General adivce/discussion

[mickomoo]

Yeah I know the topic is very vague. I have some questions though that might lead into open discussion. How do you know if you're stagnant or not improving? What do you do when you feel that way with certainty? Do you know when a song is finished for real? And how many times do you find yourself moving on to something new while an older project is still "open?" (ie: how many projects have you found yourself having unfinished at a time?)

[dannthr]

If you can't tell you're improving, then you need to work on your critical awareness and your analytical thinking skills--these are skills that are learned in High School when you write papers, and then honed later on in college when you write papers.

It is critical to your success that you are fully able to discern the difference between good and better.

If you can't do that, then you are in trouble because you will never be able to direct your self-education to ensure that you're working on your faults or failings.

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A song is finished when it's either required to be finished or when the final product suffers rather than benefits from additional work.

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For me, if I'm not being paid to work on a piece, and it's not required to be delivered, then I consider it a learning piece, and I only do what's required from the challenge of the piece itself--I don't usually bother finishing the piece outside of that.

Every piece you work on should be thought of a stepping stone to the next level of self-education. Don't hold on to them, they'll weigh you down--be willing to let go of them in the name of edification.

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Just always move forward--look back at pieces you finished last month, 6 months ago, a year ago, and compare and see if you've improved--if you have not improved, that's trouble and you need to work on that.