Why You NEVER Finish Your Tracks... (and how to fix it)

what's up everybody nathan larsen here back at you with another video for those of you guys who make music at home whether you're a songwriter a producer an artist if you write and record your own music at home this is the channel for you and if that sounds anything like you at all you need to subscribe right right there and how many of you have the problem with never finishing your songs this is a problem i hear so many producers struggle with is they can never finish that song why is it that so many home producers have a hard time finishing their songs in this video i want you to watch it all the way through because not only am i going to talk about what the problem is but i'm going to tell you how to fix the problem so that you can be finishing more songs because it's not just one thing okay let's do it now this is going gonna be in no particular order as to these reasons why people struggle with finishing their songs i'm just gonna go through it one of the biggest reasons why so many home producers struggle with finishing is because they lack structure to their process if you do not have a structure to your process of how you're going about actually producing in the first place yeah you're probably going to get stuck you're probably going to get lost because you don't really have a quote-unquote road map to follow now my particular process for actually having structure is pretty simple i want to focus on the quick wins this is something i teach a lot through the producer accelerator that link is down below if you're focusing on the minut details the minutia instead of getting focused on the things that you know are going to get you very quick fast success fast wins i know i want this i know i want that you need to be focusing on the things that you already know that you want to exist in that track that is where i always start so for me in many cases that's starting with a piano part that i know i can just quickly whip together a full arrangement using piano and then from there i can start actually building on top of that rather than here's a little intro and i'm gonna start trying to now produce everything within that intro and then i'm now getting stuck in the details and i have no idea where i'm even going structure is so so important and i think so many producers don't understand how important it is to have structure when you're actually going through the process of producing a track so some suggestions for ways that you can improve your structure on how you can actually kind of build your own roadmap because everyone works differently just because i start with piano and then i build my whole arrangement with the piano does not mean that that's what you have to do you know what works best for you are you a guitar player are you primarily a vocalist are you a pianist are you a bass player what instrument do you feel most comfortable with what element do you feel you can start putting directly into your production to get you the fastest results first i am always focused on the big picture before i ever start getting down into the minutia in the detail of the production i want to have a very clear vision of where is it that i'm going from the very moment that this song starts all the way until the end do i know exactly how i'm going to build up tension how am i going to release that tension how am i going to dynamically approach this arrangement now so much of this comes down to arrangement and that is such an important part of the producing process is actually being a really good arranger and i think while so many people are focused on effects plugins compressors eqs reverbs delays all that stuff that stuff is like at the end of the process why are we watching a thousand tutorials on this crap when you don't even know how to build an arrangement and this is something that really frustrates me about the world of youtube music production and that's a whole other deal i'm gonna have to make another video on that but at the end of the day you should be really really focused on arrangement throughout the majority of the process it really is about building an amazing arrangement and finding sounds that are going to accomplish your overall vision of that arrangement in the actual track if you're constantly thinking about where am i going throughout this do i want this to be a softer moment and then build into this moment and then where am i going and actually mapping out that whole thing now you have a whole road map of the entire song and whether you're starting with piano or guitar or bass or a synth instrument it really doesn't matter at that point because now you have somewhat of a big zoomed out picture of this is what i want this to sound like and now we can start actually going about doing it and even once i start doing it i'm always focused on what things do i already know without a shot of a doubt that's going to be there am i going to do a kick there what is that kick going to sound like am i going to do a snare clap snap whatever it is am i going to do strings there am i going to do pianos there since there i'm going to focus exclusively on the things that i already know because if you're starting to get bogged down on man i don't know what should go there i don't know oh and you're getting stuck in this rut of i don't know that just absolutely kills creativity and it does not help you move forward now what i found is you've probably heard this saying success breeds success i think creativity breeds creativity when you are working on things and getting the wins getting those fast wins and having this creative moments where you're like yes that works yes that works guess what it will bleed over into the whole thing where now you feel like this is going great this is awesome and then when you start getting into the more detailed stuff that requires a little more brain power you're already in a state of like this sounds great this is awesome i really enjoy this and then we can start actually making those decisions and actually making progress in finishing okay so one of the other really big reasons that people don't finish songs is because they get way too concerned and worried about the specific sounds they're using the sound design they need it to be that perfect that perfect like sound that has to be that perfect kick that perfect snare the perfect bass that perfect everything when my whole thought process is why does it need to be perfect i can always go back to that i want to build an arrangement i want to make progress at the end of the day a good mindset that a successful producer has is with the mindset and intent to finish if you are not applying this concept of i have to finish i have to make decisions that are actually moving the needle closer and closer to finishing then you will pretty much never finish it's just not gonna happen bring in the heat today now here's another really big reason why a lot of producers don't finish their songs it's because they don't finish their songs