Preface
A few years ago I wrote this article to help people who get stuck in creative ruts. As a teacher, "how do I move forward?" is one of the biggest questions I get asked. I initially made this as an eBook, but thought I would revise it and put it on Steemit to see how things go.
It's main focus is for Electronic Musicians, however most of the techniques can be applied to all styles of creativity.
I look forward to being part of the Steemit community and hope that this article can be of some help.
Introduction
Staying motivated to complete a track is an issue that all producers face at some time, whether you’re an experienced artist, bedroom producer, or just starting out. In this article, I have put together ten fun and bullshit free strategies that will have you busting out the tunes in no time.
The excitement that comes from creating your own blips and bleeps is a wonderful feeling. Sometimes so much so that moving on to creating something new, rather than finishing the old, often leads to a folder sitting on your computer full of unfinished projects which don’t have much in the way of progression (yeah, you know what I’m talking about!).
The methods and techniques I explore in this article always keep in mind the joys of being creative, and embracing that buzz. I believe any chore can be made into a fun game rather than forcing you to do something boring. It’s the same philosophy I use when I hire strippers to help me with my spring cleaning.
If you’re at the stage where you’re making good shit, and you know it’s good shit, chances are the feeling of absolute awesomeness that comes with it is going to make the idea of knuckling down sound very unattractive.
In the following 10 sections, I’ll show you my tried and tested ways of keeping the fire burning, helping you become more productive, motivated and educated.
1. Tension and Release
In my opinion, the most (or one of the most) important factors for remaining focused and motivated when producing a track is ... "not giving up when you get stuck on something or feel the track is not going anywhere anymore. If you’re having problems moving forward, or you’re having issues with something in particular, try working around the problem. Sometimes this will give you ideas and trigger the next stage of inspiration. Just keep working away and don’t give up on tracks you have already put so much time into. " - Grouch ( http://www.soundcloud.com/grouchnz )
Tension and Release is used throughout all musical styles, and is a vital tool to help emphasize the feeling of progression/ moving forward. This feeling is very important to maintain because without it, things get stale and boring very quickly.
Whether it’s on the big scale of the entire tune structure:
Intro > Drop > Breakdown > Drop > Outro
Or on the micro scale:
Kick > Hat > Kick > Hat
Using Tension and Release can dramatically open up new ways of listening to your ideas, ultimately making them interact with each other more fluently.
When I’m on a dance-floor rocking out to a tune I’ve never heard before, I like to watch the ways I am moving my body in relation to what I am hearing. One thing I notice a lot is when a good producer introduces a new idea or theme, it’s always announced ahead of time.
It sneaks in subtly before it fully hits, or there can be a little drum fill, or even the good old white noise ‘whoooooosh’ going up and up - but if a new idea is introduced by something else in the music, my body knows something is coming, and when it does, I’m ready. That makes me feel super cool and connected with what is happening.
I get played a lot of music from producers who are just starting out. Tension and Release often comes later after they have started mastering the sound design aspect of producing. As their tune moves forward, things just sort of get slopped down on the plate in front of you, like food being served in a school cafeteria.
Even though the substance they are giving to me is tasty, I’d get much more of a kick out of it if it was served to me like I was at a 5 star restaurant. This is a subconscious effect.
The whole point of writing music is to make people feel something as much as possible, so playing with the subconscious is a powerful tool if done correctly. No-one is going to get pissed off if they find out you tricked them because they have already made the decision to put down their guard and take what you are offering. They want you to fuck with them.
Let’s say I’m listening to a house track, and we’re only at the introduction with a kick, snare, high-hat and perhaps a little synth stab. It’s moving along, bar 30, bar 31, bar 32, bar 33, oh cool the bass is there. It’s not the best bass, it’s a bit weak sounding and they just have one note doing a simple pattern, but it’s there now.
Now take that same intro, but give it some character. At 16 bars start bringing in some quiet white noise slowly opening up on a low pass filter, start fading the kick drum away at 24 bars, throw a reverb on that synth stab and bring the decay time out slowly.
Now you have my attention. Somethings happening, somethings coming, and I’m excited! I’m so caught up with connecting/syncing with this tension that when it drops I don’t even start being critical of the weak bass, in fact it’s magically turned into a great bass! You just got me tense, and then released it.
If you’ve got something in front of you that has good ideas but doesn’t really sound too exciting because you’ve listened to it so many times, focus on the small details of creating tension and release (on the smaller scale). A few ways to do this are:
- Every four bars add an extra little snare or percussion hit, just a tiny one. ➡ Every eight or sixteen bars throw in a little fill, add a new sound, make it “stop” for two beats, then put a crash or white noise when the beat comes back.
- Load up a hundred percussion hits into a sampler and randomly throw a couple in at the end of a phrase.
- Take the bass or synth line on a small melodic journey for a few beats, different to what it’s been doing already.
