Sudden Aversion Towards Your Music

Let’s go through a complex topic that hits pretty much any musician at one point, which is when they suddenly develop a total dislike towards their music. This commonly happens towards music that people usually work on, but it could also happen with music they released (made) in the past. In both cases, this is caused by the same few points that I will discuss in this article and propose some solutions to ease the tension this can cause.

 

Is aversion towards your music a writer’s block?

Not exactly, but they’re often connected.

Writer’s block typically refers to the inability to create, while aversion to your music is more about losing connection or affection for something already made. One can trigger the other, but they’re not the same beast.

What Is Writer’s Block?

Writer’s block is the psychological state in which a creator—a writer, musician, or artist—cannot start or continue creative work despite wanting to. It’s not a lack of ideas per se but a disconnect between intention and execution.

Common definitions include:

  • The mental state of being creatively paralyzed.

  • A psychological inhibition prevents the production of new work.

  • A cognitive or emotional barrier that disrupts the flow of ideas.

How They’re Related

  1. Aversion → Writer’s Block
    When you lose faith in your current music, it can lead to avoidance. You hesitate to open your DAW, fearing that anything new will be “just as bad.”

  2. Writer’s Block → Aversion
    When you’re blocked and nothing sounds good, your existing tracks can start to feel like reminders of failure, creating a feedback loop of negativity.

  3. Common Root: Self-Judgment
    Both often come from internal criticism, fear of imperfection, or loss of creative play. You’re evaluating instead of exploring.

Let’s break it down.

The Brain Is Wired for Novelty

 

When you first start a track, your brain is stimulated by newness. Sounds feel fresh, and ideas flow. But repeated exposure leads to desensitization—you stop hearing the magic. This is known as hedonic adaptation: what once felt exciting now feels bland simply because it’s no longer new. When I make music, I’m always looking for new ideas and by searching through loops, samples and jamming, I will encounter multiple sounds that make me think I want to make a song with it. I’ve come to understand that with time, my music production comes in phases and that I would rather slow down the process by isolating each phase, where I work on one task at a time.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that one of my focuses on production aims to make sure artists break the emotional entanglement towards their art and be more neutral towards how the songs are. The issue with emotional attachment comes with these thoughts:

  • This is the song that will make me known.” Giving the song importance, purpose and a destiny before it is done.
  • Having a strong first impression of the song. If the artist always develops a music appreciation that they easily like and understand, it will make them more prone to simple ideas. The issue with these is that you might get fed up with them faster.

A lot of successful electronic music is also quite simple. Simplicity is an art, often accomplished in grace/flow. It was created quickly, and it worked. The issue with these songs is that you can’t go over the details over and over to fix things, as this will ruin the initial spontaneous effort.

This is when I also share a mode with producers who have mastered that way of working, which I call a Spike, inspired by the Agile System.

If working in non-linear mode makes you move through phases, taking breaks between songs and starting a new one to the point where you forget about the previous songs you made, a Spike is more about finding an idea and then quickly shifting it in a mockup, acting as fast as you can. Working fast and putting all doubts, while not aiming for perfection, is another way to counter the novelty envy and bottling down your ideas to move on. Usually, the main challenges people have when they’re doing a spike are:

  • Having an idea but not knowing what is missing.
  • Feeling limited by the sounds selected.
  • I didn’t know how to arrange the idea into a song.

These challenges usually stall you in the loop stage, where you play ad nauseum the hook you found and end up overexposing yourself to your sounds. This will likely tire you out, while your song has nothing wrong. When you work in Spike mode, you trust the process of having some adjustments later, and you focus on what you can do with what you have. This is also called working in layers, as you put down your main layers and have the option of adding what can emerge in a future session.

 

Focus: Taking distance from your ideas will be the right judge of their true potential.

 

New tastes, New influences

 

I think it’s in any musician’s best interest to appreciate multiple genres. One can’t bring anything new to a genre if they’re not getting inspiration from elsewhere. Imagine you grow up in the countryside and are only exposed to country bluegrass music; it might take a huge opening of your mind to discover new things, and once you do, you might have problems identifying social cues. What I mean by social cues are the ability to pinpoint what works in a song or what will please an audience. Label owners, for instance, have this internal radar for musical social cues because they’re in tune with the market, their audience and perceive the ups and downs of the label’s releases.