now hear me out how many times have you started producing something when you don't even have a finished song like the song isn't even done being written like you're you've got like one chorus and you're like this is cool let's just like let's just do it let's start building this whole thing at the end of the day a lot of times i will start producing during the songwriting process because that's sometimes just a really good flow to get into however really where the catch happens is that if i start feeling stuck at any moment let's say i've got a verse and a course and then i'm like i'm feeling really kind of stuck here i will immediately stop the producing phase and i will jump right back into hardcore songwriting phase and just really really really get focused on i need to just finish this song i need to finish some sort of a demo for this i need to finish verse two the chorus the bridge instrumental whatever is going to happen after the moment that i already have and i have to finish just writing the song and figuring out where i'm going because again if you don't even have the song finished how on are you supposed to have structure right i mean you could maybe have in the back your mind yeah we're gonna do a verse here we'll do another course we'll do the bridge whatever but at the end of the day if you don't actually have that written you don't actually know where it is you're going you are inevitably going to find yourself in a situation where you are just unsure of what it is that you're doing in the first place and a lot of times people will just abandon ship at that moment because they are focusing more on i gotta find good sounds i gotta produce the thing i gotta build an arrangement when the song isn't even done so my advice there is if you are struggling with finishing your your stuff you need to make sure that you are actually working with completed songs songs that from beginning to end are completely drawn out you know what the lyrics are you know what the melody is you know what the chord progression is and from there you need to start making decisions on the arrangement we got another one here we're not done yet another huge reason why producers don't finish their tracks is they take way too stinking long yes you heard me right take way too long have you ever been working on something where it just completely comes together in a matter of hours when normally it might take you a week to do something it is so easy to lose the creative edge when you are spending way too long on something if you are spending a week on one song one track one production you are inevitably going to become more dull creatively our brains can only focus so much creative energy on one task before our brain starts feeling tired and worn down so if you're taking all these things we've talked about so far those things alone are going to help you to become faster at making decisions this is where most amateur producers beginner producers producers that are really struggling really have a hard time they don't know how to make decisions quickly and this is something that just straight up takes discipline and practice if you're working on something you have to make decisions and you have to make them quickly if you want to actually push this thing forward this is something i struggled with so much at the beginning i would re-record my piano my like i would re-record my midi piano part like a thousand times before i was like yeah like that's the good one or whatever and then guess what the thousandth take of that really didn't sound a whole lot different than like the third take of it so why on earth was i wasting all of this creative energy when i could have used that first second or third take of something instead and i'm not saying that you should be sacrificing performance quality that's not what i'm saying what i am saying is i could easily just go into my piano role and edit that part instead of having to just completely redo it a thousand times and again like i said creativity breeds creativity when you start making decisions quickly and when you get in this routine and this groove of i'm making decisions i'm making actions that are actually pushing things forward it becomes easier and easier and easier to do it it's like a snowball going down a mountain and it really does help a ton so if you're taking a week two three weeks to work on something that is way too long for me on average it should only take me a couple days at the most for me to produce something beginning to end and that's not even talking about me working on it all day if i'm working on something all day i expect to have something probably pretty darn close to done within a day i'm not saying every single one of you is going to be at that level i've been doing this for like 13 years so for me it's going to come together quite a bit faster but i know for me and most of my colleagues that are also professional producers we're making decisions very very fast and if especially if you're working with an artist then you've got to make decisions fast because you're on the clock but for those of you home studio musicians you're working on your own music you have got to become more efficient with your time if you want to make sure that you're actually finishing stuff so a really great way of helping you with this is to legitimately set a timer i'm not even kidding you set a one hour timer and say i have to get as much done in one hour as physically possible and at that time i'm taking a break and then go take a break go get a cup of coffee go for a walk give your brain a little bit of a rest and then do it again this is something that i have legitimately done myself because i started realizing years ago that i was just wasting way too much time and i knew i could make decisions faster than i had been making decisions now real quick i do want to let you know that if you would like to get a free session breakdown of one of my own tracks i am giving that away for free for about the next month it's actually a module from the producer accelerator course it is the ultimate music production course on the internet that is launching in about a month but until that launches i am giving that away for free that link is down in the description below and hey if you haven't already done so make sure you subscribe to the channel comment like that helps out a ton let me know which of these you've been struggling with the most we'll see in the next one

Channel: Nathan James Larsen

Views: 46,036

Keywords: why you never finish your tracks, how to finish my songs, why can't i finish songs, why cant i finish songs, writers block, writer's block, how to beat writer's block, how to finish more songs, producers never finish music, how to produce music faster, produce music faster, produce faster, how to be a better producer, nathan larsen, how to be a better music producer, music production talk, finish more songs, finish songs

Id: SCY_130Aqy4

Length: 11min 45sec (705 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 17 2020