How do you handle the constant "not good enough" impulse?
I finally learned enough theory for my needs. I can screw around endlessly on and around a key, and it all sounds like music. A few times every session, I'll find something that \*feels\* like something, and my first impulse is always that it's too simple. After some effort dressing it up, I decide it's too busy and convoluted, and now I hate it.
Very simple progressions, good pacing, emotional weight, they have everything I want to communicate when I sit down every day. But it's never good enough. Obviously some of my favorite songs are just as straightforward, and I'm making exactly what I wanted to make. I have a straightforward, tasteful progression to build a soundscape from, but I can't accept it, and I start over again and again.
My favorite artists work on basic, elegant melodies, propped up by power chords and some dynamic atmospheres. There are some solos, but even those are starting to look easier to navigate than I originally assumed, even if they take some time and effort.
What the hell is my problem?