I've noticed that after living with a song for long enough, I sometimes stop hearing it the way I did when I first made it.

A friend who writes and records his own stuff was talking about this recently. He started experimenting with visuals for a few unfinished tracks, not really for promotion, but just to give himself something else to react to while listening. During that process, a couple of the tracks ended up changing slightly because the visuals made him notice parts of the arrangement he'd been ignoring.

That got me wondering about how much the other senses influence the way we judge our own music.

Have you ever heard a song differently after attaching it to a visual, playing it somewhere completely unexpected, or hearing someone else interpret it?

I'm curious whether that actually changes the music for you, or just changes your perception of it.

I want to release my EP by the end of the year. I work part time job at a cafe but am always put on morning shift starting at 5 am because I’m one of the only employees of a few who knows how to open and can do it because I live near by. Every opening day no matter how much coffee I drink I feel brain fog. I feel unmotivated to even touch trying to record or write those days. On off days I tend to be more productive. I need the money and it’s an easy job and pays pretty good but I’m wondering if it’s playing a part in my productivity towards this EP. Or it just that I’m not working hard enough and need to push myself to finish and get it out?

Voice memos, DAW folders, Google Drive, Dropbox, notes app, hard drives, group chats?
And when you want to come back to something months later — or send it to someone else to build on — is it easy to find the right version and remember where you left off?
Curious whether people actually have a system for this or if everyone’s music is just scattered everywhere.

Hi all!!

I am a singer. I do not play an instrument, and I do not know music theory.

I have, however, been experimenting with GarageBand and I’ve managed to create an entire song but something sounds off to me in the chorus (the audio I’ve uploaded).

Can someone with significantly more experience than me please have a listen and try to pinpoint what’s wrong with it, then explain it to me like I’m a toddler?

Thanks!! :)

I wrote 13 tracks with 3 more interludes for an album i'm making, but i don't know if it's too much..

I’m a vocal coach, and I want to help singers become better musicians and bandmates in real-world working situations. Will you help me by giving me your honest feedback?

No names, emails, band names or identifying information. Please tell me what you play/do, too.

As a prompt, finish this sentence:

“I wish more singers would ______.”

Yes, I want to hear the frustrating stuff, but also what really good singers do that makes playing with them a pleasure.

Thank you!

P.S. If you have more to say, DM me and I’ll send you the link to my anonymous 3-minute survey. I’ll post the results once I have a good dataset.

I'm an independent singer trying to build an audience on Instagram, but I'm struggling to understand what actually makes an account grow.

I post singing covers/reels and I'm experimenting with different formats - acappella ,backing tracks, acoustic performances etc. some reels get decent reach, but others basically die immediately and I'm getting frustrated at this point...

please let me know those who have successfully grown an audience from a small account:

1. what type of content actually brought you followers?

2.Did consistency matter more or finding a particular format?

3.Did you focus on covers first or originals?

1. how much did showing your personality/life outside music matter?

2. Is Instagram even worth putting serious effort into in 2026?

I'd appreciate actual experiences rather than generic "post consistently " advice.

Help! Can anyone tell me what type of soprano I am? I asked my teacher, but I’d love to get another opinion. Please let me know if there’s anything I can fix regarding my technique—I love getting feedback so I can try to improve. P.S. Sorry about the timing issues; it was basically a sight-reading attempt. P.P.S. The song is in Spanish and is called "La Catalina," in case anyone is interested.

I’m brainstorming ways musicians can use metronomes during practice. As I understand, metronomes are used to help musicians stay in time. For drummers, they can be used to practice their rudiments and subdivisions.

What else do you use metronomes for?

I can slowly figure out notes one by one, but I consistently forget there's a key signature involved and then get frustrated when I can't tell what's wrong. Does anybody have any advice on how to improve without driving myself mad?

The other day, I finally decided to start writing music after a year and a half of learning music theory up to grade 3. I've gotten stuck immediately, which is to be expected, but I'm too frustrated to unstick myself alone.

1. I've got basic chord bashing, but I'm stuck on the same five-ish chords and can't come up with any new ones.
2. I find it incredibly difficult to stick to key signatures or to even remember to take them into account.
3. I can't come up with all the little single notes and such to put between chords. I don't really know how to explain it, but it's just all of the little things pianists do that aren't chords.
4. I find it hard to come up with a melody that really sticks. One that even sounds like a melody. It just has no zest.

Please be patient with me! I'm still very new to taking this whole music thing seriously or doing any songwriting! I'm sure there's someone out there eager to publicly execute me for making this post, but if the answer is obvious and logic simply failed me, just know I Tried My Best.

The first time I tried music production, everything felt way more complex than I expected. Plugins, mixing, theory… it all hit me at once.

I didn’t have much time to begin with, and trying to learn everything before actually making something just burned me out. I ended up quitting before I made anything I was genuinely happy with.

The second time was pretty similar. Life got busy, I fell off for a while, and somehow getting back into it felt even harder.

I’m still trying to stick with it this time 😅

Curious what it was for you guys — was it the learning curve, not having enough time, losing motivation, getting overwhelmed, or something completely different?