- Take a tiny chunk of the element you are going to introduce and put it in four bars before it is supposed to be there, but change those four bars so they are muffled, or quiet, or sneaking in. Let people get a tiny taste and wanting more.
- Create a new unique one (or whatever) bar loop that really compliments your new idea, and have it play only once before the new idea comes in! Think of someone announcing a speaker at a huge event, someone who’s job is only to make the next person look amazing.
You will be amazed at how spending just 10 minutes zipping through your track and adding these little tension builds will make it sound whole and complete. I really have to stress this.
Have a coffee, sit down and power them out as fast as you can. It will turn a track that wasn’t going anywhere into a new playground of excitement. When you hit that point of hearing your track like it is an actual whole composition, it will start writing itself.
Bonus Tip - Less is More
When using words like “fills” and “builds”, the first thing that usually jumps to mind is to add something. Add a drum roll, add a build up, these all work, however sometimes you can create the same effect, or an even more powerful effect, but subtracting.
A simple way to imagine this is to take just the drums out for a bar before the next phrase. Leave everything else - it still creates a feeling of anticipation. Even if you just took one kick out on the fourth beat of the bar, you’ll still get an element of tension.
One cool trick I like to do when I am a bit stuck of ideas to create these little builds, is to load in a LOT of stuff, put lots of snare hits, lots of sounds and crazy shit (again, all in the bar BEFORE the next phrase), then start subtracting until something starts to get sculpted.
In my opinion, the most (or one of the most) important factors for remaining focused and motivated when producing a track is ... "to keep the work moving. If you’re getting stuck with something, put it aside, you can always go back to it later. If you’re moving forward you'll keep the creative juices flowing, it will be a more enjoyable and fresher environment to work in, and you’re more likely to stumble across that 'hit'. Fresh ears - we find that the ‘first listen in the morning’ or ‘first session of the day’ is the closest you’re gonna get to hearing how the track really is. Anything after that and your ears and mind slowly get de-sensitized to the music. It’s very important to develop your own style, which will evolve over time, but take note that nothing is original. We are always getting ideas and inspiration from other sources, so don't be ashamed of this. It’s how the creative world works. All the 'big guys' have stolen that idea from something/someone else and re-hashed it into their own version and unique style. If they deny it they are telling you porkies! - Antix / Fiord ( http://www.antixfiord.com )
2. Model a Tune you Admire
In my opinion, the most (or one of the most) important factors for remaining focused and motivated when producing a track is ... "to experiment. If I find I get stuck on a tune I'll make a crazy sound or do a tutorial so I've got something fresh to work with and keep the track moving forward." - K+Lab ( https://soundcloud.com/klabnz )
One of the easiest ways to get a collection of ideas you have developed down in a nice format that you absolutely know will work, is to pick one of your favorite tracks, deconstruct it, and shape your ideas around this newly discovered formula.
You can do this in most Digital Audio Workstations quite easily. It’s usually a simple matter of:
- Creating a new audio track within your sequencer and dragging your chosen tune into it.
- Warp/mark/beat match it up correctly so that the tune plays along in the right BPM as to what you have your sequencer set to follow along as the tune plays and add little marker points when things happen.
It’s up to you how precise you want to be with this technique. You can just throw in when the breakdowns or drops happen, or you can label each little fill. When I do it, I note down:
- When new rhythmical ideas comes in; for example a new drum loop, or a change in the high-hat/snare drum sounds.
- When a little tension fill happens (usually with a small description, e.g. “Drum Roll” or “Reversed Cymbal”).
- When a new synthesized idea comes in.
- When an effect starts getting tweaked (e.g. “delay time starting to open up on short delay”).
- The Intro, Breakdowns, Buildups, Drops and Outros.
Now if you’re worried about copying, don’t stress, nobody is going to know. You’re taking the structure here, nothing else. If someone has the attention span to listen to your tune and say, “hey this has the same progression as this other tune”, then I wouldn’t really trust their criticism anyway (or leave them alone in my house).
3. Minimizing Audio Stagnation - Setting Yourself Limits
In my opinion, the most (or one of the most) important factors for remaining focused and motivated when producing a track is ... " keeping the process moving. When you start ant-fucking you can really lose the plot and the whole process grinds to a halt. Paint with broad strokes and make quick, dramatic alterations until you have the absolute best possible core for your tune. If you are relying on details and fancy editing to make the riffs and arrangement sound good, chances are it's actually rubbish and will cause problems later in the process." - ill.Gates ( http://www.illgates.com )
Minimizing audio stagnation means reducing the loss of personal appreciation for what you're currently doing by putting systems in place to ensure your brain doesn’t get worn out on ideas that are actually great.