Being open to various music genres creates a general understanding of these cues, or the common patterns used within and across multiple genres. This is how the guys behind the Maurizio project translated the essence of Dub into making a new genre named Dub Techno in the early 90s. It was audacious, and it worked flawlessly. Honourable mentions were made to The Orb, who combined multiple genres, influences, and ideas in the same way, creating a genre that has taken over chill-out rooms.

The downside of venturing into different aesthetics or falling in love with a specific kind of track that one wants to emulate, you might have a hard time achieving it, which results into 2 issues:

  1. Achieving the tasks halfway, creating something that is not you, with a technical level that fails to meet the reference. The results will be easy to dislike.
  2. Creating a writer’s block where one doesn’t know the nature of the sounds, freezing in front of how to start.

In the face of new directions and challenges, you have more chances to dislike the music you make. This is common with newcomers to music making, especially people who have been DJs. They’ll know what quality music is and will be impatient with their own development.

In the spirit of using my non-linear approach, I always recommend consolidating your skills slowly and moving on. If you overtake a task that implies no use of the skills you have and requires a new definition of how you work, it will be harsh. I would encourage you to always start with a basis of what you know how to do and build on that, as a solid basis. This will ensure that you have one part of your exploration with elements you love and make room for new ideas that are in progress. Again, this is one reason I encourage using premade samples and loops. It’s to ensure that whatever you do has this basis of certainty, where you can add uncertainty.

 

 

Perfectionism Creeps In

 

As the track evolves, so do your expectations. You start comparing it to your favourite artists or your past work. The “inspired you” made the track; the “critical you” now evaluates it. And that inner critic is never easy to please. That good old internal critic is always trying to save your honour by finding all the faults, missing out on some essential points:

  • The typical listener to your music will listen to it 1-2 times, not finding the issues you’re hunting.
  • Imperfections are not what the listener pays attention to.
  • Some issues, if minor, might be interpreted as an artistic intention/decision.
  • Nothing is perfect, no matter how much you search for.

Perfectionism is something I could write an entire post about. It is an issue in many spheres of our lives and can cause mental health issues if not addressed. Some use the term OCD lightly, but that is a serious illness that requires intervention from a healthcare provider. The only thing one can do to address if it stops you from doing what you’re supposed to do is to go through the points I shared and perhaps print them, post them on your desk.

One advantage I shared earlier about working in layers or doing a spike is that you force yourself to be in the writer’s position and then you can revise later.

Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art. (Andy Warhol)

While you can’t reach perfection, that doesn’t mean you overlook issues. You can fix the obvious and let go of arbitrary things.

Tip: Separate creation from evaluation. Don’t mix these phases. Write first. Judge later. (analogy: right/left brain)

Emotional Projection

 

Sometimes, it’s not even about the music. You might associate the track with your mood during its creation—frustration, stress, loneliness. When you revisit it, you unconsciously relive that emotional state. This is the same for anyone you ask for feedback about your music; they might not be in the right state of mind to provide proper feedback. A critical point about putting an idea quickly in song form is to capture the intention and mood you had at the very moment of creating the song. While it’s important to take distance to judge the potential of the song, sometimes you won’t be able to jump back into the project because your emotional state has completely shifted from where you were. Making music under any influence can cause this issue, where you’ll feel a disconnection between where you were when you made the song and where you are when sober. It’s not always making sense.

I like to say that I see my songs as a statement or a Polaroid snapshot of where I was at a specific moment in my life:

  • My tastes.
  • My mood.
  • My influences.
  • My skills.
  • A current finding.

 

Once I adopted this way of relating to my music, I tend to be less interested in changing anything since I make a lot of music. Compare it to posting pictures on Instagram, for instance. Imagine you want to constantly retouch past pictures you posted by removing a tree in the background or changing the colour of your t-shirt. Would that alter the intention and context of the moment you captured? How important would it be?

If you can take that approach to your music, you’ll feel more at peace with whatever you create and see it as a milestone, with its flaws, innocence, and soul.

 

Tip: Change your environment when working. Pair each track with a fresh mindset and clear intention.

