Best Of

It really depends if it is something you do as a hobby or as a profession but often these days it can be a challenge as there is so much "going on" in life, or at least we think there is.

If it is something you do as a profession you do as you would any other job and dedicate time to it which takes discipline if you are your own boss.

If you are doing it as a hobby whenever you have the time, it comes down to actually making/finding time and again being disciplined to spend that time on it.

I've found that when I was younger back in the 90s/00s it was easier for me to dedicate loads of time to making music due to the fact there was barely any internet, no youtube, very little games to get into outside my old playstation and no kids/family/dog taking up my time. I had a simple job, simple life and could easily stay up on a Friday night till 3am noodling and composing stuff.

What I have found are some good ways to get yourself at least in the disciplined frame of mind is try and set some times where you will do something music related. I like to make lists for things so I waste less time trying to decide on things so make a list of things you want to get done that aren't actually making a song. General housekeeping things like:

• Organise samples and presets in your library (clean it up and make it easy to browse)
• Create some channel/effects racks for certain workflows
• Make some starter templates with some pre-loaded instruments to get you going when you need ideas
• Label tracks in your older projects you forgot to do and add some notes about your production
• Sort the hundreds of projects you are working on into categories like "likely finish" and "never finish". Helps to clean up your distractions when trying to finish ideas.
• Dive into a synth and learn how it works and play around with it.
• Practice playing music pieces you like the sound of.
• Learn how things in your DAW work more in-depth
• Flick through instrument preset sounds and tag them as favourites
• Create some beats or build some drum kits....

If you don't have a project you are working on or excited about and have no real ideas it often doesn't get you in the mood to create something and that's where you will probably "feel" like you want to do something but really have nothing in mind so "maybe next time". If instead you spend time doing all these kinds of things above it can sometimes spiral into a new idea or get you excited about a sound you have found or an effect you never heard before, but at the very least it will help maintain some discipline on applying some time.

Also, unless you have a dedicated thing you want to learn, try and steer clear of forums and YouTube in these times as that usually just leads to lost time watching endless tutorials often without you really learning much at all.

If you have been doing it for decades like I have, sometimes a break can help or a changeup of things. You may find that working in the same linear DAW feels boring or uninspiring so checking out another DAW or a different workflow can sometimes be interesting. I got into recording sounds, DJing and noodling round on Maschine, in Ableton Live, Reaper and even messing around with some old programs again I used back when I first started making music (Fasttracker II) just for a break from synths and plugins.

You may also have to accept the fact sometimes the reason we cannot really ever seem to get into something is we are not cut out for it. You may find some parts fun but if you never seem to have an idea, never finish anything, don't like to spend the time to learn anything in-depth or do any of the things I listed above then maybe you like the idea of making music more than actually doing it.

Hers's my DAW with a huge sample library.