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Do you practice ? (pg. 3)
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| G-Con |
| quote: | Originally posted by Beatflux
Some people work extremely quickly and would prefer working 2-4 hours on one song, rather than 30. Some people say it has improved the quality of their songs and I've heard this from Armin Van Buuren where he writes the song extremely quickly.
I am 23, and I stopped exercising around 18 when Taekwondo got really boring. I started again when I was 22, and now I run everyday for 30 minutes. There is a big difference between when you do and when don't. There's really no reason not to exercise, because there are ton of benefits to exercise. If you are depressed, it can help. |
You've completely misunderstood both my points. |
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| Beatflux |
| quote: | Originally posted by G-Con
You've completely misunderstood both my points. |
So? |
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| cryophonik |
I practice my instruments (bass, piano, and to a much lesser extent, guitar) on a daily/semi-daily basis. But, I don't really "practice" production, other than just doing it. Of course, I'm in a different boat than many of you are, since I'm old and I've pretty much achieved most of my musical goals over the last few decades and now my primary interests are in helping the others that I work with achieve their goals. I've got a family, career, and social life that all take priority over music, so I keep my own musical goals pretty simple and achievable.
Also, as G-Con noted, I get the impression that some of you guys never step away from your computers. Maybe that's fine for some of you, but I think you'll find that turning off your computer and (1) getting out there and experiencing life and (2) learning an instrument is a much more fulfilling and inspiring way to develop your musical skills. I haven't met an accomplished musician yet who would disagree. |
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| nortek |
| practice. my first track was the best. ive become worse in every aspect since then. |
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| Mad for Brad |
| Well what i've said has been pretty much seen in every "great" whether it is sports music , art or writing. It isn't so much about talent but rather structured learning. So next time you feel like you suck, ask yourself whether you are actually taking the steps to be professional. |
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| DJ Robby Rox |
| quote: |
Ultimately you should be doing about 5 hours a day.
1 hour sound design
1 hour listening
2 hours production
1 hour lets say theory or engineering
just an example and give yourself exercises or small term goals for the week.
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No way, you are assuming entirely way too much here. Structured learning was created for 2 main reasons. The first is when you have more than 1 person learning (classroom setting), the second is when you actually have a TEACHER. It only helps simplify the job of the teacher by having 1 structure that everyone is forced to follow. But you are 100% disregarding natural ability. By natural ability I mean the fact that specific people will learn specific things MUCH faster, and I also mean the differences in how they learn in general (visual vs auditory, reading vs listening, doing vs watching, taking breaks vs not taking breakings [although its been proven breaks usually help *most people]).
This is precisely the reason you see certain students dropping out of school. Everyone is being forced to adhere to one learning strategy, when every individual person needs to be treated completely different.
If I have 3 men all trying to learn how to get good with women, the LAST thing I would ever do is give them a strict format on what they should practice BEFORE I SEE them in the field actually approaching women.
Just imagine me saying this to those 3 guys:
1) All 3 of you need to spend 1 hour on voice tone a day.
2) All 3 of you need to spend 1 hour learning body language.
3) All 3 of you need to spend 1 hour demonstrating traits of an alpha male.
Realistically speaking, that’s a BAD way to learn. One guy may already have a great voice but be a total beta male. Another guy could have the strongest body language in the world but talk like Ben Stein. All I'm really doing in the end is completely ing up the learning process by being ignorant to their individual differences and learning abilities. In formal learning environments structure is often required because of time, but in the bedroom producers environment structured learning is completely worthless.
You could have effectively wrote just 1 suggestion that would have trumped everything in your initial post. And it would have said, “if you currently follow any learning structure/format at all, make sure you consistently analyze and change that format to address your most recent sticking points”.
And even that is somewhat worthless to suggest. Because most people already know what they suck at. Just that most times they try to “fix” their sticky points they either procrastinate and keep pushing it off, or give up far too early so they can work on something that is more pleasurable. I know I suck at music theory, but I refuse to get involved because its like learning Chinese to me. I don’t enjoy it, I likely never will, and it will always remains a weak point in my productions. However, because I have so much more time not learning about it, I can still compensate in other areas.
I will still come here complaining about my work not being up to where I’d like it, but the last thing I want to hear is to start reading theory. Theres about a million and 1 other things I can learn about (like how to actually write/mix a track), so COMPLAINING all by itself is still justified. I have one friend who never does sit ups and has a 6 pack year round. I have to do 30mins of abs & cardio everyday just to have one myself. However he has to do a lot more regarding his chest, and I don’t, because our natural abilities significantly vary. Is it still worthy to have a tentative goal or outline of what I should be working on every week? Absolutely. Do I need to have a specific format that tells me how many minutes a day I should be working on specific skills? Absolutely not. As long as I have any vague idea of what my weak points are, then there’s no need.