Your Skills Evolve

 

You might dislike your track because you’ve improved. What sounded “good enough” two weeks ago now feels amateurish because your standards have moved up. That’s a good sign. I don’t like to finish my tracks, which always surprises people. My goal is always to aim for a level of completion of 90%. I like to finish my songs when I have a context of release. If a label approaches me to release an EP, I’ll go into my folder of unfinished tracks, pick the ones that would match the label’s direction, tweak them, mix them, and share them. This approach allows me to review specific technical issues I didn’t know how to fix when making the song or perhaps change something I didn’t realize wasn’t working. Sometimes I show the music as is to the label and we both decide of the micro changes. It always works better.

With this mindset, I can trust that my future-me will have the wisdom and resources to do whatever needs to be done when I need to let go of the song to the outside world. I teach new producers this mindset, encouraging them to say “that problem is already fixed, but in the future,” for anything that seems like a decision to take or a technical challenge. What is important to fix in the here and now is more about articulating the hook/idea and selecting elements to support it, to the best they can do.

We always evolve. Each song I make, I try to learn something new or practice a new approach. Something learned can then be applied to past projects, but if you always follow the same recipe and routine, you’re not training your future-you to make better decisions later on.

Tip: Instead of trashing it, freeze the track as a snapshot of your progress. It’s a milestone, not a mistake.

Understanding Arrangements in Electronic Music Production

We can agree that a song is an idea, which is developed into a story. The word we use for that is arrangements. As I explained in a previous post, the arrangement phase follows creating a mockup and involves creating a timeline in which sounds come in and out. At least, this is how I approach it. As I work with clients on their production or mixing, I’ve been exposed to a variety of arrangements. What I see is that some genres often recur, and some are also overused. This post will cover multiple questions I get with arrangements, as well as how I teach various techniques.

 

Common Arrangement Types in Electronic Music

 

Depending of the genre, arrangements are meant to be adapted to fit the other songs of the same direction. But there is also a factor to take in account regarding the intention, or purpose, of the given song. When I do listening events or provide feedback for clients, I always ask them to answer a few questions:

  • Who is this song for?
  • Where and when should it be played?
  • What is the context behind this project?
  • What is the intention or purpose?

It’s always surprising to me to see so many artists making music without giving any thought to these points. One can make music freely, without considering the listener, which is a bold move, but this can raise some problematic points when it comes to feedback. But most of the time, people will have at least one idea of where their song is going. These questions, if answered early in the creative process, will help focus the approach to the music, and this will significantly impact the arrangements. There’s a category of clients who have lovely and catchy ideas, but they struggle to bring them to life. This is a common thread amongst newcomers to electronic music.

Good ideas without execution become tiring and unengaging. This is the stuck-in-a-loop syndrome, where people struggle to get out of an idea and turn it into a song.

Poor ideas with strong execution can still be exciting to listen to. Some of my favourite techno tracks feature a handful of sounds and melodies that are only 2-3 notes long.

 

Who is it for?

This is simply understanding that your music is not for everyone. If you try to please everyone, you’ll end up pleasing no one. Music that works focuses on a single audience and accepts that compromises must be made. Some music manages to reach broader audiences, but this is not an easy task. There is a consensus on what irritates in music that can create aversion. One way to see this is to remove as many divisive ideas as possible, while keeping the concept easy to understand. Divisive ideas are often what gives personality to a song, but they can make people feel uneasy at first. There is a thin line between what pleases and what does not. An example that comes to my mind is Gypsy Women by Crystal Waters. When it came out, 50% of people liked it, and the other 50% hated it. But it was being played over and over on the radio, growing on people’s mind and eventually got the recognition it deserved because it was pretty original at the time.

 

When it comes to electronic music, being intentional on the direction of the song can help make decisions easier on your arrangements. I like binary questions like these to help find the intention:

  • Is it for DJS to play in sets?
  • Is it danceable and meant to be mixed beat to beat?
  • Is the song for early sets, peak or closing time?
  • Is it meant to create a peak experience?
  • Is it a tool?

