Why are you sad right now?

[AwakenTheSkies]

Feel like I can't come up with good songs anymore. There's a lot to that and the stuff above plays a part in it too. When I was younger I had a huge drive to be creative and push myself really hard and I've been losing that over the years. And now I just come up with these lame ass basic bitch riffs. It kind of started going down hill when I started to try singing in my songs. If this is what it's going to be I might as well not make anymore music.. but that's not realistic. There are good reasons why I ended up being a bedroom producer. If I stop, I have nothing else to do

 

[Demiurge]

Feel like I can't come up with good songs anymore. There's a lot to that and the stuff above plays a part in it too. When I was younger I had a huge drive to be creative and push myself really hard and I've been losing that over the years. And now I just come up with these lame ass basic bitch riffs. It kind of started going down hill when I started to try singing in my songs. If this is what it's going to be I might as well not make anymore music.. but that's not realistic. There are good reasons why I ended up being a bedroom producer. If I stop, I have nothing else to do

I'm going through this to an extent, but my hope is that it's just growing-pains in songwriting.

For the longest time, I would fill up notebooks with clever lyrics and my computer with WAVs of neat riffs & progressions. I would develop these separately and then sit aghast when somehow they wouldn't easily mash together.

Making a concerted effort to work on the music, lyrics, and vocals that fit together has been a challenge. The songs coming from this endeavor started very basic but they're getting better. It has certainly induced some humility as a guitarist, but I feel like a better musician, if that makes sense.

 

[TedEH]

And now I just come up with these lame ass basic bitch riffs

Sometimes it's the basic riffs that hit the hardest. I can picture tons of times where someone has shown me some song they really like with the explanation "look how smart this is, it's just a basic scale, practically a practice routine, but they ran with it, and now it's amazing".

 

[nightflameauto]

Feel like I can't come up with good songs anymore. There's a lot to that and the stuff above plays a part in it too. When I was younger I had a huge drive to be creative and push myself really hard and I've been losing that over the years. And now I just come up with these lame ass basic bitch riffs. It kind of started going down hill when I started to try singing in my songs. If this is what it's going to be I might as well not make anymore music.. but that's not realistic. There are good reasons why I ended up being a bedroom producer. If I stop, I have nothing else to do

Creative ruts are a bitch. The one thing I do that seems to help is to pursue some other creative avenue for a bit. Shake the brain loose from whatever it is that's holding it back by just ignoring the part that's annoying you for the time being. It doesn't even have to be an expensive creative pursuit. Grab a notebook and write some non-musical poetry, or short stories, or letters to your creative center telling it what an asshole it's being. Anything to mix up the neurons from their standard firing pathways for a few days. It doesn't always work right away, but it almost always does something for me.

I tend to bounce between drawing, writing, and music, so I've always got another avenue to turn to if something starts to feel stale to me. Who knows? Maybe you'll find those basic bitch riffs are actually pretty cool once you set them aside for a few days and come back to them. Or maybe they're a good starting point for something better?

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

Creative ruts are a bitch. The one thing I do that seems to help is to pursue some other creative avenue for a bit. Shake the brain loose from whatever it is that's holding it back by just ignoring the part that's annoying you for the time being. It doesn't even have to be an expensive creative pursuit. Grab a notebook and write some non-musical poetry, or short stories, or letters to your creative center telling it what an asshole it's being. Anything to mix up the neurons from their standard firing pathways for a few days. It doesn't always work right away, but it almost always does something for me.

I tend to bounce between drawing, writing, and music, so I've always got another avenue to turn to if something starts to feel stale to me. Who knows? Maybe you'll find those basic bitch riffs are actually pretty cool once you set them aside for a few days and come back to them. Or maybe they're a good starting point for something better?

I think it's my vocals. They make everything sound lame. I hate the lyrics I write too. It's just not nearly as good as the stuff I like. So I can either make instrumentals that are (for the most part) boring, or I can make full songs with vocals that are lame.

 

[TedEH]

I think it's my vocals. They make everything sound lame. I hate the lyrics I write too.

This is where most of my creative stuff gets roadblocked. I can improvise instruments all day, but as soon as I need to add vocals, I draw a blank. And when improvising, there's so much risk of the result sounding awful. And then the half-assed confidence also comes through in the takes - so you end up with a bad idea executed badly summing to a pile of bad.

I've got about 8 songs (pieces? they aren't "songs" until they have lyrics, right?) from a month ago, and a handful from before that, that are just sitting without being completed because I'm creatively stuck on what to do with vocals.

 

[LordCashew]

I think it's my vocals. They make everything sound lame. I hate the lyrics I write too. It's just not nearly as good as the stuff I like.

Sounds like you're just in a certain developmental stage in both of these areas, and will inevitably improve if you don't give up. Singing well and making the most of the instrument you have are just learned skills. So is lyric writing—even great songwriters will talk about the dozens of trash songs they've written for each that sees the light of day.

If you want to get there more quickly, intentional practice habits with goals will help a lot, especially with help from a teacher/mentor. But I realize that kind of organization can potentially suck the life out of something that's meant to be a fun release...

 

[nightflameauto]

Lyrics are tricky, vocals are trickier. I tend to do song-focus until lyrics come to me. Like, get the instruments down, at least in basic form, and then listen to it a LOT over the course of a week or two until a mood strikes me, and a direction develops.

