Tag Archive for: recognizing your limits

The Inspiration Cycle

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Most people enjoy discussing music technically in terms of production as we all wonder where to start and how to handle ideas in order to make a song. I also follow many magazines and articles which cover how the brain perceives creativity, where it starts, and how to invoke it and keep it alive. However, even if you know the techniques to make music, remaining inspired to make music can become a challenge.  I struggle with musical inspiration as well, but also have a few tips if you’ve been struck with writer’s block that I find always work.

How is your inspiration cycle working?

This video about using flow is tightly linked to the experience of inspiration. Let’s dive deeper.

Through reading and my own personal experience, I’ve noticed that inspiration comes and goes through a number of phases, in a cycle:

  1. The stimulation and satisfaction of the mind.
  2. Conceptualization.
  3. Struggle.
  4. Release and creativity.
  5. Project completion.
  6. Transmission, validation.
  7. Celebration.

In the above video, the discussion is around flow, which is an important state of mind for a high level of creativity that can be reached by athletes and musicians during a performance. You can also access this level of creativity by making music, in your studio. But before a studio session, you need an idea and concept to make music around. Let’s examine the phases of the musical inspiration cycle I outlined above:

The stimulation and satisfaction of the mind

To sum up this phase, think about falling in love with something. For the writer, it’s a book or a scene description. The photographer gets excited about a landscape; the gardener, about the perfect trees; and the musician, sounds or a song. This can stimulation can occur anywhere at any time; in your car for example, or in many cases, during a “celebration” of some kind. The cycle becomes evident here, because the last phase is the celebration of completing your work, but this phase can also restart the cycle and restart the first phase of stimulation.

For example, many people feel that they want to become a DJ after a special night in a club. This is an example of musical stimulation kicking off the cycle of inspiration. People also like to celebrate art, in search of some sort of new stimulation for the mind; to be inspired to create.

Describing his creative process, Mozart observed, “Those ideas that please me I retain in memory, and am accustomed, as I have been told, to hum them to myself. If I continue in this way,” he writes, “it soon occurs to me how I may turn this or that morsel to account so as to make a good dish of it… All this fires my soul” (Harding, ).

The mind will feel satisfied by certain things that will inspire it to bring different elements all together, into a collection that will lead to the creation of a concept.

Tip: Before investing and diving into production, try to make a personal collection of music that moves you. It could be a secret playlist on Youtube, Spotify or Soundcloud, for instance. The richer your collection, the more you are investing into potential sources of inspiration.

Conceptualization

Understanding your concept is key here; it’s about putting to words what you have in mind. The main writer’s block-inducing trap in electronic music is facing the limitless options of where you could go in a creative sense. Ideas and concepts help to box you in, and to create your sounds into a palette that matches your idea. For instance, knowing you want to make “banging techno” already provides you with a direction as to what you’ll be doing. The challenge in this particular case would be educating yourself and understanding how complex sounds are recorded as well as other technical details. Conceptualization leads to the next phase which is the struggle; an unavoidable part of the creative process necessary when trying to apply your concept.

I’ve always found there to be two main things that will help with conceptualization:

  • Finding real life equivalent to what your vision is, such as finding songs that contain your idea or a part of it.
  • Finding resources to help you understand what your idea actually is.

The more clear your initial idea or concept, the best you can explain it. From there you can find someone who has the experience or tools to help you get your there if necessary.

Tip: Using voice memos to record something you hear or to leave yourself notes is a very useful practice. If you can invest in a microphone to try to reproduce sounds with your mouth or found objects; this technique can lead to very interesting results.

Struggle

The struggle is the phase in which many people feel like they want to stop making music altogether and even sell all the gear they have in extreme cases. Perhaps you’ve been through this struggle before – it can manifest in many ways – but the best approach to handle a struggle effectively is to moderate what you like doing, by reducing the length of time or efforts you’re inputting into developing your concept.

For example, instead of being in the studio for four hours, how about going for just one? How about you go for a walk when you have negative ideas coming to you? There’s no rush in making music.

I’ve seen so many artists struggle through this phase by falling victim to substance abuse which is by far the most risky way to deal with writer’s block. If you need an external substance to make you creative, you’ll quickly become dependent on it.

Tip: My drug is jogging.