I could go on about the various angles one can approach a song. But these main questions will directly influence how the song is built. There’s also the genre, which is not a binary question; even within a genre, there can be various levels of intensity. Some house songs can be mellow while others are bangers. Peak experience songs are meant to leave a profound emotional impact on the listener: they can be peak-time music, but they can also be beautifully written melodies for the closing track of the night.

 

Where and when should it be played?

 

As previously described, the moment and context will influence how the song is built. Early on, music usually has arrangements that are less inclined to have punch. Mellow arrangements involve executing the sound progression with more fade-ins and fade-outs, while maintaining a relaxed tone and avoiding tension-building. When it comes to music that is club-oriented, you’ll have some options on hand to make your song exciting, but this is genre-dependent, once again. There is also another point to consider, which is the context of where the music will be played:

  • Home listening?
  • Small club?
  • Big club?
  • Commercial Club?
  • Festival?

While many people listen to festival music at home, there is some home listening music that won’t fit clubs because the context is just not appropriate. Home listening to music is intimate and leaves a lot of flexibility to explore subtle or audacious ideas. The difference between small and big clubs is often related to the intensity of the music. Some underground clubs are more open-minded when it comes to originality, while bigger, commercial clubs require music that appeals to a broader audience, as well as higher-energy, upbeat tracks.

 

What is the context behind this project?

 

Is this song an exploration of a genre or trying to emulate a label’s sound direction? Those simple questions relate to the context. We’re referring to the craftsmanship behind the work put into the song. Being aware of the context is sort of the original, or root, of the spirit of the creation of the music. If the context implies that you got signed and want to emulate the label’s direction, you’ll have a completely different context than someone making a song for their next DJ set. Being aware of your context is the first step in executing your idea.

 

What is the intention or purpose?

 

This is the fundamental question that will change everything, and it sums up all the previous questions. If you answered all the others easily, then this one will become obvious. Sometimes, the intention is clear and straightforward, but if it’s not, you might encounter challenges in building your song.

 

Arrangements 101

 

While I feel I could write an entire book on the topic, I’ll try to remain straight to the point about the essentials one should know right from the start.

 

The Essentials

 

Is there a minimum number of elements one needs to start making their arrangements? The simple answer would be no, but…

Once again, be aware that this will be a recurring point: your genre and intention will define what you need to start with. When I teach music production to newcomers, I feel there is an undefined’ level 1′ where one needs to learn how to create arrangements by copying those of references that one finds inspiring. Quite often, people give a lot of importance to the gear they need to make music, but one blind spot people frequently have is the quality of their influences and references. If you train your ears on questionable references, you’ll be building your inner vocabulary of arrangements on material that will lead to lower-quality results.

Studying your references will help you understand various points. It becomes the equivalent of learning how to write a book. There are a few points of interest to note, so let’s go through them here.

 

Song Form

This is how the song is built, with the number of sections. Also, there’s a concept I call Storytelling Perspectives, which involves dividing a song equally. Depending on your perspective, how you distribute it can yield balanced or unbalanced results. When I import a reference song into the arrangement side of my DAW, I put perspective points first, then check the song’s content to understand its sections. I love to see the correlation between the perspective and the sections. Sometimes it’s unrelated (e.g., unsimilar in the division points), while at other times, it’s almost the same, but with a few adjustments.

Arrangements organized with readability, colour coding and perspectives. Song by Barac analyzed for/with a client.

This example is how I read a song, and then, using ghost MIDI clips, I analyze how the arrangement is made. I place clips when I see a channel starting and draw them until the very end of the song. Sometimes I punch in the MIDI note of the given sound. This exercise provides a lot of information on how to build a song similar to one that I know works. One thing I also notice in songs that work well is a cohesive balance between the first third and the last one. Each has a part that the other doesn’t have, keeping the listener anticipating something to come. When perspectives are equal, the listener will intuitively know that something will happen at a given time, which rewards them for staying tuned. Also from this analysis, we see that this song starts strong with six elements right from the start, no break, and builds up. This type of arrangement is typical of techno, house, and minimal, where you want to provide a bed of intensity for the DJ to blend into their mix.

The main reasons I use MIDI clips are:

  • You can quickly import the reference template within any project you’re working on. It will adapt to the bpm.
  • You can import some of the channels and then test different sounds or instruments while keeping the pattern.

