We all experience ups and downs through our beat making journey, and many times we find ourselves looking for solutions to some common problems. This is a list that will help you see things differently and help you eventually excel at making beats.
ATTENTION : ALL OF THESE ARE MY EXPERIENCES
1. Making Beats Too Much
This is a really big problem. The best beats I made were made after a 1 or 2 day break from making beats. I usually make beats everyday, if you look at it day by day it will be like this:
Solution:
Day 1: I make 3 or 4 beats on day 1 and there's always a beat in it that I didn't realize it's one of my best beats ever. 2 of them suck, 1 other is not bad.
Day 2: Is my peak, when I make 2 or 3 of my best beats.
Day 3: I make some beats that aren't beats, I'm just practicing or sampling some old songs. On this day, the beats depend on my luck due to sampling.
Day 4, 5: I'm trying really hard to make good beats, but I can't. I usually end up making about 10 beats.
Day 6, 7: I don't make any beats, then it goes to day 1 again.
I personally just do it this way, i know it doesn't sound standard but it's the best way i found to handle the hunger, also one of the problems we have that makes us make too many beats is having nothing else to do (for me it was a problem), maybe look for another thing to spend your time with when you're not making beats.
2. Sampling Too Much
The beats I make every day are beats for the album and singles we release, but in the same time they are my practices to make my next beats better. So when I make original beats I make beats for the album and singles, but in the same time it improves my melody writing and drums of my next beats, when I make sample beats they are really dope, most of the time they are doper than my original beats, but they don't improve me.
My next beat drums aren't better than the last one because I'm using a loop, my melodies aren't better because I didn't write em last time. And after a while of sampling a lot I can't make any good original beats anymore, and the big problem is I cannot even make good sampled beats. So I only sample once a week or when I hear a song that can be turned to dope.
Solution:
Sampling is really addictive and I have a really convincing reason for it: when you smoke, your body gets another fuel than the main one, which is easier to get and it doesn't have to make any fuel itself, so your body feels relaxed, so when you aren't smoking your body needs the fuel again and when it wants to work with the older fuel, it feels weak, so you have to smoke again. Sampling is exactly the same, when you sample you are working with a fuel made by someone else, instead of the melodies that are made by yourself, so the beats you make are really easy to make and you'll be used to sampling, when you try not to sample and make original beats, you feel like you can't and you'll go back to sampling again.
What I recommend to you is to only sample when you exactly know what you want to sample and what you want to get, or when you really need to sample, and when you sampled once or twice, give it a cool down. That means don't allow yourself to sample for about a week, this way you will continue to make original beats and be better than yesterday every day.
3. Not Listening to a Lot of Music
That time I started making beats I wasn't listening to any music, the day I started listening to music my beats became semi-pro beats, after 1 year I found myself making shitty beats for a long while, I didn't know what my problem was until I started making less music and listening to more music. So have that in mind if you couldn't make any good beats for a while.
Solution:
You might think "just say listen to music" but how you listen and what you listen to really matters. You better feel every instrument playing while you listen, and get the vibe at the same time. The best way I listened to music was when I put a headphone on, closed my eyes and laid on the ground. Remember to try this, even for 10 minutes. And what you listen to should be on a higher level than the music you listen to. I made hardcore Hip-Hop beats when Bethoven was in my playlist. Always remember that listening to more music and making less music is a really good way to improve. Also feel free to listen to any music with any genre, there's no problem with that.
4. Only Listening to 1 Artist
Goddamn this one, there was a time I only listened to Kanye West songs, I literally fell in love with his music. I couldn't listen to anything anymore, actually I couldn't make any good music because of ye for at least 3 months which was because only listening to 1 artist and sampling a lot.
