking to a singer a couple of years ago and someone asked him where he got the idea for one of his older songs. He was like, "Honestly, I don't even remember that song. So many I right, record, and just forget about them..."

 

[bostjan]

Honestly, my biggest frustrations with doing music is with other people who commit to something then no show. Whether it's a gig or a studio session or even super basic stupid stuff like posting fliers, I've never had a situation in which every person showed up when they were supposed to show up, did their job without pitching a fit, and then stayed until it was over, 100% of the time.

My second biggest frustration is trying to produce my own stuff when I have no idea what I'm doing and tutorials always make things look too easy.

I'm not good at performance, either, but it's the least of my frustrations.

Honestly, I haven't played a gig in about a year now. The last one I did was a disaster, because it was another one of those gigs with 11 other bands. The band before us didn't show at all. The guys I hired to back me didn't show (which I've become prepared for, but when I have the opportunity to go on early and am instead frantically trying to call people, it adds to the frustration). And then the band that showed up to play after me didn't bring any gear and wanted to use my stuff (except, all I had that they could have used was my amp, an octave pedal, and a bass amp, but they didn't bring guitars, so they were SOL anyway). The promoter was nowhere to be found, and many of the people who showed up on time to see the first band left by the time I went on. So, I played for something like 6 people. I mean, the few people that were there seemed to have a really good time and I got some great feedback, but I was hoping to play for more like 30 people. And this wasn't at all an isolated incident. It's been this way for years for me. Even when I had people who were relatively committed, I still dealt with no-show drummers, no-show promoters, no-show openers, etc. I'm just a small-time artist trying to get my music out there, and it had been a virtually impossible feat here in the middle of nowhere even before the pandemic.

 

[DrakkarTyrannis]

Honestly, my biggest frustrations with doing music is with other people who commit to something then no show. Whether it's a gig or a studio session or even super basic stupid stuff like posting fliers, I've never had a situation in which every person showed up when they were supposed to show up, did their job without pitching a fit, and then stayed until it was over, 100% of the time.

My second biggest frustration is trying to produce my own stuff when I have no idea what I'm doing and tutorials always make things look too easy.

I'm not good at performance, either, but it's the least of my frustrations.

Honestly, I haven't played a gig in about a year now. The last one I did was a disaster, because it was another one of those gigs with 11 other bands. The band before us didn't show at all. The guys I hired to back me didn't show (which I've become prepared for, but when I have the opportunity to go on early and am instead frantically trying to call people, it adds to the frustration). And then the band that showed up to play after me didn't bring any gear and wanted to use my stuff (except, all I had that they could have used was my amp, an octave pedal, and a bass amp, but they didn't bring guitars, so they were SOL anyway). The promoter was nowhere to be found, and many of the people who showed up on time to see the first band left by the time I went on. So, I played for something like 6 people. I mean, the few people that were there seemed to have a really good time and I got some great feedback, but I was hoping to play for more like 30 people. And this wasn't at all an isolated incident. It's been this way for years for me. Even when I had people who were relatively committed, I still dealt with no-show drummers, no-show promoters, no-show openers, etc. I'm just a small-time artist trying to get my music out there, and it had been a virtually impossible feat here in the middle of nowhere even before the pandemic.

Wait wait....what the fuck show where you doing that the band showed up but brought no gear?

How did your entire band now show up?

Where do you live and wtf is going on?

 

[gabito]

I hate not being able to write the music I'd like to write.

I mean: modern-ish music like - say- Polyphia, Cloudkicker, someotherprogdjentygroups, etc.

I can (mostly) play the notes when I put the effort, but I can't write like that when I try. All I write sounds (to me) like some Metallica or Pantera pentatonic / chromatic rehash.

It's not about playing a million notes, I don't really care, but about choice of notes, harmonies, composition, etc. It's like the 90's run too deep in my ADN and I can't get rid of them lol.

 

[GunpointMetal]

Somehow having even less time to work on stuff even though half of what my free time was spent on pre-covid isn't happening.

People who put zero effort into promotion thinking that because they have decent recordings everyone should give a shit and then constantly complaining about how "nobody cares about my music"....no shit, you didn't put in front of anyone besides your friends and family on FB.

Me getting older and watching all my musician peers fall into the "I only like this music I've liked since 10 years ago and all new stuff is suck" mindset.

People are STILL doing metal covers of current top 40 pop songs and people are STILL listening to them.

Arguing with bandmates about the inherent value of playing shows in dives in the middle of nowhere just to play a show. We spent the last four years getting to a point where we can demand a decent guarantee in our area, I'm not gonna go play on the floor at some redneck bar in an unincorporated village in the middle of our state's worst look during this whole thing just to get a 15 minutes adrenaline rush (that will never come because the 15 people in the bar that didn't even pay a cover couldn't give a wet shit about the bands and they certainly aren't gonna buy any merch, and then I'm gonna have to argue with the bar owner/soundguy/booker about the $70 they promised us for gas that won't cover the cost of getting four people and gear to the venue).

