Posts Tagged ‘creative inspiration’
Creative procrastination
Creative procrastination
When it comes to productivity, there is nothing the mind loves more than putting things off. Especially if it’s creatively important. Because of this you may need to trick your mind into getting started.
There are a few ways to go about this and I’ve probably mentioned a couple of approaches in one of my past blogs. For a quick recap though here are a couple ways to get yourself started.
Just start – Don’t prepare to start. Just jump in and don’t ask permission or look for advice. Just act like you’ve already got things under control. You’ll be surprised how powerful this can be on your creativity and productivity.
15 minutes a day – it’s exactly as it sounds. It’s a commitment over a certain period of time, typically 30 days, where you commit to doing a task for 15 minutes a day without missing a day. You can go more than 15 minutes each day, but that doesn’t get you off the hook for tomorrow’s 15 minute commitment.
An alternate approach is one I just read from one of my favorite personal growth bloggers Steve Pavlina. He suggests you commit to doing a larger project in 15 minute chunks. You simply commit to get busy for 15 undistracted minutes. If after 15 minutes you want to stop you are free to, or you can immediately re-commit to another 15 minutes or after a short break. I think this is a fantastic approach.
Keep a record – Another Steve Pavlina approach is to keep a log of everything you do for a full day. Anytime you change a task you write it down. So if you are working and then you get a text and you respond, write it down and write the time of day next to it. If you use the bathroom, write it down. Essentially what this does is makes you much more focused and aware of how you are spending your time from moment to moment and you can later determine where all your time is going. This tip is huge!
A new Approach
Here is another approach I’ve just come up with that sounds like it’ll work wonders for me and hopefully will for you as well. One of my biggest roadblocks is the preparation before actually getting started with a task. For example, when making music you need to make sure you have all the correct equipment , sound card, midi controller etc set up as well as access to your sound library, presets and templates. All of that can really be unmotivating when all you want to do is create. Typically you’ve lost your motivation half way into setting up. Unless your setup is dead simple, you typically will avoid setting up to create and thus you avoid creating because you have to set up. It’s a lose lose situation.
Here is a very simple solution:
Devote 15 minute chunks of time just setting up for making music. If 15 minutes is all you can handle, cool, but you’ll probably find that after the first 15 minutes and you’ll have less resistance to the next 15 minutes. When you are finally set up, don’t attempt to start creating. Take the rest of the day off and then commit to 15 minute chunks of musical work first thing the next morning if at all possible. This takes away all the distractions and procrastination tactics you typically encounter and gives you a direct path to starting work immediately. Also do your best to shut off any programs or social media that will distract you and clear your workspace from anything distracting as well. The only thing that should be grabbing your attention is your project. Also if the setup is complex, you may want to take some notes to make it easier the next time you need to set up for a project. For me, I use alot of my equipment for multiple purposes meaning I do alot of setting up, tearing down and reconfiguring. If you have to tear down after a project, allow yourself to hold off til the next day. You may find you have some last minute ideas spark up and you want your workstation ready to go.
By separating the tasks of preparing to create and creating, you are giving yourself a huge advantage. First off, it’s much easier preparing to create get started without fear of failure. You are not going to be judged for how you set up your equipment, so you’ll have much less resistance getting yourself started.
The next day when you actually DO create, the mundane tasks will already be completed leaving you a direct path to take what is in your head and turn it into something physical without distractions or roadblocks. Separating the tasks takes away your ability to use either one as an excuse for not completing the other.
Give it a try if you find it hard to get started on a creative project. Some of these tips helped this blog get written. I hope it helps you as well!
Happy Music Making,
Jason
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above).
All your feedback & support is appreciated!
Are you a creative consumer or producer?
Are you a creative consumer or producer?
Let’s face it. We’ve all become information junkies. We constantly feed our faces with new tricks and new toys. We are constantly looking for the next thing. The new synth, that new effect, the new, well… anything.
Here’s the problem folks, it’s slowing you down from the real goal. If you aren’t finishing songs, soundtracks or projects, now you have your culprit.
In an attempt to become more productive you read blogs, watch videos and buy whatever seems to give you more power than you already have. The problem is that the appetite is never quenched. I’m of course referring to myself as well. I’ll use information gathering as an excuse to not create and then I’ll convince myself that without this new tool I can’t create. You end up in a constant cycle of upgrading instead of finding a consistant workflow.
Have you become an addicted consumer instead of a creative producer?
Now I am all about new technology, no doubt about it. I am also all about finding new information that I can put to use, but that is where the flaw is. We watch the videos, we read the blogs, we download the new plugin but we are pulling in more information than we can possibly put to use?
A change in thinking
If this behavior is going to stop we need to accept that too much information works against you. It gives you too many choices. It also takes away your sense of discovery when you are in a creative mode. By the time you have a situation that would benefit from a certain technique, you may already be bored by it or paranoid that this trick isn’t modern enough or is overused.
