How to avoid a rut when listening to the same composition hundreds of times?

Question

Often I find myself re-listening to certain parts of a piece repeatedly when composing it, generally hundreds of times in a short time. This creates a pattern of behaviour that becomes dull and unproductive, but is hard to change. How do I avoid being "stuck" in such a rut? I have tried changing my environment, flooding my ears with irrelevant music, getting up from my computer and doing something else, but next time I listen to my composition it always sounds a lot more "dull" than at first listen. How do I revive this "first-listen" vibe?

Answer 1

What you describe is a challenge that creators of any type of music face... I personally think it's pretty natural to be very exited about an idea right after you create it. The very act of creating something new is exhilarating in itself, almost independent of the quality of what you create. I think that whether you can recall and enjoy the idea later is a pretty good indicator of the actual quality of what you made.

In short, I don't think it's fair for you to expect yourself be as thrilled with something after the 50th listen as you were on the first listen...

If you REALLY dislike your work having listened to it a bunch it could mean one of two things: One, it could mean that your composition isn't as objectively good as you first thought it was - and there's no shame in this! Writing music is a very difficult pursuit, and you learn and improve from each attempt you make. Even if it isn't as good as you first thought, it could still be decent work. Two, it's very possible you're just sick of the music from having listened to it too many times. Even the finest masterpiece will become tiresome if you listen to it more than 100 times! The cure here is just to set it aside for a few days or weeks, work on something else, and come back with fresh ears.

In either case, I think it's important to realize that creating art and judging the quality of your own art are two very different mental processes. Trying to do both at the same time will often result in paralysis. My advice is to create a bunch of music/ideas freely, and then go back and listen to them LATER for quality assessment/editing purposes.

Hope this helps,

Corban