 

[bostjan]

Wait wait....what the fuck show where you doing that the band showed up but brought no gear?

How did your entire band now show up?

Where do you live and wtf is going on?

It's a long story, I guess.

I live in Northern Vermont (a.k.a. middle of nowhere). There are actually a lot of bands within an hour of here, though, somehow. A couple of times a year, someone puts together a show to benefit a charity. This was one of those. Usually the bar to book these is non-existent. Just text or email the promoter and say "I want to play there," and you'll get a time slot, usually either 20 or 40 min.

I've played five or six of these, and without fail, there is always someone who noshows, and this is certainly not the first time someone showed up with no equipment. At one show a few years ago, one of the bands' guitarists just picked up my guitar, which has 19 frets per octave, without asking (hoping to use it for their set) and they were so out of it (weed, I'd guess) that they had no idea until I pointed it out to them.

Anyway, my band, in this instance, was me (guitar/vocals), a drummer I had hired a couple of times before for one-off shows (who had never noshowed on me before), and a bass player whom I had never worked with before, other than getting together to practice, but the guy went to Berkley. Neither of them called to say they weren't coming. I was prepared with prerecorded drum tracks and my octave pedal and bass amp just in case, since I've found myself in similar situations before.

Actually, the show before that one was the same thing in a different place, with a different drummer and bass player and that bass player also nocall/noshowed on me. So, yeah, this is extremely common here, especially since ~2017ish.

 

[MrBouleDeBowling]

No problem for technical riffs and playing fast but I have always sucked at soloing. I can learn a solo "fine" but can't write one. Yeah I know, "you should learn more theory/scales/just practice more"

Getting stuck when I thought I had a great riff idea. I open my daw, record my riff then just blank, no idea what to add more and getting stuck at that point. Have another idea the next day, still the same situation and etc. untill I have loads of riffs that go nowhere. It was way worse a few years ago when I was still playing melodeath. I got stuck for months between times I wrote complete songs. I even got to the point where I seriously asked myself "Am I really a musician at all or am I just a poser who got lucky and played with a band with my friends when I was younger?" Turns out I was just really sick of melodeath. I'm now in a humorous brutal death band and I'm doing my own slam project. I have WAY more ideas and I'm having a blast, I wrote a good chunk of my band's next album and have done an EP with my side project, but the situation still happens more often than I like to admit.

Writing drums. I can do it just fine but ohhhhhh lord do I hate the process.

 

[DrakkarTyrannis]

It's a long story, I guess.

I live in Northern Vermont (a.k.a. middle of nowhere). There are actually a lot of bands within an hour of here, though, somehow. A couple of times a year, someone puts together a show to benefit a charity. This was one of those. Usually the bar to book these is non-existent. Just text or email the promoter and say "I want to play there," and you'll get a time slot, usually either 20 or 40 min.

I've played five or six of these, and without fail, there is always someone who noshows, and this is certainly not the first time someone showed up with no equipment. At one show a few years ago, one of the bands' guitarists just picked up my guitar, which has 19 frets per octave, without asking (hoping to use it for their set) and they were so out of it (weed, I'd guess) that they had no idea until I pointed it out to them.

Anyway, my band, in this instance, was me (guitar/vocals), a drummer I had hired a couple of times before for one-off shows (who had never noshowed on me before), and a bass player whom I had never worked with before, other than getting together to practice, but the guy went to Berkley. Neither of them called to say they weren't coming. I was prepared with prerecorded drum tracks and my octave pedal and bass amp just in case, since I've found myself in similar situations before.

Actually, the show before that one was the same thing in a different place, with a different drummer and bass player and that bass player also nocall/noshowed on me. So, yeah, this is extremely common here, especially since ~2017ish.

Wow. Sorry to hear that. The gear thing is a pet peeve of mine. It's one thing to ask beforehand. I was doing a gig with a band and days before the show the guitarist asked if he could use my amp. Sure. It's just an amp.

But don't touch my guitar. No you're not using it and if you pick it up as if it's yours you're gonna get hurt.

 

[BenjaminW]

I hate not being able to write the music I'd like to write.

I'm in a similar boat. Either the music in my head doesn't work out when I go to actually play it, or I discover that the riff I'm thinking of in my head is actually a riff from a song I've heard before.

 

[DrakkarTyrannis]

I hate not being able to write the music I'd like to write.

I mean: modern-ish music like - say- Polyphia, Cloudkicker, someotherprogdjentygroups, etc.