 

Tip: Define a colour coding that you’ll stick with through all your songs. This will allow you to open any old project and quickly get back up to speed.

 

Going deeper into the hook, we can now also analyze how things we built. This is what we refer to as “form” or, more specifically, “musical form”. Understanding the form will mean that you know the sections, such as these:

 

  • Intro / Build / Drop / Break / Drop / Outro (Organized, conventional, predictable)

    • Interpretation: Focused on energy cycles—build tension, release, rest, repeat. Great for dance floors, but often overused.

    • Tip: Try muting the first drop entirely and bringing it later than expected for a tension surprise.

  • Linear Progression / Techno Style (Simple, unconventional, hypnotic)

    • Interpretation: Evolution through subtle modulation. Encourages hypnotic, immersive listening.

    • Tip: Try working with 3-4 motifs only, but automate movement through FX, EQ sweeps, panning, or layering.

  • Loop-based Collage

      • Interpretation: Stream-of-consciousness or playful. Can feel chaotic or spontaneous.

      • Tip: Rein in the chaos by picking a key motif and returning to it as a “chorus” or anchor.

 

 

Hook Form

 

A hook in music is a short, memorable musical idea—often a melodic phrase, rhythmic pattern, vocal line, or sound—that grabs the listener’s attention and sticks in their mind. It’s usually the most recognizable part of a song and is designed to be repeated, often in the chorus or intro.

How you understand the hook of a song will give you insights into how to evolve your simple hook into something more. You’ve probably come across specific terms, so let’s go over a few basics.

 

  • A/B Structures (Verse/Chorus or Theme/Counter-theme)

    • Interpretation: Contrasts emotional states—such as question and answer, night and day, etc.

    • Tip: Instead of jumping A → B, try ABA, or ABAB’, where the last B is a variation to close a story arc.

  • Development
    • Is the hook remaining the same or developing through the song?
    • If it’s the same, what about the effects and sound modifiers?

 

 

Hook expressivity

 

This is about understanding the DNA of the hook to help analyze it. This can be covered with a few simple questions.

  • Is the hook a melody or a specific sound?
  • If it’s harmonic, what are the primary key and scale?
  • If it’s a melody, how many notes make the hook?
  • Are the notes short or long?
  • Is the hook over 1 bar? How long is it?
  • Which Octave is the hook occupying? Is it expanding over multiple octaves?
  • What is the rhythm composition? Fast? Slow?
  • Is the hook involving neighbour notes, or is there a jump?

 

Hook’s family

A hook is rarely alone in a song to carry it through the entire arrangement. If that’s the case, it often evolves or morphs, while still having some modifiers that alter its character. But in other cases, the main idea will have a supportive companion. In Jazz, the main melody might be played by the entire band, but sometimes it is one specific instrument that leads the song, while others complement, support, and interact with it. I like to use family terms to describe the supporting roles, but I also encourage anyone to come up with their terms.

  • Brothers/Sisters: These are usually closely involved in the composition of the hook with similar notes either in the negative parts of the hook or perhaps at the same time. These will often be the call and answer for the main idea.
  • Cousins: They are similar to the hook but diverge from the original idea. This is often a decorative or accent piece.
  • Father: I see the father as the root of the idea. A good example is a supporting pad that creates a tone, providing a grounding space for the family to evolve.
  • Mother: This element is a source of nurturing. It’s a bit difficult to explain because we’re in the world of metaphors here, but I imagine it as a sound that seals the emotion of the song.

Not all songs are suitable for the whole family. Many songs have perhaps only a few elements. One element is the antagonist, which creates tension and generates potential conflict as the music evolves. If the song has tension and builds up, it will need a resolution at some point (often described as the drop), which the mother might provide.

 

Sound Order

Learning arrangements involve understanding how sounds come in, including their order. The best technique for understanding this is to note down in your arrangements where sounds appear and where they end. This technique is the best teacher for creating effective sound interactions to achieve a desired effect. Starting a song with all the percussion won’t have the same impact as if you slowly began with a pad.

