Amateurs make music when they have the time & are inspired.
Professionals make music every day, regardless.
You may be asking, “how does that even work?“.
Most producer’s find producing great work difficult, even when they are inspired.
How can you possibly make it work when the circumstances aren’t ideal?
Also, how do you even make the time?
A busy life rarely gets less busy, so you need to develop the skills of working your
passion into your life, especially when you are busy. You don’t want to learn
this when you have a ton of free time, because then you will stop when life
gets busy again.
The real secret is that time is always available for things that are
non-negotiable. You have to eat, you have to use the bathroom,
& if you have children or pets, you have even more non-negotiables.
So the truth is, you DO have time for non-negotiables & somehow
it all gets done, whether you felt like it or not.
The alternative is letting your creative goals get squashed and thrown
out the window every time you get busy.
The issue with you avoiding your music, whether you have good
excuses or not, is that avoidance itself becomes a habit. So why do you
have a hard time with your music, even when you are inspired?
It’s because your avoidance trigger kicks in any time things get
difficult & you have a very low tolerance for discomfort.
Those who work on music every day have built a resilience
to discomfort & circumstances that aren’t ideal & have practiced
working through it.
This is exactly why those who work when they aren’t inspired
& don’t have time put out more high quality work than those
who only work when they are comfortable & inspired.
Even an inspired session will eventually run into challenges &
roadblocks. When this happens the session either ends, or
you just repeatedly listen to your 8 bar loop, convincing yourself
that this is productive.
Another advantage of working when you’re busy & uninspired is
that doing good work eventually becomes automatic. Just like
driving, you don’t even have to think about being a good driver.
In fact, most of the time you aren’t even thinking about driving
at all, it’s just a natural extension of daily practice.
I suppose bad drivers get a lot of practice too, and that’s simply
because there didn’t learn the fundamentals well enough &
nobody has given them the feedback they need to correct it.
As a music maker, you typically tighten up your bad habits when
you either notice negative reactions to your music, or no response
at all. When you are rewarded with a great response to your work,
you tend to take note & move more in that direction.
Successful artists have less and less time, with travel, promo,
interviews, shows, release deadlines etc, they are likely just as busy
as you are now with your job.
And just like you, sometimes they don’t like their job & sometimes
they don’t feel like creating.
When you are disciplined enough to write when you are busy
& feel like crap, you will discover that inspiration finds you much more
often. Also, you don’t have to remind yourself where you’re at on
a particular song, you’ll know exactly where you left off.
You also won’t get down on yourself on those days that are much
less productive. You always know you are just a day away from
another chance to nail it.
If you can stop searching for ideal circumstances & instead start
practicing your art in less ideal circumstances, you will become
a creative force to be reckoned.
How to make time
If you are a busy person & want to make time for your music,
I suggest you get a notepad & from morning until you sleep,
write down every activity you do throughout the day.
Anytime you change what you are doing, write it down along
with the time you did it. If you take a phone call, get up for water,
or use the restroom, write it down.
If you get sucked into social media, or get caught in an internet
rabbit hole, write it down. When you eat, write it down, when you
return to your work, write it down.
If you do this for a few days, you will really be able to accurately
see where your time goes. With this information, you will find ways
of being more efficient.
While writing the last paragraph, I just spent 5 minutes watching my
indoor cat obsess on the squirrels outside;) The fact is, we want to
be distracted, because most work isn’t fun & doesn’t trigger our
reward centers in the brain.
We settle for the small meaningless rewards instead of delaying our
gratification for the accomplishment of something meaningful to us.
If you can break this habit & recognize when your brain searches for
cheap thrills, you will find the time do more meaningful work on a
much more consistent level.
Get comfortable working in conditions that are not ideal & you’ll become
almost invincible!
Happy music making!
With that said, if you are benefiting from these posts, you will absolutely love my 2 bestselling books:
The Mental Game of Music Production
The Process for Electronic Music Producers
You can also Check out the: Ableton Courses & Instruments
If you are looking for personal guidance with your music production or Ableton, you can set up a free chat with me to go over exactly what your best next steps are to create the best music of your life. If it seems like a good fit, we can move forward from there. https://musicsoftwaretraining.com/private-coaching
Happy music making!
Jason