I'm too perfectionist and spend 6 months - 1 year in avarage to complete songs. Am I alone? Hey,

[Aloysius]

[seangm]

I was the same way for a long time and have just started finally speeding things up a bit in the past year or 2. Pretty normal way to start I think.

[datroof]

Hey,

I can create the initial backbone and structure of the song in a few hours but then end up spending 6 months - 1 year on average to complete songs. Fine-tuning, removing, adding parts and tweaking sounds until I'm happy with the result.

I'm a perfectionist. Am I alone? How do I become better at not falling into perfectionism traps and finish songs faster?

Try to pay attention to what things are really taking the most time. Then work on short-cuts, and how to tighten things up - if needed. There's nothing necessarily wrong with being a perfectionist, or taking ages to finish a song (or any other form of art, for that matter). But it is nice to know how to work fast, so you have that option.

[codec_spurt]

Hey,

I can create the initial backbone and structure of the song in a few hours but then end up spending 6 months - 1 year on average to complete songs. Fine-tuning, removing, adding parts and tweaking sounds until I'm happy with the result.

I'm a perfectionist. Am I alone? How do I become better at not falling into perfectionism traps and finish songs faster?

No, you are not a perfectionist. You have a curse. A common one among musicians/producers/songwriters.

You are not alone.

There are a million other failed musicians/producers/songwriters to compare yourself to. They also, would not take advice, compulsively obsessing over their 'art' instead of just getting it out there.

People who do this generally fall in to two camps:

1: Those that want the world to see them as a genius.
2: Those that have some kind of mental disorder where OCD is 'thing'.

Sometimes both.

Steve Hillage said it best:
Perfection is the the enemy of 'good enough'.

Profound.

But Bob Marley put it better:
Music like dirt.

As profound as it gets.

I haven't heard your music, but I doubt you are a Hillage or a Marley.

If it's good enough for them, is my point.


I can create the initial backbone and structure of the song in a few hours


I can create a finished master that will stand the test of time in that time frame. Could probably be better, but I'm not creating rock operas.


If I seem a little terse towards you, it's with good reason. I've met your sort a million times before. You and your kind were the reason why projects got abandoned, why nothing ever got done. Not talking personally here, so don't take it as such - I don't know you.

But no, you and your kind are extremely common, obsessing over every little detail, being argumentative to the point of destruction and thinking you are oh so rare when you are just the same type of OCD individual that gets in to music in the first place, not to make music, but just to obsess.

Perhaps you are different?

How do I become better at not falling into perfectionism traps and finish songs faster?

Read my above words, and don't take them too personally. I'm sure you are a great musician and writer. We aren't in the army here. But sometimes, a few short sharp words...

Good luck!

[datroof]

Read my above words, and don't take them too personally. I'm sure you are a great musician and writer. We aren't in the army here. But sometimes, a few short sharp words...

Good luck!

That's decent advice IF you're in a profession requiring quick results. Otherwise, it's terrible advice. I would definitely advise learning to work quickly, so that you have that OPTION. But that's the extent of it. You work however you want to work, in order to create whatever you want to create. Take as long as you want to, and don't ever feel guilty about it, or let anyone give you crap for it. Ever! How you do your work is nobody's business but yours, and if someone does happen to give you grief about that, tell them to get off their high-horse and get a life.

[lobanov]

Steve Hillage said it best:

Perfection is the the enemy of 'good enough'.

'Good enough' is the the enemy of perfection.

Me

[datroof]

Steve Hillage said it best:
Perfection is the the enemy of 'good enough'.

'Good enough' is the the enemy of perfection.
Me

Yup.

[excuse me please]

"He would shut himself up in his room for days at a time, weeping, pacing, breaking his pens, repeating and changing a single measure a hundred times, writing it and effacing it with equal frequency, and beginning again the next day with a meticulous and desperate perseverance. He would spend six weeks on one page, only to end up writing it just as he had traced it in his first outpouring."

https://www.talkclassical.com/59878-mos ... poser.html

[Aloysius]

patient people enjoy the journey. impatient people just want to get to the end as quickly as possible.

[Aloysius]

I remember in the eighties someone telling me that Clannad would spend a whole day working on just one synth sound. I thought that was extreme but very cool. Such attention to detail.

I remember someone telling me that The Eagles would spend a whole year writing and recording an album. I thought that was extreme but extremely cool. These guys were very gifted and yet they spent time perfecting their art.

Look up Michael Jackson and you'll see he employed three people (if i remember correctly) just to work on the synth sounds for thriller. I believe hundreds of people were involved in the making of that album. All very talented people. None of whom were satisfied with ''good enough''.

All of these artists produced classic records.

Now take a home producer with far less talent who happens to listen to quality music. Someone who doesn't have the multi-million dollar budgets of the Jackson's etc but is not satisfied with ''good enough''.

[Aloysius]

... and another thing. How long did Def Leppard spend making their classic follow up album after their drummer lost his arm? Again ... people who would not settle for ''good enough''. They went to the extremes and that album still holds up to this day.

[Aloysius]

... and, what about virtuoso guitar players? Do you think they're born great? No. The work their asses off to reach their full potential. If they're lazy and say ah sure it's ''good enough'' they'll never get there.

[vurt]

prefects are the enemy of running in the halls.

[vurt]

... and, what about virtuoso guitar players? Do you think they're born great? No. The work their asses off to reach their full potential. If they're lazy and say ah sure it's ''good enough'' they'll never get there.

if we look at art (in this case music) as a single entity, rather than sub-genres, like humans it requires a balanced diet of both and everything in between, for it to grow.
if for example we had just the "it's good enough" crew there would be no push to greatness that gave us the mozarts, bachs and prog rock.
with only perfectionists, no punk.
i dont know about any of you, but my life wouldn't be what it is without those, and much more besides.

where we as individuals fall in that scale, i hope like me, you find your happy place
im far from a perfectionist, the end product is pretty much irrelevant to me these days, my focus is on the moment, getting lost in the journey, sometimes totally, but that's ok, im not headed anywhere but "here".

[Aloysius]

But The Sex Pistols made a great record. If I'm not mistaken it actually took them a year to get it done. The playing is excellent. The arrangements. Everything. The stark reality of the lyrics. ''She was a owl one who killed her baby''. That actually happened. They weren't just some words that sounded ''cool''. Other bands sung about ... baby, baby, oh yeah, baby, aw, yeah etc. These guys sang about their reality. The media on the other hand just spun a lot of fantasy bullshit as always.

There are plenty of stories about great bands who were just out of their brains all the time, shagging birds and going to parties. Great bands don't get great without putting the work in.

NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS