This is a bit of an odd thread but it could be cool! We often talk about things we’re good at or improved upon, because the more we compose music, the better we get at it! Which is usually the case for most aspects of the process, but I do think there are some exceptions, things you used to be better at.

I think one thing I used to be better at, when I first started writing music, I was a lot better then at coming up with ideas than I am now. I think as I improved in my music, my personal “standard” for good ideas has become narrower and narrower. Sometimes I wish I could go back to creating whatever was on my mind and not thinking to much about it, even though I know I’d probably say “this is lame,” and then scrap it entirely. I also think I used to be a faster writer, now I’m slower.

I definitely work slower now, since I have higher standards for myself. And starting a song is more painful, since most of the time it sounds bad at first. But that's how writing music works! It's all bad at first!

I think I've gotten worse at maintaining that playful mood which produces good work. Too often I get caught up in my head on "what this track needs to be", and try to smash it into that --- rather than follow the fun.

i got worse at make bad music. i really miss when my music was dissonant beepbox tune #95868797

everything, 'cause the last time I did anything music wise was 2020 :)

Pretty much the same as OP, mainly after starting to do music as work.

Doing things like OHB becomes this indimidating and paralyzing task since i'm trying so hard to make things sound "good" to my standard, as opposed to the low stakes quick thing it's supposed to be

I really gotta get back to them to see if I can shake this feeling off

i think i've become rusty at chiptune. it's something i haven't really done in a long time properly and i feel like i struggle making something in that field and aesthetic that is what i want. i used to make chiptune covers and some songs that i was kinda alright with, but now i can't really do much in that area.
well that ended up happening because i began overspecializing in sample-based, VSTi, etc stuff (basically allgear, s3xmodit, renoise, etc) and forgot to do chip stuff for months

giving this some thought, and i hope it's not too conceited to say i don't really feel like i've gotten "worse" at anything

my focuses shift a lot, and i can definitely point to different periods of my writing where, because i was putting more into some aspect, that aspect seems cooler. for instance, i think some of my harmonic choices were more interesting or inspired in like 2020-2021, looking back. but that doesn't mean i can't do that now, i've just been doing things differently because that's just how things shift over time

i do understand the feeling of perceiving one's own older work as more carefree, but to be honest there are also still a lot of ways that i remain lackadaisical about a lot of my writing, and ohbs definitely do help with that mindset. but even some of my major entries were just the result of serendipitous experimentation gone right (or sometimes just a desire to put something out there lol). i admittedly don't usually have a strong guidepost of "i want my thing to sound exactly like ___" though i take plenty of inspiration from others of course

maybe the best answer i could give is that there are things i could still put more points into and shore up weaknesses that i haven't really taken the time to do. cleaner, more thoughtful counterpoint. but that's like... i didn't get worse at that, it's just something i know i'm not great at that i haven't put a large amount of energy into improving

i havent done much background listening to other music for a while so my own personal tastes has less unique things to draw upon to be inspired by. i would say that impacts things

what I wrote here was dumb af
forget it existed

What got worse for me is my physical health. I haven't been having the basic strength to keep up with my recent artistic output in a week. This makes me sad and frustrated.

waking up with a composition idea and trying to remember it after the breakfast...

I used to have no problem just sitting down and cobbling together a fun little song - but now I know too much and have too many options - and therefore ANALYSIS PARALYSIS.

Which of these thousand sample packs should I dig into? Which of the dozens of VSTs should I load? What am I even doing?? And you’d think having all these options would mean I create better art, but… I’m not sure it works that way.

agree w/ dami! i mean like others have mentioned, i definitely spend more time on tracks than when i started writing, but that's comparing apples to oranges

my big thing is finding good chip combinations. when I started out composing, I was bound to, like, the Ricoh 2A03 and that was about all I ever used. after I started using furnace and whatnot, I started to experiment with other chips and see what sounds I liked. however, it got to the point where I could never decide what chip to use because there were so many unique sounds and combinations, instead of “oh hey, you get two pulse, a triangle, a noise, and a sample channel, deal with it”.

my other thing? coming up with ideas and writing “unique” sounding music. I’m cursed to write in like three keys, all my songs sound somewhat similar, and I can never break away from what I call the “Mega Man Mentality”, where all of your pieces sound like they’d work as a Mega Man stage theme or something.

Probably the range of programs i used to write music in.

I used to do fasttracker/bambootracker/deflemask stuff some time ago but now i somehow restricted myself to DAW (and rarely Famitracker).

Probably because with any DAW/music making program there always is a learning curve (and it's just way easier to NOT do something), and probably the longer i don't those programs i get worse at using them, so why even start if i can write better music elsewhere anyway?

Also when i am making music, i am trying to follow the idea of the song that i have in my head as close as i can, and sometimes these work perfectly with Famitracker, and other times i give up because i can not possibly strip it down to fit in Famitracker/other tracker type programs.

botb sorta made me worse at writing melodies/harmonies, because it showed me I actually have no idea how to do it properly, so I'm now less willing to just use my instincts and have something come out passable.

my ability of not finishing stuff just got better *sad thumb*

I've gotten worse at making more music

fffffffft

thinking my music is good

i have gotten worse at keeping track of my files lol. when i furst started music i used to name em all weird but at least i still HAD all of em!!!

Discipline

using daws, definitely. I think it's a good thing though, because my stuff was pretty repetitive back then, but my DAW mixes these days (at least the 3 times that I've tried this and last year) just clip way too much and I forgot how to do sound design :|

Probably getting a good spark... and then keeping it going to complete the work.

This is kinda-sorta off-topic, but if you feel like you're worsening in an area, you might just be hitting the "real vs. perceived skill" gap -- gonna yoink the relevant graph from this classic article

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[Apologies for the overflow; my semi-evil powers only go so far. ;]

And yeah, it says "painting", but this is a Thing for any sort of art. Just sub in the words "music" and "hear" where relevant. ;)

Coming up with ideas that can mesh into a coherent piece.
Also I feel like I've developed a tendency to overthink while trying to making music over the years.

in music-making? making music

Saying "this is enough"
When working longer on a track (prime exanple being entries for majors or the EP I'm currently working on), I just keep on adding things until it sounds way too overcrowded, and I just scrapp the whole thing

making music is so exhausting, i wish i could just

just finishing a section instead of adding more to it

Somebody wins for using Socks and Muffin in a profile pic

My answer to the post is pretty much everything. The struggle to make things as easy to do as possible means the results are going to feel rare and low effort from my own point of view

Lately I've been having trouble coming up with more than 4 chords for my songs. I want my music to go somewhere, damn it!

i get so stuck with lyrics when i never did before. i cant tell if my standards have gotten higher or if i just overthink it. ive been trying to get the flow back by caring less. its sort of working