Archive for March, 2009
Happy accidents
Exploring Happy Accidents
I wanted to explore a topic I was pondering today….
Ever notice how some of your favorite parts of your songs are the parts you didn’t intentionally do in the first place?
Ever record something “on the fly” and then attempt to recreate it “more professionally”?
From my experience, it’s usually the unplanned part that I like more.
Have you ever been doodling around on a synth with whatever sound is on at the time expecting to change the sound later but notice that you simply can’t improve the sound because it sounds great as it is?
I have a theory on all this, and this of course is just my personal opinion and speculation, but I figured I would share it with you to see if you find it thought provoking.
I feel that the reason these “accidents” sound good to us is because it didn’t sound like anything we would normally do. In fact often times it almost seems like it was played by somebody else altogether.
The fact of the matter is that we usually over analyze anything that we intentionally do, for example, most of us don’t like the raw sound of our own voice until we throw on a bunch of production techniques and effects until it sounds ‘not’ like us.
Another aspect of the “happy accident” is that in some ways, I don’t think it’s an accident at all. I think when we let go and get into our zone, we create from a higher level. It seems ‘not’ like us because we rarely experience this aspect of ourselves in daily life. I find that when I’m in that creative mode, that interesting synchronicities and accidents happen just when I was needing something to. This also makes the creative flow much more smooth and pleasant. I certainly wouldn’t by any means call this newsletter words of wisdom, but rather something to ponder….
May your failures and accidents pave the road to your best work!
Happy music making,
Jason
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above).
All your feedback & support is appreciated!
Is buying new music equipment a benefit or a distraction?
Is buying new music equipment a benefit or a distraction?
Today I wanted to write a little bit about purchasing equipment for making music. This could be anything from getting the tools to start your studio (computer, soundcard, midi controller etc..) to the extra goodies that can make your studio more interesting and fun (upgrades, new plug-in’s, the latest and greatest in hardware or software).
I’ve found myself in circumstances which I have really benefited from buying the right equipment and other times I have purchased new gear as a way of delaying my own creative output.
Lets first talk about buying equipment….
When you are putting your studio together, there are simply going to be neccesities that you can’t get around if you want a good shot at getting the ideas out of your head with ease and enjoyment. The question typically comes up about what you should buy.
*Should you buy the most expensive piece of gear or can you get by with something cheaper?
*Does more expensive really mean better?
*Is this new piece of gear really going to benefit you or are you just buying another toy that you will be bored of within the next week?
From my personal experience I have suffered for not buying the right tools when I really needed them. Sometimes you get so used to shoddy tools that you consider all the extra trouble you go through to just be a normal part of the process. What you don’t realize is that what you are saving in dollars might be costing you pretty heavily in creativity, productivity and inspiration.
When it came to my early productions with a computer in 1998, my production partner and I invested in a pentium 2, 300mhz PC. At the time this was pretty decent but as technology leaped forward, so did the minimum requirements of the software that was coming out. I can’t even begin to tell you the amount of crashes, lock ups, and unsaved work that went down the drain.
On the other hand, when I decided to take DJ’ing more seriously, I spent the money and bought the best turntables, headphones and needles for the job (Technics 1200′s, Sony DJ headphones, and Shure white label needles). This made my life much easier, and also put me in the same mindset of the DJ’s I admired because we were essentially working on some of the same equipment. It also made playing live much easier since the clubs were stocked with equipment I was familiar with. (I did however use a cheap mixer, which although I “got by” with, it cost me in overall sound quality and I looked a bit unprofessional when having to ask someone how to properly use the Pioneer or Allen and Heath mixers. I currently use the xone 64 and can’t even explain the positive impact it has had.)
Another thing to consider, although you don’t want to get too hung up on this, is perception. The way you are perceived can have a pretty big impact on your music career. If people see you working on substandard equipment, they may look at you as a person who doesn’t take themselves seriously enough to invest more in themselves. I have found that investing in good equipment has more than paid for itself financially as well as in personal productivity.Using good equipment is simply more inspiring.
There is certainly an angle that I would like to put out there before I take things too far and have you maxing out your credit cards….