Solution:
Trust me, if you really like 1 artist, don't listen to his songs all the time because after a while they're all gonna be ruined for you. Also, the beats you make are gonna sound really amateur, and one of the stupidest things that I thought at those times (and this is true), I thought only listening to him isn't bad, because after a while my beats are gonna sound like his beats. And what I found really amazing in his songs were orchestras and massive amounts of instruments playing masterpieces, and I thought Kanye was the guy who wrote all that music, like "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" or "Touch the Sky", and I couldn't believe that a dude like Ye could write all those melodies. And i was right! And of course I couldn't make songs like him.
5. Sampling Again
When you sample too much, your ears will become thieves. You can't listen to any music with your normal ears anymore. You'll hunt for melodies unwantedly and your brain will be like "How can I flip this one?" or "Can I change some notes of this bassline and steal it?" or stuff like that. But this can be a good thing if you realize what it is, if you mix your real music listening and listening to music as a sampler you'll connect with the vibe and the feelings of song and hear every instrument on the song that nobody can hear.
Solution:
As any music produced is inspired by other music, when you ain't feeling the vibe of the music you're listening to and you are just looking for pieces of it to chop and sample, you will be inspired by music that you didn't listen to it with feeling, so the music you will make (which is inspired by the music you listened to), will be without any feeling in it. The most important thing is you didn't feel the vibe of the music you listened to, so the music you'll make will be without any vibes. So if you feel like you just can't listen to any music with your normal ears anymore, don't listen/make any music for a while, then start listening to music (still don't make it) again and enjoy it, and after a while start making music again, but never forget to prevent your ears from trying to steal/sample the music you listen to.
6. Lack of Feedback
Without feedback we are nothing, that's one of the reasons IllMuzik is awesome. I had a lot of beats that I didn't know are good or not, but when I posted them in the Showcase I realized how good they are and what are the problems, most people told me my mixing skills suck. When you don't get feedback you don't know which of your beats are good, you don't know your weaknesses, not knowing how good you are.
What many people don't understand is IllMuzik battles are actually best places to get feedback, because on battles the voting guy is not gonna be revealed and he is just voting to the beat he likes, he doesn't even know who made the beat so he doesn't worry about explaining why he didn't like a beat. So battles are the best way to find out how good you are.
Solution:
If you're reading this you are a part of the ILL, so you won't have this problem. What I suggest is if you're showcasing your beats, try learning from other beats too. I mean when another guy showcases his beat, you should learn from his mistakes too. Another thing that helps you here is the articles, there's a lot of things you can learn. Also, try meeting some more-experienced producers so when you have a problem that you didn't find any ways to solve it, you can ask them. I used to ask that Deez bastard but I was a dimwit for that. so now I ask 2good when I have a problem with producing/networking/mixing/etc.
7. Not Accepting Your Weaknesses
Not getting feedback is one thing, getting feedback and bottling it is another. this one is worse of course. when someone is telling you the cons of your beat, you should cherish that, that's what helps you the most, not just simple sugercoating that everyone knows how to do. if someone is always sugercoating your beat, it's more likely that they don't even listen closely or pay attention to it. I mean of course, I can say "Good drums, nice job" on every single showcase beat just to make it look like I gave "feedback". if you get feedback, cherish it, don't fuck it up. the person who's telling you the reasons you aren't perfect has CERTAINLY busted his ass for you, don't disappoint them.
Solution:
This has never been a problem I've had (this is 1 proof that it is :d), of course I don't like it when someone tells me my beat has this problem or something like that, but after that I think about that feedback until I memorize it, so my next beat would be perfect. Keep this in mind that if someone is informing you about the problems your beat has, you have the right to get mad a little bit, you wanted your beat to be perfect right? But just listen to what they are telling you so next time you show them your beat, the beat is perfect and they can't say shit about it. Also, try waiting 3-4 minutes before reacting to the feedback.
8. Life Mood
Nothing made my beats suck more than this. My life has been shitty for a while, I couldn't do the things I wanted to do because of some problems and laziness, and I lost my time. Now my beats are the worst beats that I've ever made (you can't call the ones I made on first day "beats"). So your life mood does affect your music a lot, you can not make good music when you're depressed, take that from me.
Further Reading About Beat Making
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