When you are working on part of a tune, especially when you are learning (as you aren't fully as fast as you could be yet), there's usually a point where you go fuck yeah this sounds good. However, this quickly goes once you listen to it for another 20 minutes working on it. To put it simply, it’s audio fatigue and it’s a sneaky dangerous asshole.
There’s also a type of second hand buzzkill. If you are working on say, some high-hats over your bass-line, the bass-line that you once enjoyed subconsciously gets stagnant and you'll probably end up going back to change it again, even though nothing was wrong with it.
If you did initially like how it sounded, try not changing it any more. Chances are other people will like it when they hear it for the first time also. They just didn't spend hours listening to a 4 bar loop at 2am on some rainy night.
Set yourself time limits. Use a countdown timer if you have to.
Don’t just move on when you start getting bored, move on when it’s sounding great. You can channel that excitement into something else, hopefully something that compliments what you’ve already just done.
The line of when to move on is up to you, but it's good to practice making it a little stricter than you would like. I know it sounds great, and you made it! Well done! But move on before Mr. Stagnant Demon catches on and sucks it dry.
In my opinion, the most (or one of the most) important factors for remaining focused and motivated when producing a track is ... " to keep making new sounds and variations! New musical ideas give you energy, inspiration and ideas. A trap I have often fallen into, is when I haven't got any ideas for where to go next, I listen to it over and over, hoping that an idea will come to me. This almost never works, as the loop just begins to sound stale and boring. It's important to keep creating new material, keep doing something! Even if you don't have a specific musical idea, just make a bunch of crazy rhythmic and/or harmonic noise and put it through effects/glitch/reverse/time-stretch etc - use extreme settings, let the machines produce ideas for you. Mute your drums for a while, you've probably heard them more than anything else - make a bunch of sounds with just a bass-line and a high-hat going. Think of all the different 'types' of sounds and try to represent as many of them as you can. Create contrast, for example, when you make a sound that's smooth and soft, make your next one rough and gnarly. It can be tempting to try and perfect each section of the track as you make it, but this can also lead to dead ends. I've found it works better to make each section just functionally good at first (i.e. to have a beginning, middle and end) then perfect it later once all sections of your track are laid out, and you have all the sounds you need. " - Hedflux ( https://steemit.com/music/@hedflux )
4. Minimizing Audio Stagnation - Keep Things Moving
In my opinion, the most (or one of the most) important factors for remaining focused and motivated when producing a track is ... " not getting pigeon holed into trying to get it "right". There’s only a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ if you've preconceived what the track your making is going to end up like. You should have an idea, but it's only that - an idea. Work with what’s working, the path of least resistance. Sometimes the most random changes will make the most profound sense. Get this method of work down you’ll find tracks pretty much write themselves. You just have to keep up with it. " - Organikismness ( https://soundcloud.com/organikismness )
Another good way to minimize audio stagnation, apart from training yourself to move on, is to use something in your software (e.g. Follow Actions in Ableton Live) to add an element of randomness. I find this works best with drums.
You can have a bunch of loops with variations that randomly play, or you can have a main loop that jumps to a little random fill every 4/ 8/ 16/ whatever bars, then back again. This keeps things moving a bit and lets me focus a lot more on a single element of a tune, rather than focus on how stagnant the other stuff is getting.
If you are unsure as to how you could program something like this to happen automatically in your DAW, try setting a time limit again, but instead of moving on when your time is up, change something unrelated to what you’re currently working on. If you’re focused on the sound of your bass-line, change the percussion.
Everything works and compliments each other in different ways, so by changing the drums you could get a different way of listening to the bass-line you're working on.
I made a video (Ableton Live) which covers one way to approach this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Debt54sbh3s
Finally, just never forget you’re the person who is going to listen to your music the most, so you’re the one who is most likely going to grow tired of it. If something sounded good at one stage, it will to other people when they hear it first. They will get the feeling you did when you first came up with it, so bite the bullet and deal with it how it is.
Bonus Tip - Altering Perception
The other way to keep excited is by putting yourself in a situation or mindset where the way you perceive sound is different than normal.
When you listen to music, the sound waves are pushing on your eardrum, your eardrum vibrates bones and little hairs in a particular way, and these hairs send electrical signals to your brain which you then associate with a whole range of interesting ideas, emotions and memories.
I have found in the past, that if you carefully scatter the way that this information is translated, you get a whole new perspective of observing it. Combine this with the opinion you formed when you were ‘normal’, and you have TWO ways of listening to what you’ve done.
Think of it like trying to focus on something in front of you with just one eye open. Sure you can see it, but you don’t get the depth until you open the other eye. Same thing, slightly different perspectives. That’s pretty cool.
Now I’m not saying go out and do something extreme, you can get this effect by simply listening to your tunes first thing in the morning, or after sex. It can be a very interesting experience listening to your creations with a “set of fresh ears”.
Anything to change the way you input information could potentially be used as a tool.