There is something to be said about using what you’ve got and getting the maximum productivity from it. Norman Cook (aka..Fatboy Slim) has unquestionably been incredibly successful with his productions but are you aware that he did nearly all of those songs on an old Atari sequencer? This is a classic example of not buying into the hype of the “latest and greatest” and sticking to what works best for him. I’m certain however that he has an engineer that drops his work into Pro Tools or Logic and gives his work that polished finished sound we know and love.
All of this really comes down to knowing yourself and being honest with your purpose for purchasing new (or vintage) equipment. Is what you are purchasing really going to give your productions better quality and give you more enjoyment and productivity? Have you become so afraid of creating that you are using new gear as a distraction from seeing what you are really capable of with what you’ve got?
Be very aware that it’s human nature to be in a constant mode of “wanting”. Having what we want rarely satisfies us for very long. Think of all the CD’s and DVD’s you have bought and haven’t listened to or watched. How many songs or full albums have you downloaded but never got around to enjoying? (I’ve certainly been guilty of this!) If you are in the process of accumulating more often than in the process of putting what you’ve got to use, you might be stuck in an endless cycle and it’s time to pull yourself out.
If you must get more gear (and everyone needs an upgrade at some point), a great idea is to buy one piece of gear and put it to use for 30 days to see if you really get good use out of it. If you don’t, turn around and sell it. If you do really get a lot of use from it, great! Now find something in your collection that you don’t get much use from and pull it off your computer (you can always reload it if you later find use for it). You probably haven’t used the thing in 6 months or more, but notice the sense of loss you feel as you remove it… Strange huh? This is a sign that you might have a kind of “pack rat” mentality and aren’t able to let things go, even if you aren’t using them. It’s almost always a good practice to get rid of soemthing old whenever you bring in something new.
Try something non musical… go through your closet and pull out the things that no longer fit you, or that you simply never wear. Do you still have a hard time pulling it out of your closet and taking it to goodwill?
What are you settling for? Does your creativity call for better tools or are you sinking in a pool of plugin’s and hardware? Are you giving yourself so many choices that it’s stalling your creativity? Give it some thought and then do something about it…
happy music making,
Jason
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above).
All your feedback & support is appreciated!
Music, Creativity and Personal Development
Music, Creativity and Personal Development
As you may or may not be able to tell from my newsletter thusfar, I am a big fan of personal growth. I spend a lot of time reading about things that will help me be more productive, healthy, financially stable, and spiritually aligned.
For the last year and a half I’ve been reading blogs from my favorite personal growth blogger Steve Pavlina.Much of his writing has certainly creeped into my newsletter, only it’s from a more musically creative angle.
When I found out he was writing a book I leapt at the chance to get an advance copy to read and then apply the content to the creative arts. The basic formula is this book can be applied to every aspect of your life without any conflict or contradiction. This idea really excited me.
Below I am going to attempt to do 2 things.
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Give a review of this Book
- Give some practical techniques you can immediately put to use
Rest assured that I’m not going to bombard you with self development products in the future, but I thought some of you might get something out of this and perhaps want to get your hands on a copy of the book or read some of his amazing and free blogs.
Steve Pavlina’s “Personal Development for Smart People” really gave me a lot of great out of the box ideas that I could easily apply to creating music or anything else creative. The general ideas in this book seem deceptively simple in a similar way that quitting smoking is simple. All you do is stop smoking and you become a non-smoker. Easier said than done though isn’t it?
The book is revolved around Aligning yourself with Truth, Love and Power. The sub categories of these primary principles are as follows:
- Truth + Love = Oneness
- Truth + Power = Authority
- Love + Power = Courage
- Truth + Love + Power = Intelligence
Steve’s definition of each goes much deeper than these simple words may conjure up and is definitely worth a read.
So….. Lets take this into the realm of music.
Many of us get into music for an assortment of reasons:
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Money
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Fame
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A way to meet women/men
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Acceptance
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A self expression outlet..etc..
All of this is ok if it revolves around who you truly are and what you truly want to express but can leave you feeling empty if you aren’t feeding the soul what it is truly longing for. .
Lets take a look at Truth, Love and Power in the context of music.
