TristEndo-in-spacebutt
Offline
California

Yes i had an internet release from early march. But i never finished the songs to my full desire. Also there are a few songs missing i never completed enough to put out.

I have 2 folders over a megabyte each with nsf and ftm files. not to mention all the .it and .xm files i made in ohc's. Is it bad to not complete a song and still be able to move on from that song?

what makes a song complete?

some would say that you can never complete something, you just move on from it.  I like this theory but I sometimes take it to literally. Than drop work instead of  working on it to my hearts content.

Should I be interested in creating a work of art if i don't understand the theory behind it entirely?

how come, why come the pasture got to have a nice car?

I'm not a musician even though people might say i am. I don't play any instrument well enough to play it for people I know. What do you consider yourself if you cant properly play instruments but can compose music on a computer program? composer? or just programmer?

I wish i knew more music theory.

can i still be creative in music if i don't know advanced music logic and theory?

how many of you guys create music purely from ear?

i love majo7th chords a lot please don't make fun of me.

what do I do about the anxiety of being imperfect?


answer these questions pleas. for me and for yourself. no i'm not being a troll. I want to know what you people think of my daily thought process. and also ask some yourself. we are here to help each other create the music we desire.  I hope this is not annoying.

10spd
Offline
Yuma, AZ

The only advice I have for you on this one is simple.
No you dont need to know theory. Music is a natural thing, so let it naturally happen! Dont get me wrong, some education might do you good, but there a plenty of musicians out there who have worked their whole careers by ear.
Dont worry so much about what to call yourself and what you do, worry more about whether or not it's yours. You know?
Music doesnt need to sound any one way. If you are into Maj7's then rock those poppy scales, man!
As far as finishing songs, I think there are a lot of us that hit that wall. Maybe go back through some of the old stuff and try hybriding some things?


Long story short - If you love your music, and you love making it, then you are doing it right.

O2star
Offline
Planet Zaxxon

TRISTENDO! smile

I would call you a composer without a doubt. But names and titles shouldn't matter.  From listening to your tracks, you dont need more music theory. Just keep making more tracks, and trying out new stuff. I guess it wouldn't really hurt to learn more music theory, but I can tell you its not that necessary. I barely passed music theory in college, and still don't really understand it. I know the surface of music theory, but everything I create is by ear. And as mentioned above, yes, I would say the MAJORITY of successful music acts/bands out there, are creating songs by ear.

As for knowing when a song is complete or not, I dont think there is an answer. You just have to decide when to stop messing with it. I could easily work on songs here and there forever, but that wouldnt be good. You can go insane working on the same song over and over, or the song can actually get worse.

I would say just keep doing what you are doing, and maybe look up some articles/info on music theory (basics) KEEP ROCKING THE 2A03

chunter
Offline
Brunswick, GA USA

Tristendo,

Not only do I consider you a musician, I consider you a good one! Keep in mind that my own background includes the things you lament; classical-bent piano lessons, music college, theory and all.

A piece is indeed never finished. You are welcome to go back to any of your previously released stuff, write new sections on them, and release them again. It happens all the time in many styles of music.

Programming a seqeuncer or any other music that is not "real time" still makes the person a musician. A sequencer is an instrument in its own right and a chip in particular is unique in that it can bend pitch for its entire range. If a person hears the result and thinks that it is mechanical when that is not the intent of the composer, it is the fault of the composer, not the instrument.

I also have typically advocated that synths and samplers should try to NOT sound like other instruments, highlight the strengths of your instrument, not thw weaknesses. More later if you want.

Best wishes

wedanced
Offline
San Francisco

dont worry bebe. relax and have some fun. http://8bc.org/music/wedanced/Best+buds … Tristendo/

rallyj
Offline
Anahiem, CA
theAutomaton wrote:

Long story short - If you love your music, and you love making it, then you are doing it right.

I have to admit, this is the best advice. Always try and remember why you got into making music and who were your inspirations. Songs will finish themselves.

10spd
Offline
Yuma, AZ
wedanced wrote:

dont worry bebe. relax and have some fun. http://8bc.org/music/wedanced/Best+buds … Tristendo/

Awesome smile

an-cat-max
Offline
astral cat

Tristendo

you are a cutie pie and i love your music a lot.

i write music because it take my mind off things and it's very fun to do and a lot of people make horrible music.

at the end of the day the only good reason to do anything is because you want to do it smile and that's what i think. i want to make music so i do.

p.s gold pants!

gizmo
Offline
california

I can relate very much to your post Trist. The perfection thing is a creativity killer. I go through phases where I become obsessed with making a certain aspect of my music perfect, which is neat at first, but eventually I have to purge my expectations. Listening to free jazz helps. Don't feel doubtful just because you don't know much theory. If there's something about a piece of music that appeals to you, it's worth pursuing. The best music I've ever made was when I was having fun and satisfying curiosity. Learning theory will help you to know where to find the sounds that you want. It won't generate the music. I do recommend learning guitar or something simple tho. There's nothing stopping you from learning an instrument if you want.

