Posts Tagged ‘music productivity’
The Top 10 causes of Writer’s Block & How to break the cycle
The Top 10 causes of Writer’s Block & How to break the cycle
Writer’s block is a creativity killer that we’ve all run into time & time again. Sometimes these periods can last days or months. In my case, it was years. Sure, I still toyed around with new programs & made a few decent ideas, but nothing was completed or released during this time.
The sad thing is that it’s easy to use writer’s block as a crutch so we define every creative obstacle as a form of writer’s block & give up. Many of us don’t even bother to try to define what writer’s block even is.
Lack of inspiration?
Lack of Motivation?
A creative black hole?
All of these definitions could be accurate, but let’s start calling it by it’s real name. Fear.
Fear is something you can face & overcome, unlike something as impenetrable as Writer’s Block. Sounds like a disease with no cure but to wait it out doesn’t it? It’s not.
Let me try to shed some light on the subject & hopefully set you back on the path of creating right away. Below are habits & belief systems that have lead me to the dreaded Writer’s block & some ways to crawl out of that hole.
Avoiding simplicity – A huge obstacle many people have is that they are trying too hard to impress themselves & their peers. Every idea that they come up with seems too obvious, too simple or both. Sound familiar?
It’s important to remember though, you are writing a song, not a riff. The only way a song can work is when it lays on top of a simple foundation. When you let go of your ego & just bang out a few chords you’ll find that more complex ideas will come to you as you play those simple parts back.
Complex parts are always derived from a more simplistic idea, so don’t be afraid to start simple & add layers until you hear something interesting. If you come up with a better idea later on, you can always scrap your simple parts later. More often than not though, it’ll be the simple parts that will give your song it’s backbone.
Don’t over complicate. Start with something you might consider overly simply, obvious or amateur if you have no other inspiration. Keep building the idea until something interesting comes of it. If it doesn’t turn into something you love, don’t sweat it. You’ve pushed past the fear of simplicity & survived.
Avoiding sucking – This is a huge one. Anyone is capable of sucking & we don’t want to be in that anyone category, so instead we hold out for genius. This can be a very long wait. During this time, you get more & more out of practice, so your current skills start to get rusty. The longer you wait, the harder it is to jump back on that horse. It’s a much better idea to challenge your fear of sucking head on every time. If you can’t make genius, make soemthing that sucks just for the hell of it. Have a laugh. Do you have any idea how much genius was created this very way?
Why are you so afraid of sucking? Tell me one thing you are good at now that you weren’t worse at when you started? Everyone who has created genius has a lot of suck in their closets that you haven’t heard. Don’t sweat it. Your job it to choose which of your creations are the best ones to share. Never stop creating altogether because you are afraid of sucking. Anytime you push yourself outside of your comfort zone, you are going to have to face the fear of sucking. Might as well get used to it now instead of later.
No Feedback – This is a big one these days. We create for ourselves, but if we are honest, we also create for the reaction & feedback of others. It’s why we all got into this.
When all you have to do these days is make a clever post on Facebook to get “liked”, this instant gratification becomes a curse when you are writing music. You want to know as you are in the process of writing whether something is good or bad.
The excitement of others fuels the creative process, whether it be friends, bandmates or family (although, you’re family will rarely tell you you’re work is genius). It’s good to look over your shoulder for some feedback when you are unsure. Not having it can put you in the fearful position of having to think through a creative block on your own, not knowing if you are building on an idea that doesn’t have a good foundation to start with.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but sometimes you are gonna have to grow some balls & be willing to say “I like this & I’m willing to take the risk that you won’t”. To always rely on other people is going to hinder you from finding your own unique way & that is what the world wants from you anyway.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t work with other people or get opinions. Just always be prepared to accept criticism & go your own direction anyway. It’s liberating.
Creative beliefs – A big part of writer’s block is the belief that some people have got it and some people don’t. What you spend your time doing is figuring out which side of the fence you are on. This is a trap. Nobody can be inspired if they hold the belief that whatever it is that makes someone a true artist, they don’t have it.