Truth makes you ask some hard questions about what you are doing and why you are doing what you are doing. Are you truly creating exactly what resonates with you, or are you following a trend that is getting a lot of attention? Are you truly putting your best effort into your art?
Love is about following your heart and passion. If you aren’t in love with your work it isn’t because you haven’t learned “that one compression technique”, it’s because you aren’t truly creating what you love. When you truly love what you are doing, the whole process, including the frustrating struggles, will never slow you down for long. In fact those struggles will inspire you to think outside the box to find solutions.
Power comes from a confidence that can’t be faked. Only if you are aligned with your own truth and are following your heart will you have the power and energy to persist consistently. Power is what pushes you past writers block and lack of motivation.
See if you don’t Love what you do then you aren’t being true to yourself and if you aren’t true to yourself then there is going to be no energy and power behind what you are doing and at some point you are simply going to lose motivation. If you are going after the money and not creating from the heart, you make make money, but empty expression will even make money seem a bit worthless after the initial thrill has passed.
When people buy music they connect to people with true passion. Of course some fakes slip through, but if you look at the longevity or artists, you’ll find these people were never strictly motivated by money but instead tended to follow their heart
(whether we liked what their hearts had to say or not).
I am not an expert on these concepts myself by any means and I am trying to get more aligned with my true creative self all the time. Part of the thrill of writing this newsletter is knowing I will be able to share and trade ideas with like-minded
people as well as people who have a completely different angle and take.
Consider this:
Your music is only one medium for your deeper message. Don’t mistake the medium for the message. When you put the music in front of your true message, you are going to be out of alignment. Lets say you want to contribute to a peaceful world. You can certainly do this through music by offer something positive and
healing for the soul. You could also get your message across from writing a blog sharing your ideas, creating art that expresses joy and peaceful living, you could create a boardgame that teaches people to be more tolerant of eachother. You could make a movie…
Do you understand where i am going with this?
If you find your truth first, you will have an opportunity to express yourself in many forms and find which one works best for you. I find that I become highly motivated by teaching others how to express themselves creatively. This in turn inspires my own music and also keeps me focused on who I am and what I would like to express.
I don’t want anyone to think that you have to sound like Enya (nothing against her) in order to be in alignment with your art or that you have to somehow be boring. All forms of music can have a positive impact if the energy behind it is coming from a place of truth. Create without asking permission and you may find your truth faster than you think. If what you are doing consistently makes you feel good then you are on the right path.
Another thing to look at is whether you are making music as a way to contribute to society or as a way to extract from society the things you want (Money, Fame, Sex..etc). If there isn’t truth in your work, chances are you aren’t creating from a place of truth and contribution and instead in the mindset of ” I better get mine before they get theirs because there is not enough to go around”.
If you aren’t sure if you are being true to yourself, look at your results. Results will show up as you become more aligned with what you are doing. I’m not talking about strictly material results. I am also talking about your friendships, relationships, health and overall well being.
Maybe you are in a rock band and playing some shows and getting paid decently but you truly are interested in playing jazz but afraid you just couldn’t make a living doing it. Wouldn’t it make sense to take baby steps toward your true passion? The more time you spend right now doing what you love, the less any of the things you think you want will matter much to you. From my experience, the more I stick to my guns and stay true to myself, the more all the other things fall into place (fullfilment, finances, recognition etc).
If you aren’t sure what direction would be best aligned for you Steve offers a fantastic and simple approach (among many many great tips). Try something new for 30 days consistently and see how you feel at the end of it. This could be a commitment to writing music for an hour a day without any agenda on style or format. Perhaps you want to try a particular style of music, so you devote 30 days to exploring it fully and take note of your results. Perhaps you may feel that trying a new eating habit will boost your creative energy, or getting out in nature everyday. Whatever it is, the 30 day trial will give you some insight about yourself you may not have previously known.
I highly recommend you read Steve Pavlina’s book as I feel it is one of the best personal growth books written. What I like most about it is that the one formula he lays out can be applied to any aspect of your life. He gives some amazing tips that I have found truly make a difference in both my creative and personal life. The only requirement is too keep your mind open and read with the attitude of “hmm… that’s interesting, maybe I should try that and see if it works for me or not”.