 

Building templates and Readability

 

The first thing I do is to organize the channels for easy reading. Arrangements can become a mess as people work on it, and not having organization means missing the opportunity to understand what is happening. I want to be able to read and understand a song even before I press play. To do this, I need to organize the channels from top to bottom, in the order they appear. This means that the first channels that play should be at the top, followed by the others as they appear below. When working this way, arrangements take shape into a structure. You’ll see below a few arrangement examples, along with their names and some notes on the kind of effect they create.

 

A Classic Stairs Progression example.

 

This arrangement type is classic with a stair progression. One thing to keep in mind about stair progression is to be conscious of the buildup it creates, and that you’re engaging in what I call climbing to the top. You then need to think about climbing down. Stair progression is easy to understand, evokes a sense of assertiveness, and can build excitement. There’s an importance to keeping a relevant distance between each step. They all should keep the same timing to create a sense of predictability. If you bring a few sounds at once (in this case, Hook and Perc3), one can come with a fade in, but if you want to keep it punchy, that’s your decision. In this example, there is a sense of balance and a moment of tension half way with a rebuilt.

 

 

Climbing with the Valley example.

This arrangement is a different take, where the arrival at the top leads to what I call a valley (the open area after the peak). This creates a dramatic effect on the listener, but it also has the drawback of disrupting the energy. This might be appropriate for EDM, where breakdowns are essential, but they could create a moment of stillness on the dance floor. That might be what the artist wants, which depends of the intention.

 

 

Donato Dozzy analysis of an ambient techno track of his.

Simplicity always works. If the hook is complex, arrangements can be simple, and if the hook is simple, you could make things a bit more complicated with the narrativity. But in both cases, simple arrangements make it easier for the listener to engage with the song. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dozzy record most of his arrangements from a jam or playing live, and in many cases, he keeps things simple, but it always works. After analyzing his song, I was impressed by the straightforwardness of the arrangements.

 

 

DJ Sneak is always effective in every single of his house tracks.

I wanted to know how Sneak always pulls his arrangements because his music is so practical and fun to play. His formula is basically about having a core and then having various elements alternating on top. This approach is helpful for repetitive songs where the listener can focus their attention on a pattern, but then it shifts to the different upper elements that come in and out. That gives the listener an experience of being hypnotized and explains why house music has never gotten out of style since its invention. It’s simple, uses a limited amount of elements but is all about how they gel together. Simpler arrangements invite to analyze the patterns. They’re often over 2 bars long and alternating with variations every 4.

 

 

Melchior keeps it linear but introduces long valleys.

Melchior is one of those artists that, just like Sneak, creates an experience when you listen to his music. There is a lot of space in the repeating patterns, and he is not shy about letting sounds play on their own for a while. And it works. I wanted to analyze that song of his because it was so catchy that I wondered how he kept me hooked. The analysis revealed a very unconventional approach to his music, which pleases my brain.

 

Two techniques: Macro pattern repeat and channel substitution.

This snapshot covers the last two points I will share. The first is macro pattern repetition, which involves taking a pattern and creating a pause of equal duration (see the yellow line). One mistake people often make with music they find linear is not considering adding rests. Having a pause keeps the listener on the edge and gives a sense of slow, evolving progression. While many people feel that their music stagnates and will add more layers, the best solution is usually to subtract parts instead. A negative space creates room for wanting the sound to return. The other technique is channel substitution, which is simple and effective: if you want to remove a sound, add another one to compensate. In this case, the blue line gets a rest but is compensated with the light blue one. This is an excellent way to make swift changes, preventing the energy loss as the listener’s point of view shifts from one element to the new one. They might not even notice the change at first. This can be done with any sounds (ex., percussion for bass, vocals to kick, etc).

 

Duos, Trios, conversations.

The conversations between the parties are essential. See it like in jazz, where one instrument has a solo and then a duo with another. It’s the same for your elements. I find the perfect balance for a song is to have 3 interacting elements, as this gives you many options, as seen above. The 3 blue lines represent melodies:

  • Dark Blue starts solo
  • Dark Blue is in the duo with second blue.
  • Dark blue goes quiet, and the three secondary blues then have a moment together.
  • Dark blue comes back, forms a trio with two others, while one goes quiet.

This alternating energy creates many different sections you can play with throughout the song.

I hope this was helpful!