Finally, I would personally say don’t produce whilst high on drugs (just based on past failures, the audio plugins they make these days are so pretty and visually captivating I just end up getting lost buzzing out looking at the pretty colors). Use it as a tool to relax, listen to what you have already done, and take notes (just er, remember to write them down - trust me).
Disclaimer - Tom says drugs are bad and illegal.
5. Think Outside the Square - Challenge Yourself
A while ago I created a series of short audio challenges that I put out every week. These challenges are fun, childlike ways to make you think about producing music from a whole new perspective. Their purpose is to let you just enjoy yourself doing something totally crazy, with the potential to spark an idea that you may or may not evolve.
They are created to let you be wrong and laugh, to give you an excuse to take what you are “supposed” to do and totally flip it all upside down. If you can be relaxed in these types of environments, you tend to notice little things that you usually dismiss as mistakes, and that's a dark crack creativity loves to hide in.
There were three types of challenges:
- Bizarre. Designed to make you think outside the square and try something you've never done before. The purpose? To get you thinking about your tools in ways you never have, discovering new tricks to add to your usual production toolkit.
- Practical. Designed to both help you build your own archive of original content, and (optionally) add to the pool of patches, presets, samples, racks and processes of the community.
- Shoe Swapping. Designed to put you in the mindset of someone else for a while, problem solving a task that you probably wouldn't be used to.
I’ve learnt SO much personally from just creating these challenges, as well as have a lot of fun. Usually the challenges don’t result in an actual outcome that sounds “good”, but after stretching your brain in new weird ways, you should have some interesting perspectives and techniques to use in your everyday production.
Here is a list of the challenges that I put out :
- Just a Kick - Write a tune with only one channel, with just a kick drum. Use send/ return tracks and clever manipulation of parameters to twist the kick into everything from the bass-lines to the high-hats. It is possible.
- Super Pad - Create a synthesizer pad patch that constantly evolves by itself without any automation on the timeline. Use LFOs and long Envelopes to make it move and grow for at least 30 seconds.
- 10 Minute Deadline - Create a tune as fast as you can. You only have 10 minutes to write an entire song, so think carefully about how much time you are going to dedicate to each element.
- Use Your Eyes - Create a tune, but never listen to it once. Use whatever knowledge you have in your head to try to figure out what it would sound like. Then upload it for everyone to listen to; the end results are always hilarious.
- Create a Drum Kit - Program 16 drum hits using only synthesis, then make a cool sequence out of them.
- Worst Tune ever - Write the absolute worst song you can, it’s harder that it sounds.
- Production Template - Think about what processes you use often in your production, then build yourself a production template so you can cut the corners you frequent most.
- Write a Porno Loop - Put yourself in the shoes of a 1970’s pornographic film soundtrack guy. Write the sexiest, funkiest, cheesiest loop you can.
- Write Your Name - Use the piano roll to add notes in a pattern that spells out your first name, then try to sculpt audio around what you’ve written to make it sound good.
In my opinion, the most (or one of the most) important factors for remaining focused and motivated when producing a track is ... " to find your method (or gateway) for getting in 'the zone'. I've noticed every producer has a slightly different method for this, some people smoke pot, others just need to be in a certain environment etc. It's just a matter of finding what works for you personally
After writing music for up to 10 to 12 hours on most days for the past 4 years, I started to find the processes I needed to go through to create music had become second nature, and in a way boring. I believe for this reason I started splitting my focus between things like answering e-mails, checking Facebook & Skype etc.
Although I'd still get a lot of music finished and have fun doing it, it certainly wasn't as fun as when I began, when I didn't know what I was doing (and in a way it feels less creative now). So, recently to stay focused I've started screen casting the entire writing process, which puts the idea in my head that I can't check e-mail or Facebook or Skype, and in not doing that, it helps me get into 'the zone' much faster, because I generate ideas that inspire me very quickly when I'm not distracted by social networking, however, people can still call me or enter my studio and ask me questions, so what I've started doing for that is putting a notepad next to myself, and when someone asks me something or tells me something, I quickly jot it down then keep writing music, that way, I don't forget that I have to attend to other things, but it doesn't alleviate 'the zone' that I'm in.
So, yeah, to me the most important thing is just getting to that 'zone' that you seem to get in so much when you first start writing music. I assume that the methods to get there will vary from individual to individual, but once you find what helps, stick with that, and I believe the process becomes much more creative and fun " - Mr. Bill ( http://www.mrbillstunes.com )
6. Eradicating Too Much Choice
In my opinion, the most (or one of the most) important factors for remaining focused and motivated when producing a track is ... " to know when to step away and have a break. When you get to that point when you've heard the loop too many times and you lose perspective, you need to stop and go and do something else for a while. Personally I find some exercise or some nature exposure is perfect for this. I go for a run or a swim, and all the while my brain is ticking over about what I want to do with the track, and is coming up with fresh ideas. Then after an hour or so i'm just stinging to get back in the studio and try out these new ideas, and with fresh ears!!" - Sensient ( http://www.zenonrecords.com )
Too much choice is one of creativity’s biggest burdens. Having access to many options can easily flood the brain resulting in frustration, and fuel the desire to keep on hunting for even more crap.