You are going to have to reprogram your belief system to the understanding that there are some people that preserver through their creative challenges, and those who give up.
It’s pretty easy to know which side you stand on with that belief & the remedy is crystal clear. The it is something that comes from putting so much time into your craft that you no longer fear it.
Social media – This is really similar to having no feedback in our creative lives. The first thing we want to do when we feel insecure with our creations is made a clever post on your social network of choice. This gives you your “fix” of approval.
The downside is that it becomes so easy to get approval this way that doing real creative work takes a backseat. A good way to break this pattern is to intermix creativity & social media by announcing your creative goals & putting up your progress for those who support you.
It’s really important to create partnerships with other musicians of a similar vibe or style. These are your “go to” people when you want feedback on an idea.
Get yourself a Soundcloud page & post private links to people you trust to be the most constructive & honest. You may also want to make a separate page on your Facebook or Google+ strictly for your music. If you are going to be on those sites, you might as well use them to build your support team.
Brand yourself as an artist so people will expect work from you. This should help break the pattern of instant gratification. Also, never forget that you are in the driver’s seat. You can ask for directions, but never hand over your car.
Tutorials – It may seem taboo for a guy who makes tutorials to inject this into one of his blogs, but I think it’s important to realize that tutorials alone aren’t likely to build your songwriting confidence. In fact, if you aren’t putting what you learn immediately to use, these tutorials won’t likely do you much good. If you only consume information & dont put it to use, you’ll lose the habit & motivation to write. Then you’ll become afraid to write, and that’s exactly what writer’s block is.
Sometimes watching people way above your skill level can inspire you, but other times it can make you feel unqualified & unprepared to make music.
Don’t let yourself fall into this trap. Put on a Sex Pistols album & rebuild your confidence by making something within your current skill levels.
I personally like albums made by less talented musicians, because I feel like I can hear that angst in the music of not being able to fully express themselves. Have you ever read somebody writing about something that affected them so much that they struggled to find the words? That is powerful & should be embraced.
I don’t mean you should lower your standards. Instead except that the genius isn’t in the complexity of things. It’s in looking at simplicity from a different angle & layering these simple ideas to build something new.
Too many choices – This is something I know all too well about. When I played guitar in bands, life was simple. I have my Guitar, my amp settings & a limited amount of guitar effects. From there, I had to come up with something that meshed well with the other players. In all honesty, I probably had about 6 settings I used regularly. This made it super easy for me to just focus on writing.
When I started using drum machines, samplers & synths, the options were exciting, but it took ages to choose a sound palette. By the time I got ideas laid down, I had forgotten the original inspiration, leaving me with an uninspired set of sounds.
I’m not blaming the choices. I’m blaming myself for not having the foresight to know my own sound & search for those few patches that sounded like me.
I encourage you to take the time to build some go to sound patches, drum kits, etc. These are patches that already sound good & inspiring to you. These should be the first sounds you go to when starting a new track ( a guitar or Piano is also a great place to start). This way you can bang out something that sounds good as the ideas come to you.
You can always change things later, but you’ll have the advantage of solid ideas to give you direction when exploring unfamiliar sounds, synths, samples etc.
If you want to bust your writers block, have good sounds ready at all times or your favorite instrument at arms reach. Would you be surprised to know that Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode/Yaz/Erasure) starts all his songs on guitar? He saves all the noodling on synths til after he knows he’s got a song worth writing. Something to keep in mind.
Past failures – So you write a song or a few songs you are excited about & the reaction you get it less than enthusiastic. This one is tough. I’ve been there myself. After sharing this music you’ve worked hard on, your motivation to continue making music is shattered & writer’s block sets in.
The thing you need to realize is that everyone does stuff that isn’t up to par.
Everyone.
Secondly, you’re friends will rarely share your excitement. Sometimes they just aren’t into your style. If you aren’t directly copying another artist, you’re likely to come across people who just don’t get it. People tend to praise the familiar, so if you’re getting a lot of praise from people close to you, be cautious. You might not be very original.