I think this behavior happens with a lot of musicians (something I’ve already stated that I am not). The reason for this is that many musicians learn how to play before they just start playing. They learn all the rules and they learn all the chords. By the time they actually start making music, they are trying to reach outside their current level of skill because they are bored to tears of all the things they have already learned. They restrict themselves from many of the basics in search of that magic, but rarely find it.
When I started playing guitar I tried learning from a chord book but tossed it after only a few days. I had learned a few basic bar chords and I was off and running. I had confidence in simplicity and wasn’t afraid to do something just because it’s easy. Luckily for me, I was drawn to bands that used simplicity to their favor. If I had something in my head that I couldn’t play, then and only then would I hunt for a new skill, technique or expand my chord knowledge. This gave me the ability to feel the magic of every new discovery and tool. I didn’t feel forced to grow any more than my natural pace. I rarely heard a song and had to rush home to learn how it was played. I was just doing my own thing and developing my own sound.
Now I find myself getting into the trap of information gathering. I’m constantly working on skills that I’ll never put to use. another downside is that I rarely have the exciting feeling of discovery when I finally use a new trick. Being a blogger and a producer (and a DJ), it’s easy for me to get caught up with what is new, but I feel it would be more beneficial to myself and my readers if I put to use each new thing I learn or each new tool I access before hunting for the next thing. I also think it’s going to be important to wait for a problem before I go hunting for a solution.
Ask yourself, is this a tool I am going to use today? Does the project I am currently working on require this tool or information to complete it? Does filling my head with this new information make me more productive now or less productive? What information and tools do you have right now that you still haven’t put to use? Might it be more beneficial to implement some of those one at a time? Maybe you would benefit by removing several tools to open up some space to new ones.
Just because a tool is great for someone else and has them super excited doesn’t mean it’s going to work that way for you. Realize your addiction might be to someone’s excitement and  not necessarily the information being presented. Another trap is trying to fit this new tool or idea into your work. This can be frustrating and slow you down because in your head you may be thinking “this is supposed to be amazing, what am I doing wrong”?, when the real issue is that it’s not a match for your way of creating.
A challenge
Make a deal with yourself. If you spend 30 minutes learning a new trick, you’ve got to spend at least 30 minutes putting it to use. If the skill requires more time, decide whether you will dump the new trick or take the time to perfect it. Don’t make the mistake of putting this on the backburner while hunting for new information or tools.
I hope this brings you closer to a very productive 2010.
To your continued joy and productivity in your creative works!
happy music making,
Jason
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above).
All your feedback & support is appreciated!
Is technical talent truly inspiring?
Is technical talent truly inspiring?
I watched a live performance of Shadowplay by Joy Division from 1978 on Youtube the other day. The performance was raw, the playing was amateur and the vocals were out of key and..
it was still amazing.
I proceeded to read the comments below and was pleasantly surprised that 90% of the comments were also praising the performance. Only one person mentioned the lack of technical skill and everybody jumped down his throat.
Then of course everyone was dogging the Cover version of this song by The Killers basically calling them a bunch of hacks. Now technically speaking, The Killers version could easily be considered better. It was sonically recorded and mixed better, the instruments were well played and the vocals were on key.. but nobody cared. Now I’m not here to say The Killers are shit, but rather I want to explore why bands like Joy Division, Bauhaus and The Cure are practically worshipped despite their lack of what some would call musicianship.
Why are bands like these so well respected despite(or perhaps even because of) a lack of technical talent? What is that magic formula? Why is it that we excuse their lack of technical talent and in fact rate them much higher than bands that clearly have better musicianship?
Some of you reading this will simply say these bands are completely over-rated or popular for being popular in the underground. I’m going to have to say that I believe there is more to it and I would like to explore this a bit deeper.
Being a proud non-musician myself, I enjoy the idea of mucking about on an instrument like a curious child. If I already felt I knew everything there was to know, I probably wouldn’t be very interested in making music. I suppose what I do mocks people that slave over their instrument of choice, but I don’t think that is the whole picture. I, in fact, have slaved over music, but the things I am interested in are how to convey a vibe.
Sometimes pure talent shows little humanity.
Often times talent is something you hide behind. Nakedness and vulnerability can evoke much more emotion. I personally think it takes bravery to stand up on a stage with little but a handful of chords and some ideas that you want to get across.
Don’t get me wrong, there are times when you need talent to convey a complex idea and those are amazing moments, but those moments are not driven by the desire to “show off” talent but rather to get across your message as accurately as possible.
There is also something to be said about having pent up emotion and being a bit frustrated that you can’t express it accurately. I think I can hear this in bands like Nirvana and Joy Division. Those bands were very vulnerable and spoke for so many who were afraid to speak for themselves. Those who were afraid of their own normality. We can see ourselves in those who show themselves, warts and all.
It might be safe to say that those who are true fans of music don’t base what is good on pure talent but rather on how the music hits them whether it be Mozart, The Who or Velvet Underground. I think it’s likely that “musicians” might get off on complexity for complexities sake because having the skill to learn it can be an ego boost in the same way as mastering a difficult video game. However, music is in a completely different field altogether. Some of the best music defies logic. Sometimes the words are nonsense and the simple parts that construct the song is laughable yet we still find something intriguing about it.
