Do this if you hate the music you make

What happens when you spend a bunch of time working on a track, only to listen back to it and feel as if you hate it? More than just hate, you feel frustration, disappointment, and anger. After bringing this piece of music into the world, all you are left with is a litany of negative emotions.

Every music producer experiences this. Period.

When I work with students to help them finish tracks, this reaction is a common outcome. Hell, I experience it myself still.

Just this past weekend, I was running errands with my family and played some WIPs over the car stereo as we putzed around Seattle. I was really excited for this car test as it's music I've been working on for six months now. But, by time the playlist ended, I was left feeling so angry and frustrated.

Why? And, better yet, what do you do after feeling this way?

Music is emotional...

When you stop to think about it, this kind of reaction really isn't all that surprising. Music is inherently emotional. You and I love music because it inherently makes us feel something. These strong emotional reactions to music are the reason why there's a whole ass industry around music - people can't get enough.

As music producers, our emotional connection to music has an added layer of depth that non-music makers can't experience. When you make a piece of music, you are putting a piece of yourself into that work. As a result, when that piece of music doesn't live up to expectation, it becomes easy to feel as if YOU aren't living up to expectations.

"I thought this music would sound good? Am I not good enough?"

"I worked so hard on this mix. What am I doing wrong?"

These kinds of questions and feelings of self-doubt well up inside all of us - me included.

But if you stop at these feelings and overly existential questions then you will remain in a place from which you and your music can't move forward.

Here's what you should do instead.

...but there comes a point when emotions must be set aside...

I do believe that there are stages in the music making process at which you have to stop being an artist - however, temporarily - and instead be an artisan. Your skills and ability to wield your craft will lead you to the results you are looking for.

What do I mean by choosing to be an artisan over an artist? Let me provide you with an example.

If a cabinetmaker realizes that their cabinets are crooked should they:

A.) Spiral into an existential crisis over how they simply cannot make a good cabinet?

B.) Grab a fucking level and figure out what went wrong?

The cabinet maker is going to grab a level, figure out why the cabinet is crooked, and fix the problem.

You have to do the same thing with your music.

...and you have to ask the question "Why?"

When you have these intensely emotional reactions to the music you are making, the only way forward is to rationalize them to find the source. You do this by asking "Why?"

The process is going to look something like this:

"My song totally sucks."

Why?

"Because it sounds worse than everybody else's music!"

Why?

"Because it's really boxy sounding!"

Why?

"Because there's too much midrange."

Why?

"Because I don't know what I'm doing!"

No. Why?

"Because I have too many instruments playing in the low mids."

Great! Go fix it!

By asking the question "Why?" you can find your way out of dread and into the actual root of the problem.

Nine times out of ten the solution to that problem is really straightforward. In the example, I provided above the issue was that the song was poorly arranged.

The answer usually lies in the fundamentals.

There is a reason why I talk incessantly about knowing the fundamentals like the back of your hand. The answer to almost every music production problem lies within the fundamentals.

It doesn't matter whether it is synthesis, songwriting, music theory, mixing, or anything else - the biggest problems you face in any of those areas are answered by their fundamentals.

Next time you feel like your music sucks, ask yourself why and don't stop asking until the answer is simple and actionable.

You'll find your way forward there.

Til next time,

ZW