I'm getting rather bored with many things at present but one of these things is what music I'm trying to make.
I don't seem to be able to make the music I properly like, I don't have the knack, conviction, voice or oompf for it. So I still try and end up dissatisfied and subsequently bored.
Then I give that up, and play the boring middle of the road crap That comes easily and naturally, or that fits more with my voice, and I get bored and dissatisfied again because it's so dull and I don't want to sound like that kind of music.
What's the answer? What do you guys do about this feeling if you've ever encountered it?
Cheers
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I can see them, but as soon as I pick up the guitar, the 'Hideaway' licks come out and the vibe is gone.
If you don't like something you have done, use it as a springboard to something else. Or just put it aside.
I think the answer may lie in forcing yourself to try new and strange ideas and accept that they might not work. Set some time aside and do it anyway.
Don't give up tho- you can't just do stuff that doesn't move you cos it's easy!
Re vocals (and to some extent guitar or anything else) as long as you can convey an idea you can always get someone else to play or practice until you can do it. Doesn't really matter if you have the song, it will be 'you'
Not sure what I am banging on about...I suppose the answer to your question is 'a bit of both'
Cheers
Trouble is, literally everything I like to listen to is the opposite of what I can do. I like quicker louder music, in different keys to what I can sing in, higher pitch usually, doesn't work as a one man band and is just incredibly corny coming from a fairly mundane thirty something with no really belief in what he's doing.
I can't find one style that I could just try to commit to in order to have the ability to do something well. I tried sacking off strings to sing along to piano but that was even more dull and boring than the guitar stuff.
Not to worry, hopefully be all over for me soon!
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Plus transcribe solos.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
What do you mean?
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
You can apply it to a lot of things.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
if I’m in genuine creative mode then I mentally slap myself on the wrist if I’m falling into cliches. That might mean - for lead lines - playing chromatically and then ‘tidying it up’ into something more coherent. I also alternate between acoustic one day and electric the next as I find that keeps things fresh for me.
Getting a looper has helped me a lot in composition and, I think, maybe even forced me into musical areas I didn’t used to go in.
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
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soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
Are you saying "I don't enjoy the things I like to do"
Because that is anhedonia/depression.
Or are you saying that you can hear stuff in your head or on recordings but don't have the technical ability to play what you want to listen to.
Or that you can't come up with ideas that please you
Or some other thing I am missing?
Genuinely interested likes...
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
What I mean is, the music I enjoy (for example White Stripes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, or on the other hand Jeff Buckley, Laura Marling), I do not have the ability to do. It's not about work, practice or whatever, but my nature does not allow it. They sing too high for me, so I can't just transpose the guitar for example as the sound I like is the contrast between the two. I can't sing them lower because it sounds crap. Also I can't play the Stripes/YYY stuff by myself as it sounds terrible with only one person singing and accompanying themselves.
I'm adept at making shit boring generic music, that had no punch to it because I have no punch. I cannot practise having oompf. I cannot practise giving a shit enough to have feeling.
Hence, there's no answer, it was a stupid thread I posted whilst bored on a horrible rammed Train journey home and I was hoping it would not be seen not long after I'd pressed "post" as it's just a whinge
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
I can tell you for a fact that study and work pays off, because I did it.
Your feeling of not having 'it' is universal- I really mean that- we all feel like that.
You're in a rut- that is fine- play your way out of it.
Quitting is not ok.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
Sounds like you're just down on yourself musically at the moment.
Don't think you're alone in feeling that way - there is stuff I love to listen to, but have to accept I can never do because I am not "that person" - it would be fake.
Anyhow...maybe try writing from the POV of someone else. By that I mean, make a narrator, the same way an author will do when writing a novel. Pretend to be someone else for a bit. Can be cheesy as hell, but pick out the good bits and fuse them with existing ideas which are more 'you'. Might come up with something unique.
tbh, sounds like you're just knackered after a week at work!! Time of year doesn't help much either...
Good luck