SKGB
Offline
Godzilladelph

kinda tl;dr, but idk, from my experience, if you can play a song live, or at least mix bits of it into your set, then i'd say it's pretty much complete. play moar shows TristEndo! big_smile
i'd love to see vids

btw, in addition to being fun as fuck, if you take two songs and just mix em together, go crazy with the eq and blend the bass from 1 with the treble from 2 etc you can come up with some really groovy stuff. just jam out, have fun and try everything, go balls out. who doesn't like a lofi Bassment jam?

Last edited by SKGB (Oct 24, 2010 11:05 pm)

Decktonic
Offline
Westfield, NJ

The beauty of electronic music is you can mix it and remix it and re-remix it to no end. It can sound different every time. Just because you are "tracking" doesn't mean your song has to be set in stone the moment you release it.

TraceKaiser
Offline
Whitley Bay, England

So many times, I've gone back over a song in LSDJ that I might not have changed for months, and thought "Hmm... I could add a bit more colour to the drums here!" and ended up improving the song tenfold. I regularly just sit down and run through all my tracks to switch up sounds and stuff.
My setup almost constantly evolves too, which means I keep adding. For example, I wrote one song about a year ago now - LSDJ and stylophone, with a little crappy bent oscillator playing a solo part. Then I changed it to just LSDJ and stylophone, with a more structured and tuneful solo.  Then I got my ST, and played the stylophone part with a MIDI keyboard and my ST. Then I got my VL-Tone, and replaced the ST with that. Now I have my Arduinoboy, so my ST plays another bass part and some horn parts - for want of a better description - while I play VL-Tone, and the solo is now an improvised blues solo on YMCK Player for my iTouch. At some point I majorly changed the drums too.

This track is now quite different to how it used to be, yet at all those stages it was "finished". Finished is objective, and there's nothing better you can do than going back to old "finished" stuff after a while -when you've learned more, and generally just taken a break from that song - and seeing what you can improve.

Theory, btw, is sort of needed. DEEP theory however, is not. Knowledge of a few scales and simple harmony and rhythm is all you really need.

If you want to - in your eyes - be a musician, I'd suggest learning bass. Pretty much anyone who can play bass (such as myself) can almost effortlessly play other instruments. Bass is a very fluid way of learning a lot of stuff.
Piano is also good for it's logical and clear layout, but I never learned anything playing it for like 7 years hahah.

Just keep on making music though. Keep improving, keep evolving, keep going! The worst you could do is stop wink

chunter
Offline
Brunswick, GA USA

Adding to what is already said, Hitori Tori makes tunes by opening six "unfinished" tunes in different tracker instances and mashes them at will.

If you want help with analysis or theory, ask anytime. It's okay to want to get better at your craft.

SKGB
Offline
Godzilladelph

that's pretty awesome! what kind of music does he make?
also, this was kinda already said, but learning a tracker is a learning process, i find myself constantly listening to old tunes i wrote and retuning the drums/adding in slight pitch bends and retrigs just to make them even better. no matter what, it feels like a song can always be just a little bit better everytime i hear it. though is probably one of the reasons why it's so hard to finish a tune tongue

chunter
Offline
Brunswick, GA USA

Hitori Tori makes this kind of music:

(hope that worked, if not just google it, you will find awesome stuff)

PlainFlavored
Offline

This might sound wacky, but draw a picture of how you want your music to sound, or how you want an individual song to sound. That simple little thing helped me get out of a massive creative rut (as well as stopping my use of LSDJ, which I felt was holding me back). If this is an issue that's really bothering you to a point where it's creating real distress in your life, go to a therapist if you have health care. This helps a ton too, and it doesn't mean you're crazy. It will often put into perspective the reasons why you make music in the first place.

Also, instead of just sitting down in front of a tracker every time you brainstorm a new song, sit down in front of a pencil and paper. I noticed that the ideas really started to flow once I got back into school, not just because I was more mentally stimulated overall, but because I needed something to occupy my mind with while sitting through boring lectures. This also helps if you have a general idea for a track, and not enough time or mental bandwidth to implement it all at once.

Don't stress about it. The moment I stopped enjoying making music was the moment when I stopped writing worthwhile music. If that means you're done for a while, then so be it.

Last edited by PlainFlavored (Oct 25, 2010 8:46 am)