Now let’s say this person who isn’t into your stuff has a point. Have you exercised that constructive criticism muscle lately? It’s time you start.
Here’s what is great about constructive (or even critical) criticism. When you are put in a situation where you have to defend your work, you are putting your conviction to the test.
The people who challenge your work are the only ones who will give you an opportunity to defend it. Most likely, you’ll discover the parts of your work that you are most proud of because the criticism won’t bother you as much. It’s the stuff you aren’t as confident in that really bites you in the ass. To hear someone point out these things is just confirming what you already know, you’re not quite there.
Would you prefer to release something that is substandard because no one challenged your work? Every Major artist who works with an engineer will hear “maybe not so much of that, it’s not really working”. That’s what they are hired for (I think George Lucas could have used more of them with his last few movies..”You nuked the fridge? really??”).
To have past failures doesn’t mean you suck, it just means you haven’t written enough music. You should look forward to criticism, it’s a form of quality control that every artist needs. We aren’t talking about perfection here, we are just trying to get it to a higher quality standard. In the end, perfection doesn’t end up sounding good anyway. It’s like quantizing everything you do 100% to a 1/16th note grid. Life=gone. Imperfection gives life to your music & art.
Past successes – This can be even worse than past failures & is something I’ve had to deal with myself. After having some success with my tracks in the progressive house field, it first made me question what I was doing right & how to repeat it. Then my ability to write was hindered by the fear that my new tracks would sound amateur & ruin the reputation I had built. This led to literally years of not finishing tracks.
It took a lot to get myself back in the game & by that time I had lost some of my chops & the tracks weren’t as well received. Now I realize that had I not stopped, the quality of work work would have likely been better, but even if it wasn’t, I’d get over that hump and on to new tunes soon enough. It’s a hard lesson that I hope you don’t have to go through.
When you have success, take note of what you did well but move on & do something new quickly. Don’t sit too long feeling good about yourself or you’ll become crippled & not able to move. Try to ignore the fact that you were well received & just keep making music you like & have fun making it.
There are bands that have made brilliant albums later in their career that will always be known for 1 hit song early on. Radiohead – Creep for example. Just imagine what a loss it would be for music if they stopped after their first album(deal with it haters). They did the right thing by pushing outside their comfort zone. Creep might be their most popular song but I certainly wouldn’t consider it close to their best.
Don’t stop writing, don’t get comfortable & don’t conform for success. It could be the end of you if you do.
Chasing the dragon – So many musicians are searching for a shortcut. That 1 tune that will change everything. So instead of listening to their own creative intuition they are constantly searching for friends, charts, radio & tv to tell them what they should be doing.
The problem with this of course is that it’s very rare to build a career by doing what is currently popular. By the time you finish your perfect dubstep album, the trend is over-saturated & played out and of course, since you were putting your focus into following trends, you lost your ability to have confidence in your own ideas. Now that style is toast & you look for another trend to follow.
This habit of chasing the dragon will likely get you nowhere & you’ll likely never build your own sound. Your new goal is to make songs that sound like songs other people have already made so that your friends will respect you.
Now I have no problem with being a fanboy of some sort. It’s pretty much how we all start. We hear something we connect with & think “I want to do that!”
Fair enough. Just make sure you are ready for the long haul & that you are injecting other influences that excite you, not what you think others will like. It would be hard for me to think of a more sure way to give yourself writer’s block than trying to please others.
Want to break this habit real quick?
Write something you like that you expect your friends won’t. Do it on purpose just to freak them out. Don’t purposely make a song that sucks, just pick an influence of yours that is less popular & have fun with it. Stop asking what others would do & start asking “what would I do?”. It might not be your best work, but it is incredibly liberating. And who knows, maybe your friends will end up liking it anyway.
Gear envy – Sometimes I wonder if we are music makers or just purchasers of toys. I’d say I am a bit of both, but I’ve leaned too far on the gear end before.
You’ve got this amazing song idea in your head, but you don’t want to start it ’til you get that new gadget. You saw someone going apeshit with it on YouTube & you now consider it the holy grail. This is exactly why your music hasn’t been up to par!
