What is/was your biggest self sabotage habits or mindset that held you back writing and recording music?

For me:

- Putting to much pressure on myself for no reason (one-man project with no prior experience in songwriting and recording)
- Be a lazy ass (not practicing -> struggling to record with a click track)
- Still don't have any kind of work ethic, organizing, always procrastinating.

What was yours and what was the solution?

Not starting. Solution: starting.

General lack of discipline, both in music and life. Got tired of being the weakest link in my band, got tired of my execution falling short of my artistic ideas, just generally got tired of my own shit.

I spent a lot of time with the metronome, every morning for 2+ years. I still use it regularly. I use a journal to log my practice as a reflective tool to keep track of what I'm working on/where to focus my energy, also having a measurable picture of the work I've put in is very satisfying and keeps me motivated.

I started taking voice lessons a little over a year ago, right after I quite smoking pot for good. I've put in a lot of hours and it's been incredibly rewarding to see myself grow in that way, and to have others notice it.

Quitting alcohol and then cannabis were critical in building long term discipline/resiliency.

I expect a lot of myself. I push myself hard, maybe too hard sometimes, but the results speak for themselves and I'm far happier knowing that I follow through on my goals, do the things I do as well as I am able, and strive to be the kind of person I want to be, rather than wasting my life on weed and video games like I did in my 20s.

Self-actualization is our deepest responsibility to ourselves and to others. Getting to exist is a rare gift. What we make of it is our gift in return.

Being a perfectionist and unwilling to release music if it didn't sound like it was mixed by the same engineers as my favorite bands. Now, I just don't care. Being a perfectionist stifles creativity, for me at least.

Being a perfectionist and trying too hard to be unique. I have thrown away many a riff or potential song idea by not being sure of how well it will fit into the context of a song. I also have tried to put too much effort into having very different song structure or different/more complicated chords than I would normally use.

At the end of the day, just do what makes you happy. If something sounds good, it's good. Most people aren't going to care that much about how original a song structure may be in comparison to what you may hear with other music, and most people aren't going to care either about how spicy your chord changes are.

Now this is my kind of thread! My favorite is what I call "productive procrastination". I would have lyric-writing sessions where I would dash-off pages of lyrics. Then I would have a session playing guitar where I would write a bunch of riffs. After either, I'd declare "great work", pour a stiff drink and pop on the TV, looking forward to putting it all together later when I had more time. Hey, how could I say I was unproductive- I wrote a ton of stuff, right?

Everybody starts more projects than they finish, but this practice created a ridiculous, overwhelming, and unworkable backlog over a very short period of time.

Not having a deadline.

If every day you woke up and said, "by the end of the day I'm going to write a song", you'd produce a new song every day. Not every song is going to be amazing, but each attempt is going to refine your songwriting process, and amongst all the crap you'll create a few diamonds.

Imposter syndrome

Depression and not feeling like doing my hobby… which lead to a lack of riffs. Still working on it… the depression.

DarkstarII said:

Depression and not feeling like doing my hobby… which lead to a lack of riffs. Still working on it… the depression.

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Same here. I went to therapy because let's say my mental health is in a bad state, and it very frustrates me that can't even enjoy my hobby. It's just one more thing that I can stress about...

having children

I've got a few. Fear of failure, chasing perfection, and trying to write outside my wheelhouse. I want to write and record progressive stuff like what I enjoy listening to, but I spent most of my guitar life listening to/playing black metal. So while my heart wants to record some Katatonia or Leprous-esque stuff, I stall out- because it's what I want, but black metal is what I know. My right wrist is always screaming "come on dude, trem-pick this..." despite not listening to much bm in several years.

prlgmnr said:

having children

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I have 2+ hours every night where I can play/write/practice after bedtime. But im stuck in scroll mode and buy into how tired I am. I put it in my phone to grab a guitar once a week (productivity not required) and im not doing a great job of following through.

I could say its because of two young kids but it’s me.

Waiting for inspiration to hit me instead of just playing and letting something happen. Like if I’m not chomping at the bit to get a guitar in my hands to write something I’m hearing in my head, I often won’t even bother picking it up.

That’s the most current one, but the last 3 years were the absolute worst for lack of productivity in the 31 years I’ve been playing. To the point I renamed my YouTube channel to “Sometimes I Hate My Guitar” with the intent of making videos discussing writer’s block and getting out of it. I hope to make some progress on that soon.

DarkstarII said:

Depression and not feeling like doing my hobby… which lead to a lack of riffs. Still working on it… the depression.

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Akkush said:

Same here. I went to therapy because let's say my mental health is in a bad state, and it very frustrates me that can't even enjoy my hobby. It's just one more thing that I can stress about...

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Wanted to state the same. Saddens me to see i was beat to it by two others.
Take care guys. I know what you are going through and it is hard.

I'm not a particularly good songwriter. I lack the original spark to get the ball rolling in any meaningful way. Some people have new ideas flowing out of them constantly, I'm the guy that'll write the same couple of things over and over again.

What I am good at is hearing someone else's idea and elevating it to the next level. I like the orchestration part of writing, and I pair well with someone who has original ideas they can't finish.

Some writers have an idea of what they want for the finished product and don't like it when you change their idea, I'm not a good match for them.

Anyway, moral of the story is we can't all be a Prince or a Lenny Kravitz. I don't think most can be that solo guy that does everything, I do think most of us would be more productive as a team.

Worth mentioning the more you write the more you have to work with. Cant recall the quote but it amounts to “its not your job to decide if the idea is good enough. Its your job to get the idea out. That’s why there’s editors.”

budda said:

Worth mentioning the more you write the more you have to work with. Cant recall the quote but it amounts to “its not your job to decide if the idea is good enough. Its your job to get the idea out. That’s why there’s editors.”

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One of my favorite procrastinatory hobbies is watching yt videos about productivity and procrastination. Stephen King basically gives the same advice.

It's easy to forget that practice also applies to the creative side of things. The more you write the better you get at it. Every idea isn't going to be a keeper but you won't know until it has life outside your head.

I've been recording and releasing my own stuff for several years now. Usually setting the goal of a new record every other year. As i'm approaching 30 and nothing I've done has gotten much interest, it's hard sometimes to not feel defeated. Also hard to not feel like what I'm working on has to be better than what I've done before. Weather or not people hear my music I want to be able to look back on my life and say that I was an artist and did the thing to the best of my ability.

A big problem is that we don't know what is realistic as a hobby musician, especially as a "one-man band" bedroom solo artist.

How productive should I be? As my guitar heros? As the youtuber influencer guitarists? Is it okey to just write one song per year?

It would be much easier if I could accept this fact, but since I want to release it, even an EP takes minimum 2 years to finish, atleast for me.
And until it's out, I'm frustrated that it takes too long..