I play in a decently enjoyed local band. We just finished our first album and are getting ready to put it out. I've started writing new songs and at first I felt great about them. I felt like I've grown, gotten better and can put my old songs to shame. The more I listen to, work on and write new stuff I just feel awful like the good old songs were a fluke and I'm out of whatever I had to make the good songs in the first place.I've been really trying and practicing not just writing a lot, but also really looking into, breaking down and understanding songs I like to broaden my musicial vocabulary.Anyways, can you get worse at a skill you work hard at and practice?I feel like as long as I keep trying and get more knowledgable I should be getting and feeling better.I just feel worse off and lost.It's very frustrating and defeating.
>>35091626maybe try iteration on some of your precious best ideas if your new stuff doesn't suit youmaybe get back to your mojo in a "where did you see it last" kind of way
With music it's not uncommon to run out of ideas relatively quickly. Even in the big leagues almost nobody writes any of their own shit or comes up with any of the ideas because they were mentally tapped out long long ago
Just keep writing and listening to different kinds of music. Try writing in different styles.
>>35091626It is legitimate and natural for your standards to go up. Maybe you are not getting worse, just not settling for staying at the same level.On the other hand, if you are doing something the wrong way, practice will only make you better at doing it the wrong way.
You're also aging
>>35091626>Can you get worse at things you practice?Yes, this is entirely possible and quite frankly, fairly easy.I have played chess as a hobby fairly regularly but I never really bothered to study it or my games seriously so I have been hardstuck in like 1200 and maybe even getting worse as well.When trying to Improve at something you need to strive for absolute perfection in a sense. In golf, the perfect swing, in basketball the perfect throw, in art a drawing that mimics reality perfectly. In music the perfect ??? The perfect sound? The perfect beat? The perfect rythym? Trying to approach music systematically doesn't work because there is no standard of perfection you could possibly adhere to.In a sense, the more you learn about music, the worse you become because you start applying this monotonous rigidity, and you just start mindlessly remaking the same kind of song and sticking to whatever sounds good enough.When it comes to creative endeavors you have to pursue whatever draws the most emotion out of you. Rather than it just sounding good, it moves you deeply to an extent.And with music less is more, the more colors you mix together the more muddy they become until it eventually turns black. The same is true for music, eventually you cross a point to where what you are making is just noise.
