How I overcame a music producer’s biggest struggle: finishing music

I used to struggle a lot with finishing tracks, but those days are behind me. To get rid of these struggles, these are the things I did that helped me:

4 THOUGHTS FROM ME

1. Put limits on your music.

Overthinking can be the biggest reason for not finishing tracks, and applying limits can help you overcome this in nearly all parts of your production process. So:

1. Set a deadline for finishing each song. I like finishing one song per month, and the end of the month reminds me that I have to finish a new song. Deadlines are helpful because they are the end of the line, regardless of whether you’re finished or not, so you’ll plan and push yourself to deliver the best you can within that deadline, leaving less room for overthinking.
2. Set up a deal with an accountability partner. Sometimes self-imposed deadlines don’t work because you need a bit of social pressure, so set up a deadline with someone. Now, your credibility is on the line, and you’ll want to rise to your challenge to avoid looking bad with your friend;
3. Limit the amount of sample packs, preset packs, and VSTs you use. Instead of buying loads of plugins and packs, just focus on getting the best out of what you already have, and this can actually speed up your music-making process. Limit yourself to 1-2 sample packs and 3-5 external VSTs (including synth), and you’ll see how having fewer options actually helps you work faster.

2. Create a killer production workflow.

A big reason why you’re not being able to finish music could be because your workflow has something that sidetracks you from finishing, or even impedes you from finishing, and that’s why you need to have a killer workflow to finish more and more songs:

1. Start with the end of the song. A big problem for producers is having their ideas for a track start to fade as they progress with the track… sounds familiar? Instead, start with the end of your song, which will force you to put all the ideas of a song already there. Focus on creating the best and fullest 8-bar loop you can possibly do (normally the last 8 bars of your drop) and this will prevent you from running out of ideas as all the ideas from your song will be in there;
2. Trash the ideas that are not strong enough. A big problem of not finishing tracks is when you’re working on tracks that are not worth finishing, that should have been dumped long ago. When you start with the end, build the whole drop 2 of the song, and if that doesn’t excite you so much, or you run out of ideas to make it fuller, trash it, and move on to the next one. We have too little time to work on ideas that are not worth finishing;
3. Build your song with Subtractive Arrangement. When you build the most complex 8-bar loop of your song, creating your song is simply unbuilding what you’ve just made. Now, to start your drop, simply copy and paste this full 8-bar loop, and delete some elements of it so you can build a narrative that grows into something bigger;
4. Learn how to ‘steal like an artist’ if you get stuck. What else to add in an 8-bar loop to make a killer end for your song, listen to your favorite top 5 tracks, and list all the elements that they have in there that you don’t. This will leave you with a list of things you can add to your song to enhance your 8-bar loop and make it even fuller.

3. Adopt a ‘get things done’ (GTD) approach to your workflow.

Now that you know how to start and what to pursue, it’s time to get things done and finish this song, regardless of the stage of your music, this is what I recommend you do.

1. List the next 1-5 tasks you have to tackle in your song. Make a to-do list of 1-5 things you need to work on the next time you sit down to make music, depending on how big they are. For example, “create drop 1”, “create drop 2”, “add FX and transitions”. This helps you by not seeing the task at hand as ‘finishing the track’, which makes it less daunting and more manageable to go through. In addition, especially if you have ADHD, this can keep you focused on the tasks at hand instead of getting sidetracked with other tasks;
2. Revisit this list every week or every time you work on a project to update it. Keep your done tasks in the list to give you a sense of progress, but also update it as you go with more tasks to keep you guided towards finishing the song. (3) Make this to-do list visible and add a ‘creation date’ next to each task. Put your task list in a place that you check every day so you have daily reminders of your to-dos. Having the creation date also helps to create some ‘self-shaming’ by showing you how much you’ve procrastinated to finish this task, which can motivate you to work on tasks that are too old;
3. As said in Topic #1, get an accountability partnership. Sharing your progress and tasks with another producer can be a good way to keep both of you on track with your tasks. Duolingo, for example, does that, and I sometimes just do a few lessons to avoid ending my ‘friend streak’. So, find a friend on Abstrakt’s server on Discord and set up an accountability partnership.

4. Avoid these common mistakes that slow you down and prevent you from finishing.

A big part of ‘not finishing a song’ also comes from making preventable mistakes that either waste your time or drain your motivation, and here’s a list of the things you need to avoid:

1. Choose good sounds instead of trying to save bad ones. When you choose bad sounds in your initial 8-bar loop, you’re setting yourself up for either wasting time processing them or swapping them later. Instead, find a sample pack or make your own sample library that you can rely on and stick with it. For example, within my last 5 tracks, I think I’ve only used 2 or 3 different kicks because I know they work, and that would save me 5-10 minutes looking for a good kick;
2. Stop overthinking your music. As said in our last post, you need to stop overanalyzing every piece of your music and learn how to be happy when your song is 80-90% done, since 100% done doesn’t exist. A lot of that will come from learning how to let go and realizing that your time is much better spent creating new songs than fixing things no one else will hear, which I talk about more in-depth over here;
3. Don’t overdo anything when working on your main 8-bar loop. When you’re developing that ending 8 bar loop, just focus on being creative and screw (ish) the rest. Don’t overthink sidechain, mixing, and even sound design, and put all your ideas on your DAW as fast as you can, as this is not only more enjoyable but it will also help you avoid getting frozen with any technical issues. For example, you can:
   • Start with presets and tweak them later. Same as samples, instead of creating everything from scratch, use presets to speed your workflow, and tweak them as you move along with your songs;
   • reuse sounds that you’ve used before and swap them later (or not);
   • Spend less than 1 min doing a basic sidechain for your song, and then you adjust it later if the song works out;
   • Don’t overthink your bass, melody, or other parts. Just get the notes down, and you can always tweak their sound later, but getting the idea on paper is the most important thing.

3 QUICK TIPS

What else can you do to finish more songs faster?

1. Make your songs more disposable to you.
We sometimes overthink our music because we overvalue our music, so we need to guarantee it’s flawless, otherwise we’ve “wasted all that time for nothing”, right? What if your songs were more disposable, though? If you don’t put too much pressure on your songs’ success, it will be easier to let go and finish more tracks.

2. Discover when to stop your songs.
Not knowing when to stop is a serious mistake, and I’ve made a post and a video about this. One thing that really helps me is getting feedback from others since it gives me someone’s perspective on the song and, sometimes, prevents me from overworking things that don’t matter.

3. Prepare your sample/preset library and templates when you’re not feeling creative.
When you’re not feeling like creating anything, you can search for good go-to packs and templates that will speed up your workflow and make your sample selection faster.