Release and creativity

This phase can be when the “aha!” moment hits you full effect; all the technical details fall into place and you can express yourself entirely. I’ve had this moment with two albums I made, Tones Of Void and White Raven. However in previous albums, I’ve worked and worked to eventually find a pace that just made me feel unstoppable. I would finish songs in a day, which would normally take me months. Find a recipe, a patch, a series of effects that give you wings to turn anything in the sound you’re looking for.

For me, the “aha” moment is easy to hear on Tones Of Void. I had found the right series of effects that I loved and I was digging in my library, then could easily turn 1-2 sounds into a full song. I would record it live, do minor edits and felt entirely satisfied with whatever I had. I’ve also seen people using modular synths to make self-generative patches where songs are just written on their own and it’s really beautiful to see.

Tip: This phase isn’t linear and comes in moments. Find ways to save your tools and understand what uplifts your work.

Project completion

Finishing projects is something many people struggle with. The real question is when is it really done? Recently, I made a list of items to check to give yourself an answer but you can also give yourself certain criteria. I like the idea that something is never actually totally done, and that is part of the charm of it. Knowing the next project will be better is a way to let go of anything that has been revisited too often.

Once you can save your file and are happy with it, do a backup and call it done, this phase is simply done; it’s something you don’t want to drag on.

Transmission, validation & Celebration

You know when you love your song so much you want to share it with the entire world? That’s what the celebration phase I mentioned earlier is about. We want validation for our work, but there’s a part of ourselves that also wants to pass on our ideas to others. This creates the desire to have “the celebration” and to provide musical inspiration to others.

There are some people, however, who fear sharing their music. It’s no secret that most musicians seek validation from their community and music is a way to do it. What stops some people from sharing their work with others is the fear of being criticized. However, transmission and validation are necessary to move on to “the celebration”, which is the end of a cycle, but also the beginning of another.

I’d love to hear your stories about your inspiration. Please share!

 

SEE ALSO :   Where to Get Fresh New Ideas for Tracks 

Finishing Your Projects

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I want to tackle a huge, big-time topic of much discussion and effort among many music producers – finishing your projects. Like many of my friends, readers of this blog, and clients of mine, finishing your music is really important to you. Yet, we all have loads and loads of music with real firepower that will never get past the finish line.

As someone who has finished dozens of records, remixes, and projects of my own, I’m going to get right down to business of showing you how to finish all the projects you want to. Let’s do this.

Firstly, I need to get a few things out of the way.
1. From my perspective, I believe a song might never be done. Even if you’ve finished it, mixed it, released it, (which you defiantly need to do) and heard it played in mixes all over the world, to you that track might never really be complete.

2. It’s (almost) never going to be perfect. Do not let perfection kill all your efforts. The more you hear it, the more you’ll pay attention to that part you could have tweaked better, or that part in the arrangement you could have brought to a totally new level. Let’s face it, you need to remember that a listener will likely never hear that song as much as you have and will never notice the few imperfections that are loud and clear to you. It’s okay, let’s get it done the very best we can in the time we have.

3. Taste is subjective. What you feel is perfect, likely won’t be in the eye’s of someone else, and vice versa. Yet at some point, you have to put your foot down to what the song’s theme and structure is and embrace it by telling yourself “ok, this is my song and there won’t be compromises, I’m moving forward.”

4. Use your reference tracks. I keep coming back to using musical references in many of my posts because it’s your personal target for what sounds good, and what you want your production to sound similar to. The more you work with one, (comparing your sounds and levels to the reference track) the more you’ll understand how your track is progressing, or not.

The next part is going to be exciting, and scary.
After writing and developing all the right parts of your track at some point you’ll come to feel your project is ready to be canned down into it’s finished form. “What are the signs that a track needs to enter it’s finished form”?
• Your track has a beginning, a middle, and end.
• The imported reference track in your arrangement has about the same length and number of sounds as your track.
• The sections of your track are very clear and your transitions from one part to the next flow well, and feel right.
• All channels have a rough mixdown and an overall healthy balance. Now, we’re really good to go.

“If you want to make music the #1 thing you have to do is finish your productions. Open a project that is ready and follow these steps – we’re going to finish one right now.”

finish your music productions

Getting to this point is the goal ~ crossing the finish line, exporting your finished music.

Since the main sections of your track are already there, we’re going to starting at the beginning and listen closely to each part of your arrangement.
1. Loop 4-8 bars at a time – mainly rely on your ears and listen. You’ll quickly hear if something stands out and needs to be adjusted, or removed. After running through each section, continue doing this every 8 bars or so.
2. Give your ears a break. After 5-10 minutes of active listening stop the music for at least 20 seconds. Our ears get tired easily and right now we need to stay sharp to make the right corrections to our track.

We’re in the last phase of finishing your project now. Here’s how to make sure your track has all the right elements to be interesting and keep the listener’s attention.

• Notice how sounds come in and out. Some sounds come in abruptly, to cause a surprise, while others will come in slowly (fade-in). Alternating how sounds come in is a great way to keep interest.
• Percussion sequence. Is the way sounds are programmed making any sense or can be improved? A good way is to put one or multiple channels in solo and listen carefully… Are you making a coherent phrase?
• Transitions. Are the transitions between each section supporting the evolution of the main idea? Some transitions will be used to announce incoming sounds or the exit of others. Some transition can also be used to build or release tension. Be aware of the effect of both.
• Don’t overdo it. The biggest issue when working in micro-mode is the danger to over listen to your idea and changing too many things, nearly starting all over.

One more important thing – once you have about the song completely revised, I would greatly encourage you to take a macro, global view of the project. These are the points you want to look for:
• Perspective 1/3. Zoom out of the window so you can see the song entirely in your arranger. You should be able to see clearly 3 distinct sections. If not, you might want to look into that. What defines each sections? They should have different intensities, and a number of sounds playing.
Why is this important? Your song is a story and it needs the right timing and elements our ears to come to expect. The most dramatic reason though is, each section should showcase a strong moment. Having 3 of them is a good formula to make a song interesting and memorable, but any more than that and you’ll likely take away the power the previous peaks.

• Sequence of how sounds come in, out. Keep a logical and fluid transition of how sounds come in and out. Your percussion parts can come in a certain way, then you can repeat it later. Don’t showcase all your sounds all at once, or you’ll burn your idea out pretty quickly.
• Repeating ideas. As seen in the lego post, if some sounds happen in a certain sequence, try to keep that until the end for coherence.

For any musician or producer, not finishing your projects can be really frustrating, but it happens to the best of us.

This post is all about sharing my own personal way of starting and completing projects so that you can confidently go into your next session with a game plan I know will keep you on track to get things done.

As always let me know if you have any suggestions or questions about this post and leave a comment below and tell me what projects you are excited to complete.

JP

SEE ALSO : Pointers To Define Your Sound

Resistances and Procrastination

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I like to believe that creating music goes beyond simple clicking and assembling. The whole process of making music has always had, to me, a very deep feeling of inner exploration. It’s the same when it Screen Shot 2016-01-03 at 13.27.58comes to listening. Apparently, music has this effect on about 60% of the population, so not everyone gets the same chills from listening to music. But if you do get a sensation like this, then you’ll try hard to get more of it.

Now, when it comes to making music, that honeymoon phase after you first discover how to make your own sounds can be an exciting moment. But for so many, soon after, a sense of frustration begins to set in. It can come from:

  • Not being able to get things to sound quite the way you imagined them.
  • Things seeming to take an awful lot of time to get done.
  • You feeling embarrassed by the sound of something you made.

The next thing you know, you’ll start procrastinating. You’ll feel like there’s some sort of inner balance to achieve each time you’re about to make music. As David Lynch points out in the clip below, a lot of artists think that suffering is a necessary part of creativity, when in fact any kind of suffering just cramps up the creative flow. In my view, this is not a healthy approach to getting new ideas.

So how do you avoid suffering?

That’s obviously a very difficult philosophical question to answer, though it’s clear that relying on substances is not the way to go. They might do some good in the short term, but you don’t want to develop that as a habit. To me, the essential question to ask is existential: why are you making music in the first place?

If the first answer that comes to your head is anything more than simply enjoying yourself, then you’re setting yourself up to feel resistances. When I say “resistances,” I mean those frustrations or blockages you might experience once you sit down and try to make music. You might feel like you’re wasting your time, or be tempted to just stop and play video games instead. You might conjure any range of excuses to plunge into procrastination.

