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What are some low effort tasks you do to improve a piece?

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AlbertSmithers

Active Member
Hiya!

I had a question for y'all, specifically for folks who do music in addition to their main job, (but if you do music as your main job and feel this applies to you, definitely feel free to share).

What are low effort tasks you do to improve your piece, after you've already been working on it for 1-2 hours?

It might seem like an odd question - if I've already worked on it for 1-2 hours, and I want to keep working on it longer, couldn't I just work on it longer?

In truth, I find that I can only focus on composing for a good 1-2 hours before I lose focus and start wanting to take shortcuts, like just wrapping up the melody with a finale on the tonic, wanting to avoid all the hard stuff like coming up with something original to extend what I have, or reharmonizing one section to not sound so repetitive.

While I do feel happy with where I get, I still have a... "drive" (I guess?) to work on my song, but it is really difficult for me to continue to do focused composing or even orchestrating after 1-2 hours. This leads me to wonder if there are other low-effort things I can do to improve my piece without necessarily having to dive deep into any complex composing problems. Off the top of my head, I can think:
- Reorganizing my template
- Planning my next piece, in brainstorm phase
- Active listening(?) (but I think this may require more focus?)

Does anyone feel the same, and if so, how do you cope with this?

Thanks for any insights!
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Great question. I know the experience. Trying to adress diminishing focus by doing practical or technical things easily becomes a time sink though - its too essy to feel we’re making progress doing these things, because they’re more tangible maybe.

So, I try to stay in, and if I feel I start to “fall away”, I go away from the screens to a piano and see what it has to tell me. Just have a conversation. That seems to replenish focus very fast. At least for me. Even though its not the point, sometimes new ideas arrive, but they come from another place, and I think alternating the source is one great way to keep going without zoning out.

Anyway. That’s one tried idea.
 
I have a main job, and do composing on the side as often as I can.

Things that I do after working several hours on a project:
- reorganizing my track groups
- reorganize colors of group tracks
- passive listening (I do chores while listening on loop)
- double tracking some instruments + slight EQ differences (it takes 5 minutes for me)
- panning
- playing with libraries that should not work with the project, but still do it for fun, and for sparking potential new ideas
- try to resist to listen to library trailers, walkthroughs, showcases while working on the project... I find that it kills my drive
- if nothing else, open a new project and play piano if I feel like it. Otherwise, take a break.
 
Instantly close the project, don't listen to it for a while, and don't give yourself the chance to continue. Instead, do something else. Unload the dishwasher, etc - Going for a walk is probably better. I think it's important to get away from the screen. Give your brain some time to work on it in the background. Then, continue with the project.
 
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