Back when I was teaching one on one lessons, a new student always fitted into one of two categories. The first was someone who knew exactly what they wanted out of me, and had prepared a very precise system of sucking my brain out over the small amount of time we had together. The other was the person who was in a rut and didn’t know what direction to head in. Nine times out of ten, their problem was blatantly obvious as soon as they loaded up one of their tracks for me to look at. Too Much Choice.
If you’ve got every external plugin, every sampler, every synthesizer, every effect and every sample pack, it’s going to drag you down, especially in the initial learning stages.
What ends up happening is people float around the edges of what they really want to achieve, then moving on to something else when what they're doing isn’t working for them. The more options they have to go to, the less time they're going to focus on trying to make what they've already got work. Having this massive amount of choice results in a lack of knowledge on how their tools work deep down at ground level.
If you have a particular sound in your head, and you want to get it down into the computer as fast as you possibly can, you need to have a nice fluent and fluid relationship with the limited tools and language that a computer can understand, and the most important part of this is knowing where the core of a sound starts.
If you want to synthesize a particular fat bass sound, or a nice lush pad, but have a small understanding of how oscillators work, it’s going to be difficult to get it sounding full power because everything stacks up on top of the oscillators. They are the foundations, the fundamental pillars that all the other tweaks you can mess with rely on for stability.
I highly suggest strip down your collection to just one, or two synthesizers, one sampler and a small collection of samples (unless you’re doing sample heavy music of course!), especially if you are new to production. By learning one tool inside out (or one collection of tools), and forcing yourself to figure out how to make a sound, even if it’s not easy, it’s going to be far more productive for you in the long run.
It’s like toilet paper. It only has one purpose and I don’t care which brand I get, but when I go to the supermarket and I’m standing there in front of a giant wall of every damn type of toilet paper you could imagine, I get frustrated. I just feel like lighting the whole place on fire (if my shrink is reading this please ignore that last sentence).
In my opinion, the most (or one of the most) important factors for remaining focused and motivated when producing a track is ... "emotion in = emotion out. That's why this thing we do was once called recording - as in making a record of the moment. Now it’s so often more building a simulation of the moment. Don't get me wrong, there's room for both the ‘capturing the moment’ styles of music as well as the ‘building a sculpture’ styles of music, but the amount of emotion in. equals the amount of emotion out. If you take the ‘sculptural’ approach, you have to make sure that the initial inspiration doesn't get diluted, or forgotten, or covered up with layers of subsequent mediocre shit. The sculptural approach requires stamina. Trust your feelings, be instinctive - as in use your instincts not your head/brain. Above all, be honest with yourself about what you like and don't like about what you're hearing back in the monitors. Really good music isn't even music. it's something else entirely. It's a direct link from one person's psyche to another’s. " - Pitch Black - ( http://www.pitchblack.co.nz )
7. Using Pressure to Jump-start a Creative Rut
I make a lot of tutorial videos, and I find that when my screen is being recorded, I feel very under pressure and end up working a lot faster and more efficiently.
When I say work faster and more efficiently, I mean utilize my tools better than I usually would. Fortunately the way I personally come up with new ideas is from toying and playing with my tools, often using them how they weren't meant to be used, leading to the discovery of new processes.
Often pressure is considered to be an enemy of creativity, but I find with the right kind of pressure, you can jump start writers’ block.
When I know people are watching me work, I tend to go into a show off mode where I use all the tricks and techniques I have come up with, that generate large results in a short amount of time (often in this situation I remember things I usually forget as well!). Because I do this so fast I find myself cutting corners or trying to quickly streamline the boring stuff, either resulting in getting the job done faster, or hitting some strange idea that I can continue working on.
Screen recording / live streaming is a really interesting concept, and quite new to me. I’ve discussed it with a bunch of other producers as well, and most of them agree – even though it goes against some of the “rules” of enabling the creative process, it still seems to have a magical power of beefing it up.
Quite often at the moment, I record myself producing when I write, and it really does work!
The other added bonus is if you’re like me, and still get easily distracted by Facebook/ Twitter/ Email - there’s no way you’re going to be checking up on it when you're making a recording.