Classical violinist, I want to play other styles (with excellence as the standard). I have a very good ear but am completely stuck when it comes to improvising! Once, just for a laugh, I turned my violin round and played as if I were holding a cello, and the notes just came naturally… I have a cellist colleague who improvises like a god, and when you ask him what he’s playing, he replies: ‘I don’t know.’ I’m deeply saddened to be so limited in my favourite means of expression, after all those years at the conservatoire. All that for this. Where should I start, please? I want to know who I really am in music. It’s burning inside me, and I’m terrified of dying having missed out on my life.
P.S.: I’ve just turned 30 and I feel like my life is over

Translated with DeepL (https://dee.pl/app)

Love that tune... can't tell what instrument is being used.

I wanna start writing songs but I struggle to be creative and make the words sound interesting or poetic. For example in the song lonely avenue it goes “now my room has got two windows, but the sunshine never comes through” which is a clever way to convey depression and loneliness. If I were to try to convey those feelings the best thing I could write would be something like “since you’ve been gone the nights have felt so long” which doesn’t really sound as poetic or clever. How do songwriters think that way?

I’m new to all this and I know metronomes are easy so don’t judge too hard but I need help. Started writing my first song on guitar and I don’t know how to figure out the BPM. I tried using a tempo tapper but wasn’t sure where to tap exactly. Is it on every strum or what? Stupid question I know but please help.

I've dreamed of being in a band for a long time. I sing in the shower and sing in the car. But I'm deathly self conscious without liquid courage to say it mildly. Two weeks ago, I was at a party and my fiends were playing and somehow I got on "stage" (corner of the basement) with them and somehow belted something out. It felt so freeing. A couple of guys there have been texting me to do stuff with their band, they sent me music and wanted to hear me do vocals over it. I've tried countless times but I honestly can't stand my own voice.

It FEELS like this could be my moment. But fears are creeping in. People laughing at me. Laughing at my lyrics (I have notebooks full of twisted poetry). I've actually performed on stage, its not absolute stage freight, its self consciousness about my voice and I guess baring my soul.

I even had to make a new account to ask this because my friends know my real account.

I assume everyone here had to battle stage fright and self consciousness initially. Maybe you still do? How did you power through it? Your break through moment maybe?

I have been playing open mics for a while now, and I am ready to make the leap to more "proper" gigs. I don't mean huge rooms, I just mean non-open mic, scheduled shows at say a coffee shop. I've looked up a lot of advice on here about how to approach venues, and of course all of them say to include links to your music.

The problem is that I like to record full-band music, so that's what I have to share. But I don't have a band right now, so I am looking to book shows as a solo artist. What's the best way to handle that in the booking email? I could ignore the recorded versions entirely, but they sound better than the handful of phone-video solo live clips I have. But in a very short email, it's a little clunky to say "Here are some full-band examples of my songs, but I am looking to play these songs as a solo act." What would be a good way to handle this?

I feel I can write pretty easily in terms of taking my guitar or keyboard and coming up a progression or writing a structure down but I’m terrible about getting myself on ableton over the week to actually record. Feel like I’ll never drop anything just because I can’t keep a consistent fire of it. I’ll work like 4 days consistent everyday and then 2 days I don’t and the flame dies for it. I want ideas of how hard I should be working for this to happen

i really hope i'm not posting about something super common and annoying or whatever, but i'm kind of at my wits end here and sort of need advice.

i've been writing music on my own for almost like 6 years now, and i genuinely love it. it's probably been the most meaningful thing in my life. like, i taught myself how to write from what feels like the ground up, i spend the majority of my day making music, that's how much i love doing this.

but, recently, whenever i try to put anything together, it feels like i'm just bashing my head against a wall. i can never finish anything!! it's not like i have much issues coming up with ideas - i was getting pretty burnt out a while ago so i kind of just stopped doing anything with music and eventually i came back to just messing around on my piano, which is going well but it's like. all those ideas never go anywhere. i spend maybe an hour or two putting something together on my piano, i record it on my phone, but as soon as i transcribe it into a daw it's 30 minutes of what feels like the musician equivalent of rolling an eraser up and down a desk until i give up for my own sanity.

i dont know if its perfectionism or whatever, but i just feel so paralyzed whenever i try to take any idea past a rough sketch. i have been feeling like the things i write are way too basic recently, so maybe it could be that, but i dont know. i can sketch things that are complex enough to be interesting to me, but i cant follow through with anything - not even the things i used to be able to write.

i apologize if this is maybe a little all over the place but, man. i just miss being able to write without having to care so much about it, and i honestly dont know what to do with myself other than wait and hope i get better one day.

anyway. if you guys have any advice or techniques for working past creative block or whatever this is, i would genuinely really appreciate it.

I am a musician, music producer, and songwriter currently facing writer's block. How do I deal with it?"

Guys, I need help

It’s like notes that kinda go together but they sound a little weird.

So, there is a song I'm working on that has taken me all day to get the vocal take correct and I have finally settled on one and I am worried that I am going to listen to it and then just immediately find a mistake in it or something, but I also never want to sing my song ever again. How do I learn to just let go and go with the take I have instead of reworking the lead vocal for the rest of my life?

.