The process

[Don H]

What do you do to construct a song?

I'm not talking about music theory specifically, but my biggest problem at this point is finding a way I can finish songs without burning out like I'm doing now...

[Dave Wesley]

That's a tough one. I have the same problem. Thousands of tracks that are cool but need to be finished. My latest finished stuff was helped along by having some daytime hours for music. I've found that night is good for pure creative sound design and to sketch ideas, but the craft of mixing and arranging works better for me during the day.

The other thing that has helped lately is coming up a concept for an EP and then driving the arrangement and mixing for a couple few songs toward that concept.

Collaboration can also help. Maybe the new Live 8, with its online project sharing, will stimulate more collaboration between bedroom producers....

[Dave Wesley]

Also, I just re-read a great book that is very motivating: "the WAR of ART" -- Seven Pressfield.

Very inspiring.

[John N Broniecki]

I know the feeling. I have a ton of live sets that have all or most of the elements needed but I cannot seem to finish them. I usually do a little bit of work to several sets in a night, adding pieces where i think needed, then on one of these nights I get inspired by what I'm hearing in one of my sets and then try to arrange the first 64 bars of the track. Once you have those done you can see/hear how you want the track to progress, sometimes. Not a perfect system for me .

I do try to listen to various genres of music, try to get inspired elsewhere, take a few days off. One thing is for sure is when I try to hard nothing gets done. I do agree with Dave in that working during the day also helps.

Also Live 8 and project sharing, working on something with someone else. When you see what direction someone took a project of yours it opens up doors ;)

[Dave Wesley]

Good luck in your quest for completion!

[lcvl]

write down on paper the structure/arrangement of your favorite tracks.
create a library of structures that you can use when it's time to arrange your music.

[Dave Wesley]

That's a great idea. Do you try to make some obvious change every 8 bars like traditional techno? (I don't.)

[lcvl]

no, I usually don't either.
If I really need to have any changes in the track (eh... :-) ) I usually use very gradual transitions. really slow fade-ins/outs, for example.

[Dave Wesley]

Yeah... I don't want to break the hypnosis.