You get it home, love it for a month (but never actually make a song with it), and then you’re back to YouTube looking for another piece of kit, sample cd, soft synth, plugin or whatever.
Stop!
All you are going to do is spend a lot of money, have some bragging rights but never get anything done. You, my friend, have become a gear hoarder(they will soon make tv shows about you). Plus you haven’t even learned what your current tools are capable of.
I promise you, you can write a great tune with what you have now. Let’s be honest. Think of the best tune you ever wrote (or the best unfinished idea, if you aren’t there yet). Was it the gear that made it great? Are your newest tracks with your latest toy always your best? I’m willing to bet there is something else. Something not so tangible that makes it good.
It can be maddening to see these popular musicians with craploads of gear filling up their studio, but I guarantee what got them there wasn’t the gear. It was good ideas & doing the best with what they had. Even u2 started small, and some people would argue that their best albums were before they had every toy known to man. Luckily, they aren’t hindered by the gear. At the end of the day it’s a guitarist, bassist, drummer and singer jamming things out that makes good songs.
If lack of gear is giving you writers block, then just tell yourself you are making a demo with what you have & will it improve later. I think you’ll be impressed with your results. Any result is better than no results.
I hope this article, which turned out to be a pretty long one has given you some food for thought. Writer’s block is simply fear disguised as other things. It’s certainly not something that is out of your control. Make creating a habit, even if it’s for 15 minutes a day. Whatever you do, never stop because of fear. Take a break on your own terms when your confidence is high.
Happy music making
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above). All your feedback & support is appreciated.
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Song Made From Sampling a Porno Clip
Song Made From Sampling a Porno Clip
With all this rambling on I do about finishing songs & avoiding distractions, I take on this doozie of a challenge.
Can I actually create a song completely made from only manipulated sounds from a porn? No synths, no drum samples. Only the source audio from a 6 minute video. Can I keep my focus while listening to all these erotic (and ridiculous) sounds & complete something, without it sounding like I just made a song full of grunts, moans & dick sucking?
This was my experiment & it really tested my music skills as well as my focus skills. Typically watching porn is something you do to distract yourself. I decided to make it my work in this experiemnt.
The most difficult part was selecting, editing & processing the samples into something usable. I think I’ve proved that you can make drums, bass and melodies out of literally anything. I have to laugh, because I know what that snare drum is 
From there it was a matter of constructing parts that worked together & didn’t sound completely stupid, creating a few scenes to make sense of a song structure & arrange something that still sounded like me. I was surprised how good things sounded considering the source video was of low quality & had a lot of background noise.
Below are all the videos documenting my process and a download of the completed song. I am adding the whole Ableton songfile & HD videos as a bonus for my Remix Walkthrough Collection. If you’ve purchased it in the past, this is a free addition.
I hope you make it through this collection without getting too distracted. If I can keep focus through this, you’ve got zero excuse to not finish your own tunes!
Happy music making!
Jason
If this video series helped or inspired you & you would like to “buy me a beer” for the work that went into this, I always appreciate donations.
Another blog coming soon (pun intended)
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above). All your feedback & support is appreciated.
I recommend the sites below:
Logic Courses
Reason Courses
12 ways to triple your productivity & make more music
12 ways to triple your productivity & make more music
Whether you are gearing up for a new year & reflecting on the accomplishments of last year or your catching yourself in the middle of the calendar year with less productivity than you would like, I want to share some techniques that should really help to step up your game.
In all honesty, I’m naturally a pretty lazy guy. At times I sleep too much, fill up my time with nonsense and completely close off to creative endeavors. All that I have accomplished has been in the face of heavy motivational challenges. Believe me when I say that if you are running into motivations issues, I’ve certainly been there.
These tips below are discoveries I have made to battle my own laziness, fatigue & creative anxiety. I have found that when I follow these guidelines & resist bad habits, I’m not only far more productive, but I have a much greater sense of peace & relaxation overall. Give it a shot!