In my opinion, the most (or one of the most) important factors for remaining focused and motivated when producing a track is ... "simply GIGS (or release deadlines). I always aim to get new tracks done for gigs, so I can test them out. Also, since I have limited studio time these days, I set boundaries for myself. If the whole track isn't done within 2 weeks I get frustrated and start working on something else instead." - Zen Mechanics ( https://www.facebook.com/zenmechanics )
8. Set up the Perfect Creative Space
In my opinion, the most (or one of the most) important factors for remaining focused and motivated when producing a track is ... "Stay true to yourself and feel the song/track. Don't get caught in what you think it "should" be sounding like. Ignore the trends that are out there and write for yourself. Forget you are in the studio. Imagine where you want this track to end up, and the whole time writing it, imagine it is already there, being heard or played in the perfect setting. That's what helps me." - Opiuo ( http://www.opiuo.com )
Having the right environment to be creative is absolutely essential. By environment I mean both a place where you can feel relaxed, and the amount of time required for ideas to flow.
This is your own little haven. A place away from anything that's going to remind you of tasks or pressures that could potentially distract you, away from the fear that something or someone might come and interrupt you, or even worse, criticize you when you're having your out of control fun time.
Setting yourself goals or deadlines in this type of environment isn’t a good idea as the mindset of potentially failing at being creative is a monster that chases it’s own tail. You're there to have fun in your own playground, if somethings going to pop up and inspire you, it's going to happen when you are relaxed day dreaming about humorous nothings.
For me, I like sitting in a quiet room, usually late at night when everyone is off in sleepy land, listening to other music. It can be any genre, but I always listen to the way people develop ideas, try to analyze what they have done, why they have done it and how they might have approached coming up with that particular effect. Then I think about how I could combine what they are doing, with something unique that I have come up with.
Bonus Tip – Never Give Up
I rarely throw something out and write it off as not being good. It doesn't matter how awful it sounds, I'll keep changing something, resampling it, give it heaps of reverb, distort it, cut it up into little bits – I just keep going and going. The longer you spend on an idea, the more unique it is going to sound in the long run. Sure it can be easy to load up a new synth preset, or drag in another pre made drum loop, but that's just going to give you a temporary excuse to cure the uneasiness building up because nothing creative is coming out.
Just harden up and stick to it. Nobody is rushing you, take your time. If someone is rushing you, tell them to piss off.
In my opinion, the most (or one of the most) important factors for remaining focused and motivated when producing a track is ... " to know exactly why are you doing what you are doing aka. your goal." - Perfect Stranger ( http://www.perfectlystrange.com )
9. Collaborate with Someone Else
Bouncing ideas off other people has become easier than ever with the online boom of people sharing both their art with the world, and sharing resources to help people learn and discover (just like this article).
There's never a lack of people around who are willing to team up and collaborate, no matter what your audio fetish.
Having the opportunity to remix someone else's work can be a very good way of jumping into the deep end and swimming your way out. The ideas are there, the structure is there, your only job is to take someone else's play toy and push/ pull/ throw it around for a while until you figure out how to make it tick with how you work.
We're in a funny game, not really understanding the whole story of why music makes us feel as deeply as it does (well maybe you do, but I sure as hell don't, and I love it that way!), so when we find two things that work together, it's a pretty special occasion. When you listen to someone else's ideas, and hear something they've done that you know will fit well through your twisted way of thinking about music, it can be very exciting.
Of course there's more to collaboration than just remixing. A few months ago while I was browsing the forums on my website, I stumbled across a post that blew my mind. Members had gathered together to form their own album called Cosmic Core.
I didn't have any input and they were already quite advanced in the stages of the albums production.
One of the members just went hey, we're all here learning from the same dude, we must have something in common, let’s team up! And the first Cosmic Core was born. ( https://www.facebook.com/CosmicCore )
Reading the 70+ page long post was quite exciting. As soon as people started raising their hands up to be involved, you could feel the buzz. It was really cool to experience, and got me so excited I stopped my current projects to get a track on the album just in time (and many albums have been released since).
It's this kind of interaction that can keep you humming along. Sometimes it can be a little bit tricky, especially if you are working with someone for the first time and need to figure out how exactly you can work together most efficiently, but even that process can be rewarding within itself.
When I work with the Circuit Bent boys ( https://www.facebook.com/circuitbento ), we have a regular way of doing things. Because they are used to working with each other, they have their own areas they tend to focus more energy on, so when I came along and caused a triangle, things had to be temporarily shifted.
We eventually figured out that we just seem to work best when an initial idea is agreed upon by the three of us, then we go off and do our own thing for 20 minutes or so, meeting in between to share the new ideas.
Last time Jesse decided that we should try something new, and I thought his suggestion was really unique. He suggested that one of us listens to the initial idea and when the creative sparks start flying, pass the information on to the next person on how to make what they thought would sound good. So, we couldn't MAKE the next sound or element, but instead explain it to the next person who had to try and create it based our ability to communicate with them, sort of like Chinese whispers. It was a lot of fun.
