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| quote: | Originally posted by nrjizer
At some point JBJ you have to let go of the pressure.
It's kind of a fucked up catch 22. You want to be making quality music, but it's your relentless drive that is also your hinderance. I've experienced a lot of the same frustrations. Within 4 months of buying Logic and making a serious committment to production, I had created a track that ended up being signed. It's no crown jewel of a track, but it's solid tune and it received positive feedback from some respectable and fairly well known names. After that track was signed, I expected my production output and quality to just go up linearly from that point. That was a year and a half ago.
Instead, the opposite happened. Expectations turned into pressure, and pressure turned into stagnation. In retrospect, I see that I was able to create that track becuase I had absolutely zero expectations at that time of creating anything that would be signed. After all, I was only 3-4 months into the game. As such, there was no pressure involved in writing it, and I was able to simply finish it and be content with it. I was quite suprised when it got picked up.
Looking back at the last year and a half of my attempted productions, I can not only see a steady improvement in the overall quality and competence of my compositions, but I can pick out a few stalled out projects that were actually pretty damn good. I was unable to see this at the time, however, because I was too busy comparing my tunes to those of my musical heroes. If you're climbing a mountain and you're solely fixated on the top, then you're unable to actually see just how far you've really come.
That soundcloud track I posted on the Ishboard was the first thing I've actually been able to flesh out into a full length, start to finish musical expression in a long, long time. It was composed entirely from scratch in the span of 3.5 hours. I had been working on a groove for the past 2 weeks that had completely stalled out, and out of frustration I decided that I was just going to open a new project file and try something else. Within about 60 seconds of noodling I had come up with that bass pattern, and the rest I just completely cranked out without any real expectations. It was only when I was finished that I was able to listen to it and realize that I had actually created something that was (relatively) good. It wouldn't have happened had I not just let my creativity flow without hinderance (This is the track, if anyone's curious).
Remove your expectations and pressures. This includes the pressure of trying to write something that you or anyone else could spin. Just make music. You're not going to reach the quality level of your musical heroes if you don't allow yourself the time and space to develop as an artist. |
Again great post. I to have been working on something for some weeks. Only this past week decided to start something new. My trouble is letting go whne its not working. If I have something good but just grinds to a halt I just have to keep going. I'm working on letting go much sooner now when that happens.
OT - The thought has entered my mind in the past but I can see improvemnet all the time so I know I'll reach my goals. So I have to keep going. Music is my passion so I couldnt do without it. Ive had breaks though. During the early part of production when I didnt have a clue there was months when I didnt do much.
Recently though, around xmas 2007 I decided to invest in some books and learn the things I didnt know, that would further my skills. It was around 2 months and I didnt produce a thing.
It was good learning and I was itching to make something but I held back till I finished these books. Once I got back in there, it really helped as I applied all I learnt. Now in 2009 I would stil take a break, its sometimes needed. Prob just a week or 2 though.
Anyway each to there own, you have to do what you have to do at the end of the day mate.
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