This post is more introspective and less structured than usual. Skip it if that's not your thing.
For those who are curious about my creative journey and creativity in general, I've gone for a stream of consciousness list format in an attempt to be as objective and authentic as possible.
Hopefully you'll collect a few little gold nuggets that help you with your own music making along the way 🙂
Get in !
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1. Thinking about quality when you're in the first stages of your creation is a sure-fire way to get stumped and lose your creative spark.
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2. Quality comes with quantity. The more you practice, try stuff and finish songs, the better you'll get.
How did I practice?
I recorded 30 minute Morning Sessions every day for 200 days.
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BUT…
3. Quality can't come only from quantity. It's not enough to practice. You've got to practice deliberately. Intentionally work on stuff that's not quite working.
Examples of stuff I'm working on right now…
- bass lines
- playing in time with swing
- improvising on the piano
- vocal performance
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4. The more time I spend on the production of a track, the duller I make it. Like I'm sucking the life out of it.
The solution? Short studio sessions and frequent breaks.
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5. My sessions in the studio are more productive when I go in with a clear game plan.
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6. Outsourcing if it's still not working might be another good option to explore….
Something that can help me get to that next level. After all, I'm good at mixing but not great.
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7. I have trouble pushing the boundaries when it gets uncomfortable in the music studio. Meaning what?
Meaning I'm great at making lots of good song fast because I'm having fun while I'm doing it.
But I'm no good at making great songs because I don't especially enjoy working on that extra 1% that will (maybe) make all the difference.
How can I change that?
Well…. perhaps working with someone else who enjoys that stuff but is not so good with melodies and arrangement could be beneficial?
Collaborating is something full-time music producer SHRAi identified as THE ONE THING HE WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY if he started his career now.
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8. My "best" work either took very little time…..
….. or many iterations with incremental improvements every step of the way….
There's nothing much in the middle it seems. It's mostly all intuition or deep exploration.
Note – I consider my "best" work to be the work that stands out. Music that makes you sit up and notice.
It's also music that I enjoy listening to. Other tracks have had more success but, because I don't particularly enjoy them myself, I'm of the opinion that they're not viable creative projects in the long-term.
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9. Every time I take a break from a song and get back to it, I hear it differently.
Sometimes worse than expected, sometimes better. Always with something that can be improved.
What's the lesson to be learned here?
If you don't decide to let go, you never will because there's always something you can do.
What's the solution?
I just decided I wouldn't work on a track for more than around 6 studio sessions and limited each studio session to between 30 minutes and 2 hours.
Something else you might try?
Maybe committing to a release date 3-4 months in advance and launching the marketing efforts to keep yourself accountable?
Harsh! But probably very effective!!
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10. Creativity feeds creativity.
The more I try stuff, the more ideas I have to try new stuff.
The more I WANT to try stuff.
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11. My knowledge of theory is helpful to get unstuck but my lack of improvisation skills slows me down.
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12. The music I make doesn't really stand out. It's competent but not extraordinary. Yet.
I have lots to say but can't seem to say it in quite the right way.
When I do find a way to say it, I'm confident I'll know.
And that's when I'll take massive action to share the music 🙂
I haven't found my sound yet. And that's ok.
I'm cool with it.
In the last 3 years, I've produced a LOT of music, some good, some bad. Some sold, some didn't.
In the next 3 years, I want to find my voice and produce GREAT music. Say what I have to say.
That means I'll have to reconcile myself with words in songs….
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And I'll have to rekindle my love for the piano.
Already working on the piano thing. Now I need to start building a writing habit for the songwriting and singing 😉
Very intimate and humbling. Thx for sharing! I’m still in awe of you!
☺
Could not look through for the sake of time, but everything looks and sounds great…
😉
A lot of your content rings true for me. The stage I’m at is lyric writing. Musical passages come to me. I enjoy creating various progressions, although sometimes more complex; I like movement in the harmonies is why. Thank you for your candidness. it’s quite refreshing!
“Movement in the harmonies”…. Beautiful! Makes me want to listen ?
Very personal I hear you, yeah I can relate to that. The process of creation rest assures a demanding journey. I think we need to live out any judgment; only the joy germinating the search of ideas within the sound of motion. Well, I’ve been composing for many years, over the years the music that is coming through with a daily passion imprint an inward touch.
Agreed. During the creative process, I’ll try to leave out my editing and censoring brain out of the way as much as possible.
Having said that, the creation process is, inevitably, a series of many decisions and every time you make a decision, you are in fact emitting a judgement, considering that your choice is the best course of action 🙂
I guess the trick is finding that balance between thriving for the best, most authentic sound/lyric we can find and not being paralyzed by perfectionism and unhelpful judgment.
It is an interesting topic to me, so I’ll bite: What is it about a great song that makes you sit up and take notice? Is it a song with an “attitude”, a song with a beautiful melody, a song with a verbal message you can relate to, a song with a in interesting twist? All of the above? Does the listener in the end determine what makes a song “great” – if you have a song that sells, does that make it great regardless of what you believe?
For myself, I have to trust in a saying I heard, “Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.”, I think my music is worthwhile because it is at least marginally better than silence. And so I continue, and try to improve along the way.
BTW best of luck with the vocal performance, I know that it is a lot of effort and an ongoing time commitment. I am jealous of you that you are good at mixing, that stuff is frustrating to me!
Hehe, not sure there’s a good answer to those questions 🙂
I’ll share my thoughts anyway!!
As a listener, I consider a song is great if it makes me DO something. Cry, laugh, dance, think, feel happy, dream, calm down.
A song might not be recognized as “great” by my former piano teacher (big Mussorgsky fan) and/or it might not sell a lot. But it’s great to me. At a certain point in time, it made me feel alive.
So maybe not everyone will appreciate the beauty of David Guetta or Spice Up Your Life but I do!! And still I can appreciate Bill Evans and make it a habit to lie down on the floor and just listen when Maria Callas is singing 🙂
As a music maker, I find it much harder to define when my music is “great”. I’ve thought about it all weekend and I guess a few things have to happen for me to consider my music great.
1- I need to have a smirk on my face when I listen to the track a few months after completion. Not sure why, but the smirking part is important 🙂
2- People have to notice, behave differently when they hear it. That could be sitting up and listening when the track comes on in the middle of a playlist. Or it could mean heads start bobbing along. Or it could mean people start commenting or sharing the link. Or someone asks me to work with them after hearing it.
If the track is met with indifference, it could be 2 things: either the music is not good enough, or I haven’t put it in front of the right audience. Either way, I have more work to do 🙂
Now the weird part… when an audience likes the track, it sells, but I don’t especially care for it…. Well then I may be onto something but might not pursue it. It really depends on how much I enjoyed working on the track to start with.
And when an audience doesn’t care for a track that I’m really proud of 2-3 months after finishing it…. Can’t recall this happening actually but if it did, I would have to trust my judgment (2-3 months after finishing it so I have the appropriate detachment) and assume I haven’t done enough work to put it in front of the right audience.
In any case, I’m always happy with the music I make because, no matter how “good” or “bad” I or someone else might think it is at a given point in time (perceptions change after all!), I’m proud of myself for making it and putting it out there. 🙂
Even when the music doesn’t feel “great”, there’s always a mind-boggling realization that I created something out of nothing!
J – thanks for sharing these thoughts & ideas; i’m struggling with the wintertime slump, this is what i need t’ pull out of it. also, nice to connect wth your soundcloud page – good stuff!
Ah yes, the wintertime slump, never easy to navigate :/
Cheers! Care to share a