1. Warm up – Just like you would with a workout, it’s really difficult to dive right in to creative work from whatever you were doing previously. You’ll likely resist because it will just feel wrong to you. You’ll feel that there is something else important that needs to be done even if you can’t pinpoint what that is. When you already have non-productive momentum, it’s hard to turn that boat around.
Take a break first. Take a 15 minutes walk or do some light exercise. You want to create a gap between what you were doing before & what you are attempting to do creatively. You need a bit of time to clean the slate, so your head isn’t filled up with a bunch of crap.
2. Don’t check email or social sites - This one is a tough habit to break but it’s one you are really going to need to commit to if you are planning to be more productive. Social sites & email make it far too easy to convince yourself that you need to stay unproductive just incase something happens. Maybe someone will “like” your post, comment or picture or maybe you’ve started a debate with some idiot on YouTube & need to set him straight.
Face it, it’s all bullshit & if you keep at it, you’re life is going to waste away. The thing that is really sad about this is that the brain gets a rush of adrenaline every time you get a notification, even if it’s something stupid & this is how you get a feeling of accomplishment for doing nothing. Then when it comes to doing “real” work you feel like your plate has already been filled & you have no room for any more “productivity”. Days turn into months…then years. Stop it!
If you really want to get WAY more done, cut your social network checking to 2-3 times a day and only after you’ve put in some real creative work.
3. Identify your creative blind spots – We all have them. They are the things that stop us from completing songs. It’s those things we naturally aren’t good at. For me, it’s been sound design & song arrangement. I can make 32 bar loops for days but after that I start itching to check my email & then all is lost. We’ll solve this issue with my next tip.
4. Steal then replace - If you are running into a similar issue to what was just mentioned, my suggestion is to just nick that sound, or song structure from something you already know works. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Steal it first & move on. You can always replace it later, but the goal is to not get stuck & slow down (or worse, stop). I nick sounds or song structures all the time. It really helps me with my confidence knowing that what I am “borrowing” is already something that works. I don’t have to second guess. Often, for me, my own voice will eventually peek through & I’ll abandon my borrowed templates or sounds & go it alone once again. Keep practicing this habit & you’ll find it gets easier & easier. Soon you’ll have the confidence to push through without getting stuck or needing to snag a sound or template. (By the way, if sampling is your style, carry on. I’m a big fan of those who do it well)
5. Set a timer – This tip alone has been a saving grace for me. I typically start with setting a 15 minute timer to warm up for the task ahead. I try to avoid doing anything that can suck me in to further mindless activity. I make sure what I am doing is relaxing and isn’t actually going to take longer than I’ve set the timer for.
Once the timer goes off, it’s time to commit to making music (or writing this blog) & set the timer once again. This time I set it to 30 minutes & make a commitment to stay off the internet, not responding to texts or phone calls & making sure people in my house don’t interrupt me.
The reason this works so well is because even if you really don’t want to create, you can tell yourself “It’s only 30 minutes, then I can choose to do something else if I want”. Once the timer goes off I can decide if I want to recommit to another 30 minutes, take a 15 minute break & come back, or call it a day. I typically will recommit, however, if I get stuck, I give myself 15 minutes to search for inspiration.
Sometimes I’ll break songwriting down to different tasks. This way I can actually see progress happening every time I recommit. For the most recent project I did as of writing this, I was creating a song from a bunch of random loops sent to me by my lovely readers. It was tricky to get my head around how I was going to construct a song out of all the pieces so I started committing to small tasks:
- Edit & effect each loop for my own purpuses
- Create scenes (in Ableton) of different possible sections or “movements” for this song.
- Find a song structure to “borrow” and map it out using locator tags.
- Construct a 32 bar intro
- Record scenes into different sections of my song template
- Bridge the gap between each section for a transparent sound that also makes sense.
- Create an Outro
- Final mixing tweaks & rendering a Mixdown
6. 1 task at a time - This simple tip gets overlooked far too often, especially in this age of A.d.d. & multitasking. I can say however, with very few exceptions that taking on 1 thing at a time until its completed is really the fastest & most productive way.