Sometimes however, I work with people who aren't as technically minded and computer savvy as those boys. These people have amazing creative ideas, but aren’t super fast at putting them down on a computer. I find a lot of established Djs are like this, they know exactly what sounds good, but haven't had the training to put it down into a computer.
In this situation my job becomes that of a facilitator to the ideas that they can throw at me. Because we know each other so well (usually) we've developed our own little language of how things should work, and they can communicate these ideas to me in a short amount of time. I become a sort of robot, and some of the ideas I end up laying down I would have never ever come up with myself.
I highly recommend remixing and collaborating as the power-food of becoming a better producer. If you can't find anyone close to you who has the time/energy to invest, try checking out remix competitions online. There's always several happening at any given time, and often there's some tracks from quite established artists.
In my opinion, the most (or one of the most) important factors for remaining focused and motivated when producing a track is ... " [when collaborating, start with] a small brainstorming session. Go through the ideas and expectations you both have. Try to keep an open mind and pay attention to each other’s ideas. No idea is too dumb to be said out loud. If you can't agree on a particular style, just start working and see where it leads you. I have noticed that setting your mind on a certain style or type of track can also be restraining and you should not let it control what you do too much. If the other one comes up with an idea that simply works better on a different format, go for it. Don't be afraid to mess with the tempo or try a different key.
Take advantage of the strong points you both have as producers. If the other one is a more technical guy, let him take care of the engineering. If the other one has the groove and is musically more talented, let him concentrate on the melodies. If it feels like you have problems performing your best while in the company of others, prepare a little bit before the session. Create some loops or melodies so you both have something to start out with.
Best ways to get the juices flowing is to jam together. If it feels like you are running out of ideas, pick up the keyboard or give the other guy a mic. Have breaks every few hours for fresh ideas. Go for a beer or hang out in the park. Remember not to be too close minded with your vision - give space also for other ideas than your own, otherwise things go stale. If it feels like you are not able do that, you might as well be working by yourself. " - Kiwa ( https://www.facebook.com/kiwamusic)
10. Utilizing the Spur of the Moment
One of the things that separates creating music with a DAW from playing an actual instrument is the ability to have a jam session, experiment wildly, and record it.
I personally split my “play” time into two separate modes. The first is when I sit there listening to a tune and attempt to come up with something new to slot into a particular spot (this is what we’ve mainly been focusing on in this book). The other is more of a jam type session with a focus on using as little thought as I can, just rolling with the first ideas that come into my head.
Humans have an interesting ability to flow with spur of the moment decisions; those split seconds before you consciously realize what you’ve done. With the right tools and environment you can tap/ hack into these, sparking new creative ideas.
Think of the person you know who is the joker, the one that always manages to blurt out something hilariously relevant to the situation with lightening fast reflexes. They have this technique down, whether they realize what they are doing or not.
You can probably recollect a time when you’ve done this yourself, when your subconscious lets something out suddenly and even you need to think about what you just said before realizing how clever and witty you were.
With the right practice, preparation and environment, it’s possible to harness this spurt of instinctual audiogasmic genius. Fortunately for us, we can record what we do over and over until we get it right, so there’s no fear of producing something lame in front of a bunch of people.
In the previous chapter, I mentioned how amazed I was when effort was put into facilitating or enabling people with fantastic ideas, but not much computer knowledge. These thoughts and experiments have taught me to set myself up in a similar environment when I have a creative block.
Firstly, the standard and most common one of assigning a few knobs on a MIDI controller to some cool shit within your synthesizer/ effect chains followed by simply, ‘just rocking out’.
There are so many combinations to choose from when creating a chain of effects! however my very simple rule of thumb goes Synthesizer/Sampler > Rhythmical Chopping/Looping/Stuttering effect (gates, loopers, glitchers, repeaters etc), Sound Modulating effect (Flangers, Phasers, Distortions, Ring Modulators etc), Tail Producing Effects (Delays, Reverbs etc).
Of course you don’t have to stick to this, but this usually ensures first the sound is chopped up a bit, then manipulated, then dragged out.
Once I have this setup, I look at what parameters I have available to me and choose a half a dozen that might work well together. I might choose the amount of a pitch LFO on the synth, a cutoff filter, a beat repeat amount, feedback on a flanger, and decay time on a reverb.
I’m used to drawing lines and curves on my screen to modulate these parameters, but when I shut my eyes and turn knobs, there’s so much more expression available. Now I can turn one knob and lightly flick the other one to hear what sounds the different combinations produce.
Once you start recording all these movements and experiments, you’ll be amazed at some of the crazy shit you come up with once you play it back. Then it’s just a matter of chopping those good bits out and dragging them into your tune!
I have also recently crumbled and bought an iPad so I can use multi touch gestures to throw little balls around the screen instead of turning knobs, and I’ve found a whole new world of manipulation open up to me since.
