How Being Patient Can Improve Your Music

It takes far less time to share music than before, no matter where you are in your artist journey. Factors like inexpensive recording equipment and digital music distribution make getting your songs in front of listeners quick, easy, and inexpensive – but there’s a hidden cost here to consider.

To capture the attention span of their audiences, some artists share new music as quickly as they can. As a result, their songs often sound rushed, undeveloped, and uninspired.

Patience is a virtue in all aspects of life and songwriting is no exception. Try to give your songs time and room to evolve and breathe. You’ll dramatically boost your chances of getting heard in today’s overcrowded music industry. 

How embracing patience helps you write better music

Some songs arrive fully formed out of the gate while others take weeks or months to reach their full potential. When you bet on a strategy for writing and releasing music as quickly as you can, it’s all but guaranteed that your songs are going to suffer for it. This is because every idea is unique, with some songs needing more time to develop than others. 

A patient writing strategy ignores the current lightning fast-paced music culture. It gives individual songs and large music projects alike the time they need to fully develop. Note that a patient writing strategy works best if you’re creating music consistently. If it takes you years to write, record, and produce a couple of tracks, that slow momentum doesn’t support a realistic timeline to succeed in today’s music industry. Creating schedules and goals will help keep you on track.

Working patiently will help your songs sound more intentional and clear – whether it’s your lyrics, melodies, or production choices. Songwriters may feel tempted to go with the first ideas they come up with, which might work for certain elements. However, if you apply that to every decision in your music, there are bound to be lapses in some areas. Patience will buy you time to listen hard, scrutinize and look for better options when needed. 

Putting patience into practice 

A patient writing practice starts with awareness. Are you just blasting through the process as fast as possible, or are you truly giving every part of your songs the attention they need? If you’re used to prioritizing speed over everything else in your songwriting practice, developing your awareness is going to take some considerable adjustments, but it’ll be worth it.

When you’re able to slow things down, it’s easier to be thorough and pursue your ideas on their own terms. Keep in mind that there’s a risk of overworking your songs and wasting a lot of time in the process. Like everything in music, a balance has to be struck between urgent inspiration and thoughtful patience.