Unmotivated to make music? Here’s how to overcome it.

Someone recently asked me, “How do I stay motivated to make music?” and it got me thinking about the many different ways I overcome this all-too-common problem.

Straight off the bat, I should say that motivation is a nice-to-have feeling when making music, but it isn’t essential. Although it’s far easier to sit down and produce when you’re feeling motivated, if you only ever worked when that feeling was present, you’d barely scratch the surface of your potential.

The first way I combat this issue is by clearly defining my reasons for wanting to make music in the first place. What do I want to achieve? Why do I want to achieve it? Etc. It’s far easier to do something when there’s a clearly defined goal to work toward.

If that doesn’t quite work, I’ve set up my music-making process to be as frictionless as possible. This is key to breaking through feelings of procrastination or laziness. For example, all I have to do to get started is turn on my speakers (two switches), open my laptop, and click on Ableton. My default project is already set up with everything I need, routed, turned on, and organised just the way I like it. When you give yourself no reason to throw in the towel, you’ll be surprised how much easier it becomes to overcome a lack of motivation.

The third way I look at it is through the lens of the classic “Three Feet from Gold” story. (If you don’t know it, look it up) Twice now, I’ve pushed through intense frustration with a session where I felt like the project was going nowhere and ended up creating some of my best work. Had I given in to those feelings, those tracks wouldn’t exist.

Side note: this actually happened with my bootleg of“Changed the Way You Kiss Me”by Example, which he ended up playing live to 40,000 people at Synthony. I’d been complaining to my partner Jess about how crap the idea was and how frustrated I was. She gave me the push to keep working at it, and two hours later, boom, the project sprung to life. If I’d given up, that opportunity would have passed me by. Now, whenever I feel unmotivated, I ask myself: “What opportunity am I letting pass me by if I don’t do this?”

I hope this helps and now, open the DAW!

Max.