Syndrome of Unfinished Creations

As I was exporting some TEP track billets out of my preferred program into MP3's I noticed that each of them had length of about two minutes. This is not a new finding, but this time I really started to think why it was this way.

Chau número tres by photographer padawan *(xava du)

It is very common that all the tracks I've made during my "career" and that are not completed have length of approximately two minutes. It seems that this two minutes is a critical track length in which I start to lose interest in a track I'm working with and start to have some new ideas for another one.

It is not indeed very handy personal feature as tracks should have length around four to eight minutes when completed (I think that tracks shorter than this cannot create atmospheres that would reflect my original intentions and ideas).

As I today thought about this feature of mine I came up with a proper name for it: Syndrome of Unfinished Creations. And I am pretty sure that it is the reason why only about 2 % of music I've ever composed is released into public (I've made around 500 tracks or track billets during my active years).

So Syndrome of Unfinished Creations means:

A condition in which a lot of effort is put to create something new (music in this case), but only minority of that work realises into releasable forms. 

I think that this kind of a reason is one of those why it sometimes feels like you don't achieve anything. You do so much work but it doesn't realise any way. I guess it is a common problem in life overall, but I try to look at it from artists point of view.

Syndrome of Unfinished Creations might have various reasons:

• Losing Interest in a track - Solution: Try to find new viewpoints, aspects and layers for a track. Add something to it, or rather subtract something from it. Try to imagine how it feels when you get your track complete. Remember that when you focus on one thing at time you'll probably get more done in a longer run.
• Perfectionism - Solution: If you have or create a habit of listening previous versions or mixes of the same track, you'll hear that usually those previous versions are the better ones. Usually perfectionism leads the track away from the original idea. For me perfectionism is usually technology related; I want to use some world class mixing methods or such and it ruins my track down. Perfectionism is one vicious circle. In its worst form you'll never get your tracks complete.
• Overwhelming Tech (that is you have so much of pieces of hardware and software that all your time goes to technical tweaking and solving problems) - Solution:  Reduce your hardware and software arsenals. Concentrate on music, creation. Try to understand that those pieces of hardware and software are just your tools and they should not dictate or prevent your creative process.
• Disbelief in Completion (that is you just believe that your track is never going to get complete and that's why you stop composing it) - Solution: Have a clear vision what you want to achieve with your track. If you'll have this kind of a vision, you'll know that there is just certain amount of steps that can be taken towards it. As you take these steps, every time you are closer to a complete track. It should break your disbelief.
• Too High Vision (that is, related to the previous one, that you set your expectations about your music too high) - Solution: Neither Brian Eno nor Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel of Air were musical geniuses when they were born or started to compose music. Don't set too high expectations to your own creations but instead be gentle towards them. You'll come better every time you spent time creating more.
• Disbelief in Releasing (that is you don't have courage to put release your music for everyone) - Solution: I know that there are people out there who want to do music just for themselves. But I believe that any music that is made can be more valuable when shared. If others get something, even a little bit, out of it, then it's worth sharing. There is also another great point in releasing your music: you might get comments about how to improve your composition (though not all of this is worth listening to) and proposals for co-operation. But rememeber that nothing of this can happen if no-one knows about you and your music.

I guess there are many more reasons for this kind of a syndrome, but you'll certainly got the point. If I should pack up some of the most valuable tips about this, it would be something like this:

• Concentrate on creative process
• Believe in yourself
• Experiment and grow

Now go, experiment, create and grow!