Do you listen to your own music?

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TritoneAddiction
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18 Mar 2017

I do, quite a bit actually.

Regardless if I find a particular track I wrote really good or just ok I'm still proud of the fact that I finished something. So everytime I listen to my music I feel a sense of pride just for that reason alone, like a sense of accomplishment.

Also I write music mostly to please myself. It's like you have the opportunity to make music custom-tailored to your own taste and interests. Why wouldn't I enjoy it?
This doesn't mean I can't find faults or things to improve in my music.

Of course when you write music yourself you can also get tired of it since you've heard it so many times while creating it. Sometimes I need distance from it to be able to enjoy it again.
In some cases I've needed a year long break just to be able to listen to it objectively as an ordinary listener.

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Creativemind
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18 Mar 2017

All the time and with some of my guitar tracks I think to myself, "If this was produced by a top producer I'd be rich" lol!

Same for my electronic stuff.
:reason:

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4filegate
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18 Mar 2017

Yep! "I would like to open a new file"

I'm not sure what is shareable what is not. But I decided to share some of my design works at 4filegate AVM what I’m the most proud of.

Some of these audio/video/media are not released yet, some of them are used by thousands of Reasontalk users. :)

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Karim
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18 Mar 2017

TritoneAddiction wrote:I do, quite a bit actually.

Regardless if I find a particular track I wrote really good or just ok I'm still proud of the fact that I finished something. So everytime I listen to my music I feel a sense of pride just for that reason alone, like a sense of accomplishment.

Also I write music mostly to please myself. It's like you have the opportunity to make music custom-tailored to your own taste and interests. Why wouldn't I enjoy it?
This doesn't mean I can't find faults or things to improve in my music.

Of course when you write music yourself you can also get tired of it since you've heard it so many times while creating it. Sometimes I need distance from it to be able to enjoy it again.
In some cases I've needed a year long break just to be able to listen to it objectively as an ordinary listener.
Very rarely... I think I'm too critical about my own music. I prefer the other just to learn and improve mine.. [emoji15]

Edit: I think it influence me the "tired factor".
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adfielding
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18 Mar 2017

I used to be really weird about listening to my own music, like I'd do it... but I'd feel embarrassed to let other people know just how much I listened to my own music. Which is ridiculous! As you said... if you're writing music, your aim is probably going to be to write the kind of music you specifically would want to listen to. I'd say it's totally self-indulgent and a bit masturbatory, but there's nothing wrong with it.

If anything I'd say I have more of a problem with playing my music for other people in person. If it's someone who I think is genuinely interested in it, great! That's awesome, I'll play it, we can chat about it afterwards, lovely. If it's in a group of family/friends who are blatantly just asking to listen to my music for the sake of being polite then I tend to just say "look, I don't think everyone will like it, I'll send a link/here's how to listen to it/whatever". That way you're not putting people on the spot, and you're not forcing anyone to listen to something that probably isn't their cup of tea.

(edit: this goes out of the window when I'm drunk and I'm all like "HEY YOU GUYS LISTEN TO THIS THING I WROTE" before subjecting them to a playlist of noise)

Basically - listening to your own music is like masturbation. If you're going to do it, great, have fun, enjoy yourself. Just don't do it in public, yeah.

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Tau Ceti
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18 Mar 2017

I am my biggest fan. :puf_bigsmile:

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jappe
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18 Mar 2017

A lot!

I suspect that a different spot in my brain is activated when I listen to my own music. And unfortunately that mode seems to be a bit incompatible with listening to other music.

When listening to other music: I always can tell a good song from a less good one.. Not always so for my own music.. Yesterdays beauty may be revealed as something else when the morning comes.

Perhaps confirmation bias is the culprit here? Self esteem may vary,and for darker days perhaps I tend to appreciate my music less?

I find it useful to revisit the song the day after and observing the song on a microscopic level, segment by segment, iteratively improving parts.. When I got the patience to do so.

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jappe
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18 Mar 2017

adfielding wrote:
Basically - listening to your own music is like masturbation. If you're going to do it, great, have fun, enjoy yourself. Just don't do it in public, yeah.
:D

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jappe
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18 Mar 2017

Tau Ceti wrote:I am my biggest fan. :puf_bigsmile:
...and here's another fan to make you even cooler :puf_bigsmile:

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NekujaK
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18 Mar 2017

Many years ago I had the opportunity to do some work for a brilliant composer. This guy was the closest thing to a musical genius I've encountered. He would compose without even sitting at an instrument - he'd simply write down the music on paper or dictate notes and chords to someone, and the result would be brilliant every time. Everything he wrote turned to gold. He made piles of money writing commercial jingles and scoring TV shows, and for his own pleasure, wrote and conducted piano concertos and symphonic pieces.

One day I asked him if he ever listens to his own music. He replied emphatically that he can't stand listening to it - once a piece is written and recorded, he forgets about it and moves on to the next one. I couldn't understand this, because all of his music was so brilliantly good, but I thought maybe this is what it's like to be musically gifted, and therefore, since I enjoy listening to my own music so much, it must be terrible :)

When people ask me if I listen to my own music, I answer, "Yes, someone's got to listen to it."
wreaking havoc with :reason: since 2.5
:arrow: https://soundcloud.com/nekujak-donnay/sets

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jappe
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18 Mar 2017

NekujaK wrote:Many years ago I had the opportunity to do some work for a brilliant composer. This guy was the closest thing to a musical genius I've encountered. He would compose without even sitting at an instrument - he'd simply write down the music on paper or dictate notes and chords to someone, and the result would be brilliant every time. Everything he wrote turned to gold. He made piles of money writing commercial jingles and scoring TV shows, and for his own pleasure, wrote and conducted piano concertos and symphonic pieces.