Another great thing about Steve’s book is that he is quite human and humble Throughout the pages discussing his addiction to stealing which landed him in jail at a young age. He even talks about the steps in his own book that he has struggled with and still finds it challenging at times. I think if more people adapted Steve’s mindset we would have many more people creating and contributing from the heart.
Here are links to Steve’s Blog and Steve’s Book
Until next time,
Happy Music Making,
Jason
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above).
All your feedback & support is appreciated!
Creativity and your left and right brain Functions
Creativity and your left and right brain functions Lets talk about how to be more productive by not only using your right brain and left brain functions correctly, but also using them in the right sequence. You might not be aware that how you separate your functions in any creative endeavor can make all the difference in how easy and enjoyable the creative experience is. The more enjoyable and relaxing the experience is, the more your mind will gravitate toward being inspired, thus more creative output as well as a more authentic personal expression.
Lets take a look at some words to best describe the left and right side of the brain:
Left brain:
*Logical
*Detail oriented
*Fact oriented
*Interprets words and language
*Mathematical and scientific
*Order and pattern perception
*Strategic
*Practical
The left brain functions are often more associated with right handed people. The left brain is great with details, organizing and quality control. you would want to use the left brain when planning out ideas, figuring out which tools are going to be best for the job, and guesstimating how much time something might take. In musical terms, these are some things you may want to put your left brain to work doing:
*Creating templates that will best work for the type of music you create. This would include fx you would most likely use and sounds you may need access to. Having this done keep you from having to slow down or stop altogether when you are in a creative groove.
*Making sure all of your studio wiring and routing is complete. This will give you easy access to your hardware and software.
*Getting all of your samples and loops at easy access
*Checking all of your recording levels
*Creating a creative mood with proper lighting and aroma. Also making sure you don’t have any distracting noises that can interfere with your concentration or recording process.
Right Brain:
*Feeling oriented
*”Big picture”?� oriented
*Interprets sounds, symbols and images
*Philosophical and spritual
*”out of the box” thinking
*Inspiration oriented
*Imaginative
*Risk taking
*Deals with the realm of possibility
The right brain is vital to the creative process, and if it is allowed to create uninterrupted and without left brained second guessing, you can expect a fantastic creative experience. The right brain needs to flow freely with ideas without judgement. Creating for 10 minutes and then analyzing for the next 20 minutes is like driving in stop and go traffic. It is counterproductive and frustrating.
The right brain is best at these functions:
*Messing with loops, samples and sounds uninterupted
*Getting “lost” in the music
*Experimenting
*Mixing and panning
*Real time or “in the moment” creativity
Given how each side of the brain functions so differently it is very important to put each side to work in the proper order so that one side doesn’t interfere with the other.
Lets take a look at one way to approach creating music while keeping the information above in mind.
Start with the right brain:
This is where you dream up an idea. You don’t have to have a song idea in mind at all. The point of this process is to prime your mind for creativity by giving it a clear direction.
Spend a few minutes imagining your desired audience listening to and enjoying your new song. Imagine, or even physically create the way your CD cover might look. Perhaps you can imagine your song getting raving reviews in magazines.
The point is to get yourself in the mental state of mind that you are not only capable but also quite talented and creative at what you do. You don’t want to get into the creative process thinking “Well crap, I hope I can at least finish something“. It’s much better to get yourself to the phase of “This song is gonna knock ‘em dead”.
If you think of all the people who seem to crank out hit after hit (not that I’m saying a hit song should be your aim) it’s got to strike you that these guys are able to keep that creative excitement because they have experienced the positive results of their work in the past. You are going to have to create this in your head. This may sound like a silly step, but give it a shot, you might be surprised.
Once you have done this and gotten yourself to an excited state, just let it go for the day.
Get yourself organized:
This is the part that your left brain loves, so let it play. In this step you will get organized by creating song templates. In these templates you will want to create
Plenty of audio and midi tracks loaded with instruments and sounds you are most likely to use. You will also want to set up some send fx with a couple good reverbs, delay and compression (or whatever is important for you creating your type of music).