The alternative will leave you with several unfinished tasks that you worked on up to the point where things got difficult. Then you’ll find yourself completely unmotivated to finish any of these tasks because you haven’t built up the discipline to work through the tough parts. Had you committed to 1 task at a time you would have worked through the roadblocks that sets you apart from your peers & competitors. You will also have built the momentum to take on your next task.
Lets take this blog for example. If I didn’t commit myself, I’d have nothing but unfinished posts in my drafts. Same with music. I know this because I used to have a serious habit of leaving songs unfinished and going long periods without sharing any new music. Lately I have been remedying this & you can definitely expect to hear more out of me in the future.
At times I might be in the middle of one song when another song idea jumps in my head. When that happens I’ll usually set aside a small amount of time to document the idea so it’s not forgotten but I’ll set a timer so I don’t get off track from my main focus.
Give this a serious try & I dare you to tell me you aren’t far more productive.
7. Write down your creative tasks the night before – This really helps your brain prepare to for the tasks of the following day & do some problem solving while you sleep. You may have the issue that I’ve often had where making music just doesn’t seem like what you should be doing when you haven’t been in the habit for a while. Its really similar to trying to motivate yourself to start exercising when you’re out of shape. Writing down a few tasks to complete the night before helps to solve this as well as making the process go more smoothly.
8. Pretend you know how – There is no issue with learning techniques from experts. I can definitely say I have learned some things I probably would have never come across myself, but had I not explored things on my own, I would have never become more than an imitator. Instead of spending hours upon hours scouring the internet, books & magazines to solve all of your challenges, try believing in your own abilities & resourcefulness. The more you do this, the better you get at it. Soon you’ll find that you aren’t simply an expert at imitating but you’ll be coming up with innovative ideas & further refining your own sound. You’ll be surprised how much you actually do know.
9. Blueprint first, details later – Don’t get caught up for hours trying to perfect that snare drum when you don’t even have a song structure yet. You’ll likely need to further tweak it later anyway. Instead focus on the broad strokes. Work on the essential musical elements & then a basic song structure before agonizing over whether something sounds better 1/2 a db louder or quieter. Havening a basic sketch complete makes it much easier to see the big picture while dialing in the little details.
10. Start creating before setting other tasks – If your goal is to make (and finish) music you can be proud of instead of going another year with very little creative output, making music should be on your “essential” list. If you prioritize other tasks during your free time, you have little chance of your music taking center stage. If you simply can’t do this most of the time, at least make music a top priority 1 day out of the week. If you can’t make time now, when do you expect your schedule will open up? trust me, it won’t!
11. Take breaks often - If you are on a roll, go with it. Being in the flow is a very enjoyable experience & there is no reason to disrupt that. It’s more common, however, to lose steam on a project within 90 minutes than it is to find yourself in marathon mode. Make sure to give yourself a short break every 1.5-2 hours. This is supposed to be pleasant after all. Plus your ears need a break too or they won’t be reliable. A break is a small reward for a job well done. Knowing you’ll get a break soon will push you to work harder & stay focused. Those of you who’ve read The Shining should know that “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. Don’t be Jack.
12. Commit publicly – There is not much better motivation than having your peers expecting something you have promised to deliver. If you aren’t willing to make this promise publicly, then maybe you don’t have enough belief in yourself to get past the roadblocks that make most people quit.
I personally use this technique to take on challenges that scare me because I know that otherwise, the likelihood of me accomplishing these tasks is pretty slim. I used this technique to create my 30 Day Ableton Music Production Journal as well as my Collective Loop Project. I allowed myself to be embarrassed publicly to make certain fear does’t rule my life.
I hope you find a way to put some or all of these tips to use & that you enjoy a far more creative & productive future.
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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Ghost Tracks
Ghost Tracks
I wanted to talk about a creative technique in songwriting that isn’t often talked about but can be very effective in inspiring good ideas. When you come to your studio with a blank slate, it can sometimes be difficult to decide what exactly you are going to do. There are several conscious or unconscious questions that will need to be answered.
* What style of music will I be making
* What tempo will the song be at?