Certain people will always take a long time to get good at music, and others will always learn faster. Not to mention that music is an art, and the more time you waste structuring an art, the less time you have to break boundaries and do something totally original and amazing. |
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| Mad for Brad |
I never gave a strict format. All I've ever purported is that you focus on individual tasks and work on those tasks as a short term goal and eventually bring everything together. You are assuming way too much. All i've ever argued is for people to separate things into smaller tasks and to master those tasks in a given time period. This isn't something that is only recommended for music. Read any book about mastery in any given topic and they will suggest the same. If you aren't making a living after 5 years in EDM, you probably haven't been learning properly. In fact I would go so far as to say that if you aren't making a living after five years, it probably won't happen. I can't think of any pro that didn't start working professionally after 5 years. Of course this is EDM.
You are resilient against my advice bur you are the prime example of someone that has been working way too long and not getting results that would normally be associated with said time. I've seen it time and time again. The person that learns properly and the person that just makes tracks and never gets anywhere. IF you actually learned to learn properly , you would find your skill grow exponentially. |
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| -FSP- |
If you are me and eat an unhealthy diet of McDonalds, Pizza, and 6 sodas a day, a crazy sleep schedule with no exercise then it will wear you out even if you're 23! I'm on route to a heart attack at 35, and maybe diabetes sooner or later. Just started exercising after years, and I feel energetic already.
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I can understand how to get better at sports, games, and other skills, but getting better at music is just esoteric for me. I know that certain sound textures work with certain sound textures, and in which way(s) but I can't explain why. I can explain why stuff works in other skills, but not in music. This lack of explanation holds me back I feel. Music is a totally different language to me. Maybe I should view learning new textures, colors, and their context in arrangement like learning a new language. Right now I'm going by the rule of "if it sounds good it is good."
Would like to hear your thoughts on my problem. |
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| derail |
| quote: | Originally posted by -FSP-
I can understand how to get better at sports, games, and other skills, but getting better at music is just esoteric for me. I know that certain sound textures work with certain sound textures, and in which way(s) but I can't explain why. I can explain why stuff works in other skills, but not in music. This lack of explanation holds me back I feel. Music is a totally different language to me. Maybe I should view learning new textures, colors, and their context in arrangement like learning a new language. Right now I'm going by the rule of "if it sounds good it is good." |
That's a large part of the problem there. The clearer your goals are, the more detailed your explanations of what you're trying to achieve are, the more likely it is you'll achieve it.
You say you can't explain why, but try it anyway - if you had to describe the sound of the kick, or bass, or lead, you'd like to have in your current song, how would you describe it? Would you call the bass "defined", or "driving" or "smooth and warm"? Could you maybe provide examples of bass sounds in other songs you'd like to achieve?
Yes, certain sounds/ textures fit together. The more experience you have, the more you'll know which sounds fit together, for your style. You'll be able to define the characteristics of your kick and bass sounds which mean they'll sound good together.
I've learned a massive amount by periodically grabbing ten recent songs which I think sound great, and trying to recreate them as closely as I can. It's always a huge learning experience, even when I end up nowhere near the original song. There's a wide gap between how I assume songs/ sounds fit together, and how they actually fit together, when I'm trying to match each individual sound. Currently, doing this every six months or so is a vital part of my progress. |
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| fuxzz |
Some really interesting points here. Personally I've been producing for about 5-6 years and I still haven't released anything so maybe I'm ed then Brad.
For the first 4 years I didn't train almost anything, I just went with the flow and made songs I enjoyed for the moment. That's nothing I regret now because I feel I've slowly been making my own sound. But after those 4 years I started to feel really frustrated about how long time it takes to get better and like that so now I've started to read a lot and train on my weaknesses. And I have to say I'm getting better a lot faster now and I can really see the good side of setting aside time for training. It looks like a good strategy to make a schedule like that, I've been thinking of it for a time myself and soon I will go for that. The problem have been that I only want to produce when I feels like it, and I think its (often) meaningless to try when I don't want to. But training is a different thing, if you want to be superb on something training is a must, even those days when it feels like , and with a strict schedule that would become a lot easier. |
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| Beatflux |
| quote: | Originally posted by fuxzz
Some really interesting points here. Personally I've been producing for about 5-6 years and I still haven't released anything so maybe I'm ed then Brad.
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Don't listen to Brad. He's just a pessimist. |
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| Mad for Brad |
| i'm a realist. |
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