I like to think that there is more that goes into music than just the instruments and vocals. I think there is something that gets recorded between the notes that weaves through the empty gaps. A sort of “ghost in the machine”. I believe emotion and intention comes through the music and those subtleties are picked up by those who really “listen” and “feel” the music.
Although all of my examples in this blog are talking about live bands, I think the same “ghosts” can come through in electronic music as well. All instruments whether played by hand or programmed are soul-less until the soul is injected into it.
I am beginning to get into another tangent, so I will simply leave you with this Joy Division video. I hope it intrigues you to reconfirm or re-evaluate your attitude towards music and the shallow definitions of talent.
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Happy Music Making
Jason
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above).
All your feedback & support is appreciated!
Musical Mediation
Musical Meditation
As I’ve said in previous posts, I can’t read or write music notation. However I do have something that I think makes up for it.
Let’s call it “Musical Mediation”
I have the ability to build a song idea in my head. It can start from a riff, a drum pattern or a lyrical phrase. I can “hear” inside
my head what works and what doesn’t.
For example I can try out certain vocal harmonies in my head. and hear how slight variations can create a better or worse result.
I can tell if something will sound too full or too empty before I’ve physically played or sung a note. Sometimes I don’t know exactly
what is missing but I know it’s not quite “right”.
Although I have this ability, I don’t actually use it as often as I should.
The main reason is that I find it works better for me when I’m making guitar based songs. I figure electronic songs are more difficult
because the soundscape is largely unfamiliar. I think many great composers are so great at dreaming up symphonies because they are
so familiar with each instrument that would make up a symphonic piece of music.
I was thinking about this today and pondering how I could develop this skill of mine and perhaps help others develop as well.
Here is an approach that I’ve come up with:
Dreaming up sounds:
In order to accurately get a unique sound that is in your head into your computer or recording device, you are going to need to
understand the fundamentals of sound.
*Try going into a synth and only use 1 oscillator.
*Turn off the filters and effects and just listen to each type of waveform, Sine, Square, Triangle, Saw.
These are the basic sound palates to every sound you will create. Understand these basics and you have the fundamentals to
dreaming up great sounds and being able to put the sound in your head into an actual song.
Although getting sidetracked can lead to some wonderfully surprising sounds, for this exercise it’s of utmost importance that
you see this process through without losing focus. I think it can be argued that this loss of focus is one of the leading causes
of not completing songs.
Here’s the scenario:
You had an original idea in your head but lost focus early on and just went with whatever interesting sound jumped out at
you first. Soon you are listening to a loop or collection of sounds over and over without anywhere to go. You have essentially
lost your steam.
It’s no wonder you get bored with the idea so quickly. You aren’t creating anything close to what inspired you in the first place!
What if you were able to quickly get the ideas out of your head accurately before you lost focus?
My guess is that you would probably find more satisfaction in your work.
Then of course once you got the basic idea out of your head you could allow for more experimentation and happy accidents.
Remember, this isn’t a lesson in inflexibility but of focus.
Having trouble dreaming up your own sounds? Try dreaming up someone else’s.
*Pull out a CD or pull up a song in your computer.
*Listen to just one tone that attracts you.
*When you find a sound you like, listen to it as closely as possible.
*Listen to how the sound characteristics change with each note.
*If there are volume variations, take note of those too.
Breaking it down:
If the sound you are trying to recreate in your head is complex, break it down into the separate parts that make the sound up.
If you have a hard time doing this, think of it as 3 different sounds. One sound in the lower frequency, one in the mid frequency
and one in the high frequency. In the same way you might break down a harmony into each separate voice, many sound designers
and musicians break down sounds to their most basic elements. When you can mentality break sounds down to their basic elements,
you can better predict how to build your own complex tones as well.
Now that you have that sound in your head, close your eyes and try to vividly recreate that sound in your head. Try to hear it
all by itself instead of in the context of a song. You may want to give this sound a name so you can mentally access it more
easily.
Recreate the part you heard in your head in as much detail as possible.
Variation:
Next try changing some notes around and creating variations. Try not to lose the image in your head and don’t change the sound in your head. It’s very easy to get bored and wander off, but what we are trying to do is ingrain this sound into your memory as vividly as possible so you can add it to your mental palate.
Imagine changing the eq, or filtering out the high frequencies, then the low frequencies.
Imagine the sound with a bit of distortion, flange,delay or reverb. If you can’t vividly imagine these effects, you may want to spend some time adding these effects to some basic sounds so your mind has something to work with.
Practice makes perfect:
When you are able to do this with some proficiency, You will be able to add more and more instruments in your head and know how to get exactly what you want before you’ve even played a note. You’ll be able to build and arrange full song ideas in your
head and work out the kinks before you waste any time in the studio.
In the same way that it takes a while to become good at meditating and blocking out all of the days thoughts, it’s also difficult to start using “musical meditation” to focus on an idea without distractions. You may not get it right immediately, but with practice I am confident you will have an amazingly powerful tool that will just continue to get better and better.
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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