So I got a folder with 26 incomplete songs and it's really hard to get into the same mood with which I first wrote them. It kinda gets piled up and even though sometimes I want to begin a new one my mind tells me to take a look at them first and it's kind of a waste of time (I think). Does anyone also have the same problem? Any suggestions?

Mix & match...jigsaw puzzle like..
Get wild with what you have. Thinks of ...."A day in the life"

I go through periods where everything I start is gold. Then periods where only one in five ever get finished. Each unfinished project folder weighs on my soul for some reason, asif they have mass and gravity that holds me back ("look at all zis unfinished stuffs, you ideas is poopoo!"). Some ideas for dealing with them:

1) Delete stuff you really don't like, if you've not liked it for over a year. Salvage any samples and midi clips you can.

2) Go crazy with it running it through lots of effects and sample the results, do recursive wave editing on it, or otherwise try to convert it into raw materials.

3) Try and finish the track using oblique strategies, such as a rhapsodic conclusion (contrary to what the overschooled art critics say, not all music has to "make sense" - whatever that means).

4) Just hide the stuff. Move it to another drive and forget about it, so it's not there glaring at you and reminding you of your own ineptitude

5) Extract the chord progression or any other aspect you like from the song and delete it. It will live on in whatever you do with the salvaged material.

Incomplete songs are against a rule for producers
You must learn (and see it also like a job) to start with a song and after a appropriate time finish the song. Collecting unfinished songs/projects is a waste of time.

I have no incomplete songs and projects. I have sometimes songs with a shorter play time. Often if started to demo new plug-ins, test a new production technique etc. Sometimes I backup this projects more for fun and eventually delete them later. Sometimes I save some created presets to use them for new songs but that's all.

If I cannot complete a song skeleton in 1-2 weeks (a exception is of course disease/vacation etc) and find no further ideas, I delete the whole project and start from scratch. A song must be finished before I start a new song.

make shorter songs

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!

merge several unfinished into a new one!

I polish all those "moments" and I keep them as a snapshots of my music journey.
Most of my work is so in the moment that I can't ( or I don't have the skills to) go back and reconnect.
I guess is the same as in life. Past is gone. Better treasure it as it is.

Oh man this sounds like my (musical) life story, I have over 30 unfinished tracks!
So I went through them and if there is something there, either mix it as it is, even if it's short.
If there's nothing (or not much) I like then I will probably delete them.. haven't found the guts yet

One of the salvaged ones is this:
https://soundcloud.com/mariosprt74/steamroller
(not quite finished.. I know.. needed more variation.. yep)

The other is this:
https://soundcloud.com/mariosprt74/plastic-walls
(too short... yep... some sounds not quite there.. you bet)

But hey, it's a way to get them out of my system so I can start new stuff, and remember not to make the same mistake again

I'ts much better to do it like some folks here, who finish a track in a day or two and it's done!

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!

I do that often, I'll have bits all over the place, a few bits of music, a few bits of lyrics, then instead of scrapping it all, I'll just jam it all together into a mediocre song... better than no song

Even if you only have two parts, that can be made into a whole (lazy) song:
Intro=chorus with no singing, verse x2, chorus x1, verse x1, chorus x2, breakdown=chorus with no drums, chorus x2... the end, slack as hell, but listen to the radio, you'll hear this all day long.

I made a whole EP out of leftovers recently, one song was a backing track I made for someone else to sing to... but he never got around to doing his part so I quickly wrote some words and done it myself, the rest were just exercises/experiments that I finished off by singing scrapped lyrics from other songs over.

Here it is (it's punk influenced):

http://anelectricheart.bandcamp.com/album/come-on-down

You're lucky. Mine has more than 100.


I do. And I think 70% of KVR members has this very same problem.


Finish it!

Seriously: I'm having great fun trying to finish old stuff. They vary from basic loops (which I use in another compostions) to almost finished songs, kinda 70-90% done. Sometimes, I don't know how to finish them or can't program a synth sound that I have in my mind, or can't complete their arrangements... it's cool to look to your old unfinished stuff trying to fix mistakes and implementing that weird acid loop that I couldn't program at the time.

I'm not ashamed of start something new even knowing there's tons of tracks that need to be finished but, at this moment, my creative power is focused on finishing the old half-songs.

Try to finish some of your tracks as-is or with a simple fade out, just as a matter of honour. You may like the result and it will present your mind to the fantastic world of the finished tracks. And this can brings great ideas for better finishing to your next songs.

This is a very common problem. I gave hundreds of unfinished bits and pieces. Everyone loves the feeling of that first blush of creativity when you start a new song. Taking it to completion, on the other hand, is more like work. The real problem is that there is no external pressure on most of us to ever complete anything. In my day job as an animator, I often have to work for weeks or months at a time to finish a project. I keep going even after the fun factor starts to fade because its my job, and I'm expected to complete my work. With that in mind, perhaps you should find someone to collaborate with?

Chop them to small pieces, shuffle and make glitch. That's what I did.

That is a valid point.
When I get to the piano I usually finish the piece.
With the DAW I get bounced around busy making it "better" and forget how I got there in the first place.