One day I asked him if he ever listens to his own music. He replied emphatically that he can't stand listening to it - once a piece is written and recorded, he forgets about it and moves on to the next one. I couldn't understand this, because all of his music was so brilliantly good, but I thought maybe this is what it's like to be musically gifted, and therefore, since I enjoy listening to my own music so much, it must be terrible :)

When people ask me if I listen to my own music, I answer, "Yes, someone's got to listen to it."
Nice story.
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Data_Shrine
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18 Mar 2017

I listen to my own music for review purposes... but once it's done, the album is out, can't stand it anymore.. then I have a listen a year or 2 later, and I'm like... this wasn't so bad after all (well except for all of my early work which I still find awful to do this day) ! :P haha

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Dante
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18 Mar 2017

All the time. I spent the first 3 decades of music making mainly recording new tracks. But since Jan 2015 I have been listening and reworking that body of work (over 300 songs) using Reason.

Once you have hundreds of tracks you never get tired of listening to them and reworking them.

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Gorgon
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18 Mar 2017

I listen to my own stuff a lot. If I made something cool, I get a huge kick out of listening to it and knowing that it wouldn't exist if it wasn't for me.
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raymondh
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18 Mar 2017

Yep I do too.

I saw an Jean Michel Jarre interview - where he said he doesn't listen to his own stuff after he's released it, he's thinking about his next track.

Maybe after you've spent countless hours full time working on a track, it really does become a project with an ending. Though there's that saying that a musician never finishes a track, they abandon it :)

siln
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18 Mar 2017

I would think it depends on the intensity of energy you can bring to life , being stuck listening on a song is good , moving to another is good too

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gak
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19 Mar 2017

Every day, for better or worse.

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TritoneAddiction
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19 Mar 2017

It's good to hear I'm not the only one listening to my own music. After hearing some artists say they don't listen to their own stuff I was wondering if I was just a complete ego maniac. Maybe I am, but at least I know I'm not alone then :)


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Last Alternative
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19 Mar 2017

It's awkward listening to my music with someone. I feel out of my element and under a halogen lamp like they're staring at me and I try to be fun and get into it tapping my foot and bobbing my head but I mostly feel nervous for some reason, looking down at the ground. I get really shy. Most people love my music but it's so weird for me listening to it with them. I think I always hear every mistake and feel like it sucks.
However, I love listening to my music alone. To be honest I can listen all day and I actually do sometimes, making notes or tweaks along the way. But that really becomes a problem when I decide to rework the entire sound into a whole new version which is what's taking me so long to finish my album but I finally got to a point where I like where it's at and it shouldn't be much longer once my interface issue is resolved.
Cool thread.
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motuscott
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19 Mar 2017

I get ear worms all the time and strangely mixed in with all those songs of my youth are bits and pieces of my own compositions.
Looks like I made somebody's cut.
Who’s using the royal plural now baby? 🧂

siln
Posts: 349
Joined: 11 May 2015
Location: france

19 Mar 2017

to be honest it s a little bit like a previous post "do you hate your music" , i can listen to my music usually the time after i make a track , but after a short period of time , or because im triggered by another artist 's track , i cant listen to it for some times, usually when i forget about it and listen to it a few month later i can tell it s quite okay , but i encounter most of the time a period when i cant listen to it no more and feel pretty shamed about it , i ld say this is not still the best behavior i would like to have toward my tracks because it s more like compulsive interest then shame and self disrespect, i try to get to a more balanced behavior, also it depends of the amount of time and effort put in a track , that s why i tried to bypass this process by making tracks with no efforts in short periods of time , but for a year i am more in a creative block kind of thing so it s also a special process

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plaamook
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20 Mar 2017

I like my music but I don't listen to it very often once it's done. Not because I feel weird about it or anything, it's just that when I make music I go down such a rabbit hole with it... that's the experience I want to get back to. The album ends up being like a postcard I can give to people and I can look at it and remember the process but that's about it. Like holiday photos.

I made an album about diving. I still put it on ocasiobally when I go diving. I love it.
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You can check out my music here.
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Or here.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC73uZZ ... 8jqUubzsQg

yeahright31
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20 Mar 2017

I listen to my own music a lot, this is the 3rd time I've even heard the music I made 12 years ago.
When I go back that far though as much as I really like the tunes, some I just hear where I could of improved this or that, although the computer with those old sessions has probably made it's way into the ocean by now, such a long time ago.

I don't like the having my music reviewed by other Muso mates, they give some of my tunes like 30 seconds of attention and then are like you should change that or add more parts or wanna mess with my music, I find friends who don't have music skill listen to it and enjoy most.

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gullum
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20 Mar 2017

I have lots of my songs on my iPhone that I listen to whenever I'm in my car whenI'm home I have some of my song open in Reason and am working on it. occasionally I lieten to other peoples music :D

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