When you're staring at an empty DAW or a blank sheet of music, feeling paralyzed by self-doubt or unable to finish your piece, you're not alone. As a composition mentor, I've found that one of the most powerful tools for breaking through these creative blocks is surprisingly simple: asking "why" five times. What Are the Five Whys? The Five Whys technique was originally developed by Sakichi Toyoda for Toyota's manufacturing process. While it began in industrial problem-solving, it's remarkably effective for addressing creative and personal challenges. The method involves asking "why" repeatedly (typically five times) to dig beneath surface-level symptoms and uncover the root cause of a problem. A Real-World Example: From Self-Doubt to Understanding Let me share a recent conversation with a composer that perfectly illustrates this method in action. This composer was struggling with persistent creative blocks and self-doubt. Here's how we applied the Five Whys: Initial Problem: Severe self-doubt and inability to finish musical pieces Why #1: "Why do you have this self-doubt?" - "I want to create something special, something at the level of John Williams." Why #2: "Why do you want to create something at that level?" - "I want to be proud of myself." Why #3: "Why is being proud of yourself connected to creating something of that caliber?" - "Because in university, I had a professor who was extremely negative and constantly told us we'd never be great composers." Why #4: "Why did the professor's words have such an impact?" - This led us to examine the professor's own possible struggles: personal frustrations, failed ambitions, or even misguided attempts at motivation. The Revelation What's fascinating about this exercise is how it revealed that the composer's current creative paralysis stemmed not from their actual abilities, but from the lingering impact of past criticism. The professor—who is no longer relevant to the composer's current journey—had inadvertently planted seeds of self-doubt that grew into creative barriers.

Hey! Welcome to the Audio Artist Rise Community! This community helps music composers improve, optimize, and inspire themselves as they enter or progress in the audio industry. Step #01: Introduce yourself in THIS thread below! (✄ copy/paste template 👇) What are your goals? What is your current demo reel? What immediate help do you need? **Please DO NOT make a new post, as those clog up the feed (they will be removed). ------------------------------------------------------------------ Best practices in this community: • Level up by posting insights and thoughtful comments. • Help others level up by liking 👍 good posts and comments. • Be kind • If you want to reply to a post, make sure to use REPLY instead of creating a new post • If you need quick help, you can also ask the community 🤝

Hey all. I haven't been as active on here as I'd like due to work but if you see a post that's interesting to you, be sure to hit that 'like' button. Let encourage each other to engage as without the engagement, some haven't even been able to unlick the next modules that would help that person with the journey of composing music for Sync Licensing. I hope to continue to connect with people and potentially collaborate. 😀

I know each DAW have their pros and cons but what's the recommended or ideal DAW for composition? Which would would be ideal for the mixing/mastering as well? I ask because my goal is to have the tools that would produce the best quality. I bounce in between FL Studio and Studio One at the moment. All suggestions welcomed. Thanks.