* What key will this song be in?
* What mood would I like to capture?
Sometimes when you are inspired, all of these questions are naturally answered without any trouble, but without that spark of inspiration you are kind of wandering aimlessly hoping that some of your toying around with sounds or rhythms grabs your interest. This can be a long process or can end up with several false starts. A ghost track can be the solution.
What is a ghost track?
The process of a ghost track is very simple. Typically you find a song that affects you on an emotional level. Something that captures a mood & inspires you. You don’t have to know why it inspires you. No need to reverse engineer the song. Instead you are going to use the song itself as a template for your own work.
Drag the song into a new music project. From here there are several things you can do. You can use the song structure & chord arrangement as is, or you can grab a certain section & loop it. I like to grab a loop & work with that, preferably an instrumental section.
What you’ll do from there is simply play on top of it. Add your own melody, bass part, pads, drums. Just keep building until you have the beginnings or your own song. Just keep improvising on top of the loop for several minutes. Try to play something different that captures a similar mood for you. Later you will delete your ghost track & start picking out the good bits of what you’ve played. Soon, you’ll be on your way to completing your own piece of music with rhythms, structure & melodies inspired by the original ghost track.
It’s like having someone guide you towards something captivating & away from mental blocks. You don’t have the same pressure of making all these little decisions but instead you are just jamming to something you already love. What a great state of mind to be working from.
Great music inspires great music
It would be no exaggeration to say that much of the music you love was inspired by a song or songs that the artist loved. Many great songs have simply borrowed another song’s drum rhythm or chord structure. Sometimes a melody is hijacked noticeably, or sometimes it is altered just enough to disguise the original influence.
Think about how a genre of music is created. Do you think it’s just a bunch of unconnected artists that randomly ended up in the same place? Well, maybe there is a minuscule percentage of these cases, but overwhelmingly, someone does something that sounds fresh & a bunch of other artists jump on that idea & do their own version. They “borrow” 90% of someone else’s idea and put their own 10% twist on it.
But is it cheating?
This really depends on your idea of what cheating is. Where does cheating really start or end? If cheating is using someone else’s hard work for your own purpose, then pretty much any tool is cheating.
The piano is a beautiful instrument that has wonderful tone when played a certain way, but can you really take credit for how wonderful it sounds just because you assigned chords & notes to it? You’ve got to admit that some of the magic is in the sound itself, even if you’ve tweaked that sound.
Then there is your recording devices, the software in your computer (or hardware), the effects, the mixing engineer & the mastering guy. That would be a lot to take on to make something completely original.
You can’t take credit for the sound itself, just as a cook can’t take credit for the knives he uses or even the ingredients. How many people have made lasagna, or an omelette? Even though people make them at least 80% the same, there are those minor details that makes an average cuisine amazing. Imagine how awful it would be if there was no theft allowed in cooking? There can be only 1 spaghetti sauce. Only 1 peanut butter. What a waste of a chance to improve upon a good idea. Often times the artist might consider the magic moment as a mistake or a failure, but may inspire a whole league of loyal followers unexpectedly. This is creative evolution & nothing can be more natural.
We are always standing on the shoulders of giants with anything we do creatively. Nothing is 100% original. We are using tools that are improvements of other tools and so on. The tools are constantly being tweaked and refined for different preferences. These tool allow us to inject our own skills into the process without having to reinvent every necessary wheel. We get to focus on our strengths while benefiting from the creativity of those who came before us.
I think this kind of borrowing & theft can be a wonderful thing, even though some theft gives more creative results than others. This borrowing allows us to fully explore a sound with different artists coming at it from a different perspective. There will always be hacks that don’t really add anything to the pot, but then there can be a magic mixture that may only have a 2% tweak but it affects us in a very positive & special way.
The whole art of music is really a process of imitation & tweaking to one’s taste. This can pretty much be said for any kind of creative work. You learn the rules & then you break them. Are you trying to live on your own creative island or are you willing to interact with the magic that is all around you? I give you permission to join the party. I’m not giving up the ghost any time soon
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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