I can (mostly) play the notes when I put the effort, but I can't write like that when I try. All I write sounds (to me) like some Metallica or Pantera pentatonic / chromatic rehash.

It's not about playing a million notes, I don't really care, but about choice of notes, harmonies, composition, etc. It's like the 90's run too deep in my ADN and I can't get rid of them lol.

Me. I don't really like modern metal. I hate most of the guitar tones and I'm stuck in the 90s. Every review I get of my music says it sounds like old school stuff from back then.

Honestly I'm okay with it. It's my playing and writing style. I take little things from modern music here and there but I'm cool with being a relic of a forgotten time.

 

[Ordacleaphobia]

Who else never really revisits stuff they've done, be it bands, riffs or whatever? I just almost never go back to stuff I've already done. Maybe once every year or two out of boredom or curiosity. And its not a "i think it was crap", I would just rather make new music.

I have the complete opposite- I revisit my stuff all. the time. because I never finish it.
The worst part is that I don't ever make any progress on it- I always just refine what's already there.

I'm 'the guy with a million riffs on a hard drive' but no actual continuous compositions that go on for longer than maybe a minute and a half. Stringing riffs together is just not something I can do for whatever reason. So I've got a library of riffs, some of which I've been refining for close to a decade that definitely slap, but can't MAKE anything from them. It's been depressing the hell out of me for years.

Man, random pain really sucks and makes you worry.

Same, dude. I take drums more seriously than playing guitar, and as of a couple months ago, I started getting this aching pain in my foot that would last for a few hours to a day or so after a long sit on the kit. The "oh shit, my technique is probably trash and causing physical damage- I should probably relearn everything" thought is really, really not a fun one.

Wow. Sorry to hear that. The gear thing is a pet peeve of mine. It's one thing to ask beforehand. I was doing a gig with a band and days before the show the guitarist asked if he could use my amp. Sure. It's just an amp.

But don't touch my guitar. No you're not using it and if you pick it up as if it's yours you're gonna get hurt.

Fun fact- I had no idea stuff like that even happened until I started lurking here.
I've never gigged or anything- so that whole world on the other side of the stage is totally foreign to me. So when I read posts here bitching about how bands on the bill would literally show up empty-handed, assuming that they're just going to borrow someone else's shit, I dead-ass thought they were trolling at first.

 

[TheBolivianSniper]

I thought to myself the other day, "when he was 20 James Hetfield wrote Kill Em All and when I'm 20 I'm gonna have Jack shit written and recorded," so I decided I'm gonna record a shit ton of essential classical sax excerpts, probably some jazz solos, and try and get that dumb metalcore thing ready for my friend who plays drums and bass to write the rhythm section under it. I can't leave since corona and all I have to do outside of work is practice, and I do that at work so

 

[c7spheres]

I thought to myself the other day, "when he was 20 James Hetfield wrote Kill Em All and when I'm 20 I'm gonna have Jack shit written and recorded," so I decided I'm gonna record a shit ton of essential classical sax excerpts, probably some jazz solos, and try and get that dumb metalcore thing ready for my friend who plays drums and bass to write the rhythm section under it. I can't leave since corona and all I have to do outside of work is practice, and I do that at work so

Don't feel bad. He got help from the demons of cocaine and alcohol and it was back in the day when Satan was still buying souls, which he no longer is since everyone just gives him their souls for free nowadays. Seriously though, I think about that sometimes how many of these people achieved all that at such a young age. That's gifted. It's not all hard work. It's hard work combined with a gift/talent.

 

[TheBolivianSniper]

Don't feel bad. He got help from the demons of cocaine and alcohol and it was back in the day when Satan was still buying souls, which he no longer is since everyone just gives him their souls for free nowadays. Seriously though, I think about that sometimes how many of these people achieved all that at such a young age. That's gifted. It's not all hard work. It's hard worked combined with a gift/talent.

Thanks man, I appreciate it. The problem is, at least outside of guitar, I should be an insane musician and I don't have much to show people. It's past time and this thread has honestly given me a little kick in the ass to get my shit out there so hopefully I'll be posting some of it on here to see if I can get it out there. Gonna start up some social media, maybe promote, then I've got a light semester due to corona that I can spend in the studio recording and mixing.

My guitar playing, not the greatest, but it's getting there. Just wished bebop and 20th century French stuff sold n

 

[bostjan]

When Einstein was 25 years old, he created three never-before-seen branches of physics in the same year. Alexander the great conquered the known world and he died at 32. By his 21st birthday, Stevie Wonder had more than a dozen hit songs.

Morgan Freeman didn't land his breakout role until he was 52. What if he would have given up after comparing himself to those other dudes?

Regis Philbin was 57 when he got his own TV show.

Colonel Sanders was 62 when he opened his first restaurant.

Anything can happen at any time.