Granted, now that I never have time alone in the house I hardly ever record vocals, so who am I to give advice?

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

Sounds like you're just in a certain developmental stage in both of these areas, and will inevitably improve if you don't give up. Singing well and making the most of the instrument you have are just learned skills. So is lyric writing—even great songwriters will talk about the dozens of trash songs they've written for each that sees the light of day.

If you want to get there more quickly, intentional practice habits with goals will help a lot, especially with help from a teacher/mentor. But I realize that kind of organization can potentially suck the life out of something that's meant to be a fun release...

Yeah I agree, but me getting better at singing wouldn't solve the problem entirely. I think my voice doesn't fit my songs. It has none of that rock n roll rasp and intensity as you sing higher. The higher I sing, the whinier I sound. I can either do these crystal clear vocals or full on black metal scream. I did record vocals for my friends death metal album and they liked it. I just can't get it right for my own songs, which are more melodic.
That's another thing that's been fucking with my inspiration. Instead of writing the type of instrumentals that I like I've started writing more to accommodate my voice, transposing the songs, etc.

Lyrics are tricky, vocals are trickier. I tend to do song-focus until lyrics come to me. Like, get the instruments down, at least in basic form, and then listen to it a LOT over the course of a week or two until a mood strikes me, and a direction develops.

Granted, now that I never have time alone in the house I hardly ever record vocals, so who am I to give advice?

I started doing this involuntarily too. Over the course of a few years, I have unfinished songs that have stuck with me and I still think about them, and that's how I know they're probably good or worth taking seriously. They've stood the test of time.
Now I do that with the new songs as well. Since it's a lot of work doing the composing, programming, demoing, then recording, mixing, etc. I'm not as driven as I used to be, so I will take some weeks off so I don't burnout. And that time will allow me to see clearer if the song is a good idea or not when I come back to it.
But still it's a bit sad, when I was 18 I had a ton of drive and would do this whole process in just a day or two. And that rarely happens anymore, and it's not time, I still have plenty of free time.

 

[TedEH]

I thought the family drama was starting to improve. I was wrong. I got a message or two from Bro saying he's given some thought to some of what I said a few weeks ago and he wants to talk about it some more. That sounds good. Then this morning I get another message that he's being ultimatum'd again (he has until the "end of the month" ... tomorrow? ... to clear out a whole shed and do... something? ... with his truck, but I don't know what, else gtfo), and my parents are threatening to separate, pinning it entirely, and vocally, on Bro.

I've got an ominous feeling shits about to hit the fan.

 

[p0ke]

Had a bit of a fever yesterday/last night from just being generally overloaded and had a pretty bad nightmare thanks to that. In the dream I had to go to some rehab/therapy place for whatever reason, and there I found out that my wife had been going there for months because she had been cutting herself. The reason for the cutting was surprise surprise, me.

That wasn't the only thing that happened in the dream (none of it was nice), but that's what got me really upset. The dream felt like it was a whole day of my life.

So I basically woke up crying and am still having a really hard time shaking the feeling that I'm a terrible piece of shit...

 

[prlgmnr]

A terrible piece of shit wouldn't give a fuck.

What did your wife say about it?

 

[p0ke]

A terrible piece of shit wouldn't give a fuck.

What did your wife say about it?

She said something along the lines of "if you were a terrible piece of shit you wouldn't feel like a terrible piece of shit". Which makes sense, of course.

Also she wouldn't hurt herself, it's just not part of her vocabulary of ways to deal with things. I guess the reason that ended up in the dream is that I used to beat myself up over stuff. Haven't felt the need to do that in a long time though.

 

[prlgmnr]

I was genuinely 50/50 on whether you were going to say "I don't have a wife, that was just part of the dream"

 

[Xaios]

RIP Carl Weathers.

 

[MFB]

RIP Carl Weathers.

Just saw that a few minutes ago, gonna have to crush some Rocky and other flicks this weekend for him

 

[Robslalaina]

RIP Carl Weathers.

Always sad when your heroes pass away...
Godspeed

 

[spudmunkey]

Just found out my (first) cousin (once removed) (aka: my first cousin's kid) had to have an arm amputated last night due to a kind of bone cancer.

Meanwhile next month will mark 3 years since I've barely been able to leave the house due to an issue with inflammation in my guts, and yesterday my significant other got outfitted with a Zio patch heart monitor due to some irregular heart patterns.

Being mortal sucks.

 

[TedEH]

I had a weird moment this week where I was talking to someone and mentioned some family drama, which was received with a look of horror. I asked, "doesn't every family have ups and downs? Brushes with trouble? Occasional drama?" To which I got a very definite "no".

"Sure I've got problems, but you've got problems."

And I was mildly saddened.

 

[High Plains Drifter]

I had a weird moment this week where I was talking to someone and mentioned some family drama, which was received with a look of horror. I asked, "doesn't every family have ups and downs? Brushes with trouble? Occasional drama?" To which I got a very definite "no".

"Sure I've got problems, but you've got problems."

And I was mildly saddened.

I feel like that person is possibly not being completely transparent or is maybe oblivious to whatever drama or issues might be occurring. And/ or maybe they're an instigator of drama and issues. My sister would tell you that there are few or no issues within her immediate family yet when we talk, it seems very much like a soap opera with lots of drama, cringe, and tension.