Secondly, I love getting hold of a microphone and making stupid noises. They don’t have to be my straight voice, I can feed it through a vocoder, or a pitch shifter with a reverb. You have to be careful with this one, your flatmates might think you’re having a bad trip or a mental breakdown if they hear you through the wall.
Try taking a mic into a room, open up a cupboard and just start recording whatever you can get your hands on. Creaking doors, rough surfaces rubbing on each other, drop shit, break shit, have fun One of the coolest sounds I ever made was stretching a metal slinky out across my room and putting the mic in the middle. Instant future robot war.
Finally, if you have someone else to play with, try a game of Simon Says.
Each of you set up an identical track (same synths/settings/everything) in your DAW, and a midi controller with the exact same mappings. Someone starts by making a blip or beep, and the other one has to try and replicate it the best they possibly can. Keep going and get more complicated as you start learning the tools you have in front of you. The rate of learning and experimenting can go very fast when two people are playing a fun game of competing.
I personally like to do this with two Wii remotes sending MIDI. The buttons trigger the synthesizer, and the angle of the remotes change the sound. This way you can also watch how the person moves which helps a lot, plus its heaps of fun when you’re drunk (bonus points if you use samples from a porno as the sound source - hours of beautiful immature hilarity).
If you do manage to find other brain hacks to harness this spur of the moment magic, do let me know :) You can't be taught creativity, however everybody has the ability to build it up nice and strong themselves. The secret is finding the right environment, combined with the right balance of remaining excited and keeping ideas developing.
In my opinion, the most (or one of the most) important factors for remaining focused and motivated when producing a track is ... "being ruthless and going with your gut feeling. Getting a good concept in your mind and following it through, not second guessing yourself is key. Just listening and reacting, try and make it like taking photos, do it quick and keep it fun. Sometimes the devil is in the details - if you find yourself spending way more than 1 hour to get a kick drum to sound right then its more than likely the wrong sound. Always listen to music with your creative ears off, pretend you’re not a music maker but just some dude listening to it on the radio, that always helps. Keep shit simple, then it's not hard. Have fun with it, love it and get it out the door. Don't be super fussy - if it feels right it usually is. Take people on journeys, explore sound, create the soundtrack to peoples moments in space and time. Your mission if you should choose to accept it - get it finished so people can hear it and keep working towards creating the best music you can. Always keep pushing forwards...done deal. " - Module ( https://module.bandcamp.com )
Conclusion
I really enjoy openly sharing my knowledge, whether it’s something I’ve observed, or techniques I’ve come up with myself.
I invite you to come and share anything you have to say about the topic of inspiring creativity over at my Discord - https://discord.gg/q47Crry
I wish you the best of luck and hope that some of the words I've written down here today give you a little nudge in the direction you were already heading in.
Cheers!
- Tom Cosm
- Website : http://www.cosm.co.nz
- Booking : [email protected]
- Music : http://www.soundcloud.com/tomcosm
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Excited to see you here @tomcosm! I've been following you here and there through the years ever since the early days of livepa.org :-)
I very much appreciate all the knowledge you have given to so many musicians like myself over the years, and know you will do very well on this platform. Thanks for coming by and dropping a huge influential post right off the bat!
hey thanks @armageddonparty - livepa.org that's going back a bit! How's everyone doing?
Its been really slow there for a while, though I haven't spent any time on it in a few years at this point. found myself spending more time on the Elektron forums, and Muffs as elektrons and usually what I have the most questions on, i know a few Livepa users that are also on those as well, so they are still experimenting!
I was SO MAD I missed your set at Oregon Eclipse this year, would have been rad to catch you live. Someday ;-)
You made it @tomcosm ! Sick to see you here on this platform. Thanks for all your incredibly helpful tutes and contributions to the electronic music community. Can't wait to see what comes of your steemian evolution. 🤙
awesome article! excited to dive a little deeper and extract nuggets for my production process. .
nice to have you here on Steemit,,
dig your tunes as well. .
This post has received a 0.36 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @leanvix.
Epic post bro! Stoked to see you here.. You're in the right place :) Keep 'em coming...
Excellent. Definitely re-steeming this one. Cheers buddy.
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Wow excellent tips for the beginner or advanced producer! Thanks for the writeup!
Hey @tomcosm,
Great article, heaps of valuable information here! I also teach people how to use Ableton and I also focus a bit on Mindset videos on YouTube and DTUBE, but definitely at the beginning of my journey into the musical world.
As a Kiwi you've been a huge inspiration to me, coming from Christchurch into the world of music shows that anything is possible for myself coming from Invercargill (Invervegas!)
Love your work bro,
Andrew - Collective Intel
Nice one Tom, love your work, videos, creativity, weird projects... keep em coming <3
"It’s the same philosophy I use when I hire strippers to help me with my spring cleaning." :)