Too many incomplete songs and projects. What to do?

[ferez21]

Iv'e got news for you, you are ADHD, just like me

[hibidy]

Going through all my "projects" in live has me scratching my head. Some of it isn't bad at all and some of it is just AWFUL!

Time to buckle down. Damn the imperfections, I suck but it's built into me!

[Sendy]

I'm the same. I get 16 or 32 bars of an idea and then have no clue how to take it on from there!

my mate told me off for that(he has many releases under his belt), he blames it on computer DAWS,

he said with hardware you are forced to move forward with the track, he said software DAWS make users "get stuck in the loop", he showed me to build as I go! think about the next bit, keep moving...

and he said you shouldn't sit down, well, I haven't took that advice yet!

Good advice (not sure about the not sitting down bit though )

If you can't get away from the DAW properly, get a good free piano synth like Piano One set up and switch off your monitor and play. Then get out a pencil and some paper and write out what you have and play around with it all, and/or write down the new ideas that come to you.

This worked for me the last couple of times I tried it. The DAW really has too much "noise" in the form of options, options, options!

It's an important fact that actually WRITING (physically, with your hand) helps your brain to process ideas. Writing has almost been consigned to the history books but we don't have any stand-in processes to replace it (because, really, it should not be replaced!).

[SODDI]

I'm fortunate that I started this electronic music thing as a visual artist.

Please, for a moment, consider your folder full of unfinished pieces as a SKETCHBOOK.

Sketchbooks are full of unfinished things, tests of one's chops, practices, quick ideas jotted down, doodles and, in R. Crumb's case, pornography.

In fact, electronic music sketchbooks are even more forgiving in that you can just banish hateful things into the electronic ether with a key stroke (which you really shouldn't do). Pencil and pen marks on paper need to be burned to be gotten rid of thoroughly.

You always start with a sketch. But a lot of times the sketches don't make it. Tough. The hardest part of being any kind of an artist is realizing that not everything you do is precious.

Move on to the next project. Revist old ones if you wish.

And now for your edification, 2 pages from R. Crumb's sketchbooks (with helpful aesthetic advice.)
http://www.selectism.com/files/2012/09/ ... set-06.jpg

[Nielzie]

I have a lot of unfinished projects, and the biggest problem is they are made in a lot of different daws (long continued search for the best suited one), it's scary

[4damind]

This describes this very good. It's from Tiga James Sontag a DJ and producer.

"As a discipline, don't even look at it in musical terms, but more as building up an automatic reflex to complete tracks. That hard-drive with 130 'cool tracks' is not worth one finished track. Anybody can start something. Anybody can make something "good", but it's only the ones that get finished that the world will ever know about. The very act of knowing and deciding that something is complete is possibly the most crucial step. Every unfinished demo steals a small part of your soul. The goal is to die with nothing half-finished."

[liquidsound]

This describes this very good. It's from Tiga James Sontag a DJ and producer.

"As a discipline, don't even look at it in musical terms, but more as building up an automatic reflex to complete tracks. That hard-drive with 130 'cool tracks' is not worth one finished track. Anybody can start something. Anybody can make something "good", but it's only the ones that get finished that the world will ever know about. The very act of knowing and deciding that something is complete is possibly the most crucial step. Every unfinished demo steals a small part of your soul. The goal is to die with nothing half-finished."

[hibidy]

I wish I was perfect like that (goes back to working on stuff.......)

[Sendy]

Perfect schmerfect.

You could say if you're finishing everything you do you aren't being adventurous enough. The thing with experiments is that some of them WILL by definition fail. If you're constantly adventuring beyond your personal horizon you're bound to get lost every now and then.

[mellotronaut]

keep the stuff, listen to it from time to time, and finish it when the moment has come. i'm about to finish two songs, that are 9 years old.

[V0RT3X]

I have about 50 unfinished projects and I have decided to just sit down and give myself a goal to finish. So i have set out to write a full album and my focus is to be for that only!

I plan on covering all aspects of it, including getting it professionally mastered etc

Having a goal will leave me little time to "noodle around" and make me focus on getting "end results" which is what I am striving for.

[hibidy]

n/m, I'm too chicken.

[CrystalWizard]

i have at least 70 "unfinished" pieces but i agree that many are just sketches and were not necessarily meant to be finished (perhaps i was just playing with structure, sounds, or a new piece of software or hardware).

i save almost everything. i do often get back to older projects and finish them if i think they are interesting enough to keep. some take a really long time, others are completed in one sitting.

[hibidy]

I could just use live, have 4-5 "scenes" and just go back and fourth all day. I don't think others want to listen to that

[BERFAB]

Isn't Paul McCartney famous for creating whole tracks from his unfinished work by just mashing them up. Side two of Abbey Road and Admiral Halsey being two examples.

Cheers
-B