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Advice for improving? (pg. 3)
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| Rognalf |
I've thought about these things quite a lot, and I've identified how I'm constantly able to create music that I enjoy. Here are some of my favourite strategies:
1) Visualizing. By this, I mean coming up with a mental movie or image, which you're describing through sound. Making music this way is so much more fun that obsessing over technical and theoretical stuff: http://kristiansmusicproductionblog...-than-you-hear/
2) Occasionally make something simple on purpose. Making music should be fun, and making silly music is fun. Chiptunes, ompa-schranz, noisecore - whatever you can come up with! - http://kristiansmusicproductionblog.com/silly/
3) Actively using your body language when you're making music. Sitting still and being stuck in your head isn't a good thing. If it looks like you're checking e-mail, you're doing it wrong. I always actively use my facial expressions, fingers and body movement when I'm working on my music. Sometimes I even get up from my chair and move around the room: http://kristiansmusicproductionblog...sic-production/
4) Changing perspective. I think many people view music skills as a mountain to be climbed. If you're at the bottom of a mountain and looking upwards, it's gonna take a lot of motivation to get up there. And what happens when you reach the top? There's only one way down. I prefer to view it like a playground instead. As long as you're having fun, you're winning. It allows for a more organic kind of improvement, just like when you learned how to ride a bike. You just did it. http://kristiansmusicproductionblog...round-metaphor/
I have several more articles at my website http://kristiansmusicproductionblog.com/ - Creativity, improvement and all those other internal factors aren't easy to deal with, but I do believe they're by far the most important ones. We're all different, so I don't know how well these work for everyone, but I do think they're a tremendously needed addition to the obsessing with mixing, arranging, tweaking and other external technical factors. |
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| meriter |
| quote: | Originally posted by J.L.
Most of my tracks take an estimate of about 60 hours to finish |
You can't actually be serious. Did your most recent track take that long?
Around the 15 hour mark is when I start hating what I'm working on and want to rage quit from life, I couldn't imagine spending even 30 hours on 1 piece of music. I'd say if you're putting that much effort into it it better turn out a damn masterpiece |
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| J.L. |
| quote: | Originally posted by meriter
You can't actually be serious. Did your most recent track take that long?
Around the 15 hour mark is when I start hating what I'm working on and want to rage quit from life, I couldn't imagine spending even 30 hours on 1 piece of music. I'd say if you're putting that much effort into it it better turn out a damn masterpiece |
Everytime I've been doing something new, or learning a new style or doing different techniques, while also creating new fx, new percussion loops and samples, and just experimentation. And for those 60+ hours ones, they do span from many months, and they are pretty complex but that's also when I've been spending an hour here and there and not really getting anything done. Those type of tracks were pretty much an exercise of labour to really force myself to keep going until I had something I personally find fantastic.
The way I see it is if it's not something fantastic in your own eyes, better fix it up until it is, b/c until it is, you have just wasted whatever amount of time you spent making it.
I've treated everything I've done as a learning experience project, until now where I'm able to crank out a good tune in about 10 hours or less especially now that I have more free time and are able to do 4-5 hour sessions and really get productive. |
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| Deillon |
| quote: | Originally posted by meriter
Around the 15 hour mark is when I start hating what I'm working on and want to rage quit from life, I couldn't imagine spending even 30 hours on 1 piece of music. I'd say if you're putting that much effort into it it better turn out a damn masterpiece |
Either that, or you make masterpieces in 15 hours. I'm with J.L. here, I waste a lot of time on productions, mostly because I criticize my work alot (Might be a bad thing, time will tell) |
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| Beatflux |
| quote: | Originally posted by Rognalf
And what happens when you reach the top? [/url]
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Get hot bitches.
| quote: | Originally posted by Rognalf
just like when you learned how to ride a bike. You just did it.
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No...someone taught me how to do every step of it. I ed up a few times, hit a car, and then after I practiced it enough it was second nature. You don't just hand a kid a bike with no reference or instruction and say, " around with it kid" and expect him to know how to ride. |
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| clay |
| quote: | Originally posted by Looney4Clooney
Like once the work is done, i tend to have a mini depression. Especially on things i spend more time on. |
totally agree on this. not just with music but most things in life. education drained me almost completely and when finished i was just like "was this really ing worth it?". 6 years later i still wonder, yet i started on a masterdegree which i KNOW wont give me anything back. ing selfdemands and expectations to myself ruins me. i found out smaller things give me much more, like the tracks ive made in just a few hours, usually is the best and it gives me most satisfaction because they were made effortless. |
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| MSZ |
| Ive been turning out two or three tracks a month, but I havent been improving that much lately, also im falling into traps of habit. In the grand scheme of things im pretty , and I feel about it atm. Im more interested in content development rather than mixing even though my friends tell me my mixes are oversaturated. |
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| DJ RANN |
| quote: | Originally posted by MSZ
Ive been turning out two or three tracks a month, but I havent been improving that much lately, also im falling into traps of habit. In the grand scheme of things im pretty , and I feel about it atm. Im more interested in content development rather than mixing even though my friends tell me my mixes are oversaturated. |
If you're , then I'm absolutely ing worthless.
Don't get hung up on the mix. I know countless pros that give their tracks to engineers to finish - content is worth waaaaaay more than mix quality.
DO something outside of your comfort zone, then go right back to what you normally do and see what the difference is. Chances are you will have gleaned something from that other experience, but I find you have to do it right way as the comfort zone habit stuff has a strong pull.
I actually need to take it right back to basics. My recent tracks (hardly any of which are finished) are too complex. I'm going to see if I can make a decent sounding track with as little tracks as possible. |
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| Looney4Clooney |
Improving is really so simple yet people seem to make it more complicated that it is. It doesn't change from field to field. You split the task into smaller components. You work on those components keeping track of what you are working on and your improvement making sure you are spending the bulk of your time on what is most important. Keep the 80/20 rule in mind.
Think of it as going to the gym.
The only thing you need to do is find those components you feel you need work on which i suppose is the hard part as somethings aren't so obvious. And part of the danger in this approach is that you make everything so compartmentalized that you fail to see actually making a track as a component.
Then it is a matter of assigning hours. And then doing the work. It is so simple. You just have to want to do the work.
There are many ways to get good, but this is the most effective. You get right to what needs work, and you don't waste time on the things that for now are adequate. |
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| Looney4Clooney |
also start counting your time
i have one ipad that just keeps track of what i do. Each week i tabulate it, and then put it into omni plan. |
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| MSZ |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ RANN
If you're , then I'm absolutely ing worthless.
Don't get hung up on the mix. I know countless pros that give their tracks to engineers to finish - content is worth waaaaaay more than mix quality.
DO something outside of your comfort zone, then go right back to what you normally do and see what the difference is. Chances are you will have gleaned something from that other experience, but I find you have to do it right way as the comfort zone habit stuff has a strong pull.
I actually need to take it right back to basics. My recent tracks (hardly any of which are finished) are too complex. I'm going to see if I can make a decent sounding track with as little tracks as possible. |
There was a lot more innocence in my productions even from a year ago. I can bring that back but its tougher now. Releasing wise its a worthless grind but I would hate to sit on my production and have no one hear them. Its difficult to keep doing something excessively with no appreciation kind of. Such is life. Like L4c says, im allocating my time incorrectly as hell. |
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| Looney4Clooney |
| i wouldn't worry so much about it. A year hear and there of doing nothing is normal. I had 2 years where i did all. Well musically. Just make sure you are doing something in that you are living and learning and experiencing stuff. I guess what i'm saying is that the only time wasted is time spent playing video games or over sleeping. |
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