Check all of your cables from any hardware, sound cards, external hard drives, midi controllers, and monitors. Make sure you have any microphones set up and ready to go when needed and amp settings dialed in etc..
Make sure your recording levels are good and that your recording environment is set up for inspiration and creative flow. This might involve special lighting, candles, incense or inspiring pictures. Make sure you have access to any sample CD’?â„¢s, loops or other resources as well.
Make sure your workspace is clean. A mess rarely inspires.
The whole point of this is so once you start creating, you will have no obstacles slowing you down or stopping your process.
Have you ever been so involved in reading a book that you no longer realize you are reading words, that you are instead seeing imagery? Have you ever been interrupted and find it hard to get back to the “zone” you were just in? This is what we want to do our best to avoid when you are in that musical zone. It can be tough to get yourself there to begin with and even tougher once you have a roadblock or technical issue slowing you down.
Time to Create:
This is where all this work is going to really pay off by letting your right brain do what it was meant to do. Just play and experiment. Throw things around, mess with sounds, have fun with samples, loops and rhythms. Don’t worry about trying to be a genius, just realize that the genius will come out when you just let yourself have some fun without any second guessing.
It’s best to just record everything you do because often it’s the mistakes that end up being your best most unique sounds and give your music some real personality. Don’t even worry too much about creating a song, simply enjoy making sounds and taking note of what strikes your interest. Continue to do this for as long as you enjoy it. By the end of this, you should have a few inspiring parts to work with.
Copy, Paste, Delete:
You have let your creative mind play and have come up with a few ideas that you like. This is about the time you are going to want to let your left brain make some judgement calls.
The important thing is that you don’t get too attached to any of your noodling around. Just accept that some things are gonna stay and some things need to go. Don’?â„¢t take too much time with this, the less second guessing the better. Your mind processes things much faster than you are consciously aware, so just go with your gut feeling. Listen to something and decided quickly, stay or go.
You will quickly find your most inspiring work and get rid of anything that would end up cluttering your music. Just roll with it and enjoy the process. Don’t let yourself get caught up on one or 2 sounds or loops. You need to manage your ideas first, then you get to create again once you have you best pieces.
Arrange:
Arranging your ideas and adding parts as necessary is going to be a balance between left and right brain functions. Don’t get yourself too lost in your head, but also don’t do too much second guessing (as you can see, I think second guessing is usually a bad thing and counter intuitive).
If you are finding yourself stuck, feel free to listen to another song and borrow some of the arrangement ideas. You aren’t attempting to make everything perfect, but more trying to create the big picture.
At the end of this process, you should know how long your song is going to be and have your overall arrangement in order. You should also see where the gaps are in your song that will need to be filled.
Fill the gaps:
Here you will add the parts that are missing to your arrangement by getting right brain creative but left brain practical. You’ll want to get your reverb and delays dialed in as well as compression and creative effects.
You will also want to get your parts EQ’d and strip away unwanted frequencies in each sound to remove mud and keep everything clean. You want to get yourself prepared and organized for the mixing phase.
Mixing:
Mixing should be a very right brained function and should be perhaps one of the most enjoyable parts of the creative process.
You’ll want to relax yourself into the vibe of the song and get the levels and panning placed. Don’t be tempted to simply pan things where you usually do (although there are some rules you may want to keep in mind). It’s better to play with a few channels that work well together and set your levels and panning until you feel some kind of shift in yourself.
You should start to feel like you are getting a bit lost in the music. This is a very good sign. Although sometimes its great to start with your drums and bass and work up from that format, you may want to also try mixing from the most inspiring sound down. You may find some interesting result.
Start with what you consider to be your most magical part and try adding another sound to it. If you lose that feeling, turn it down and try another sound. This will make sure you are mixing from your songs strengths.
You may notice that this approach sounds quite different from a normal mixing approach. Find out which is more inspiring to you and go with it.
Hopefully todays ramblings have inspired you and not left you feeling like I am a complete nut! J I’m sure you can expect more of these type of newsletter from me.
As always, I appreciate any feedback.
’til next time, Happy Music Making,
Jason
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above).
All your feedback & support is appreciated!
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