The solution to this is to build up your appetite for music-making.

Here are some tips for doing this:

  • If you’re feeling uneasy or anxious, listen to your body and move away. Do whatever you need to do to regain your calm and motivation.
  • Discover your creative triggers. These can be as simple as listening to music you love, enjoying a rich cup of coffee, or going for a walk. The most important thing is to keep track of when you feel creative, and what triggered it. The more you know about your creative triggers, the more you can fuel your creativity when you’re lacking in energy or ideas.
  • guy-walkGo to your creative place. As Lynch said, if you can go to a place that inspires you, such as to nature or on a trip, then go there if you can.
  • Apply a creative fast. That’s right. If you want to be hungry, you need to empty out first. This means withdrawing from making music, or if possible, from listening to any music in the genre you produce. Observe your musical fast strictly, until you feel that tingling sensation return that tells you you need to make music again.
  • Discover your creative downers. This is the opposite of the above point about your creative triggers. Have you noticed when you feel creatively down or uninspired to make music? In my case, as weird as this may seem, I have a physical downer around 4PM every day, when I know I need to stop and drink tea. What’s yours?

I hope this helps!

SEE ALSO :  The Rule Of 10: Production in Rotation for Big Results 

Get A Free Music Coach

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[Important update, August 2017: The Free program is being redesigned and put on pause. You can still register to get the free Ableton Live Template and get news on when it starts again.]

I made an important decision to remove my newsletter and change it into free music coaching for every subscriber. Sounds crazy? Maybe. But also fun!

A little bit of help to make great things happen

What exactly is a coach?

While you can google for the definition, you may also summarize it with a simple explanation:

“It’s someone who helps you reach your goal(s).”

 

We can add in there self-improvement, knowledge transfer, experience sharing and technical advising. The same applies to a music coach. While it’s pretty common in sports or at work, we often overlook it when it comes to arts. But why not include it?

Ever since I started making electronic music, I’d say that my best stretches in learning often happened when I was in touch with someone who could address my questions. I’d go to them to learn:

  • How to use a specific production technique.
  • How to focus on finishing a song, a project.
  • Tips on sound design.
  • How to expand my network.

 

Anyone can be your music coach. Just reach out and ask.The great thing with helping others is that it opens doors on many things, like when you pause for a moment to find the right terms to arrive at the best explanation possible, and you end up improving your own understanding in the process. Ever since I had a music coach, I’ve been really interested in returning the help, mainly because I asked so many friends how to do things.

It’s been quite fascinating to see how electronics have evolved to make it easier for people to attain their goals of producing electronic music. As time’s gone on and the technologies have become cheaper, it’s become increasingly accessible to make music through computers or machines. The democratization of music has opened the doors for many people to make their dream come true by making music.

But this also raises some questions:

  • What should I get to start making music?
  • Which technology is best suited for me?
  • How do I start a song once I’m equipped?
  • Is this song really done or should I add something?

These issues can be hard to nail down, and there’s no one-size-fits-all answer.

Everyone is different, both in personality but also in terms of how they deal with technology. Some are more tech-savvy than others.

 

The role of a music coach can be summarized as:

A music coach helps you set goals and achieve your objectives

Helping you set goals. The best way to not get lost is to choose a destination. A journey has multiple destinations and a music coach can help break down your long-term dream into multiple mini-milestones. With a plan in mind, it becomes easier to not let your mind run wild and become unproductive.

Understanding your limits while expanding your strengths. One of the first steps in any new hobby, activity or interest is to take a look at yourself. While some skills are transposable from other areas into your new field of interest, you’ll also need to take stock of your own limitations. Quickly identifying your weak points is a good way to motivate you into developing new skills. If you run up against your own limitations in any area, there could also be solutions you’re not yet aware of.

Structuring your workflow. The technique behind all techniques is to coordinate the different parts so that things fall neatly into place. If you mess with your production order, you might run into an episode of counter-productivity.

Being present. A coach is someone that can reply to your questions, listen, encourage, and drive. This part is the most crucial one.

 

If you’re interested in taking advantage of my free coaching, join my mailing list and we’ll get you started!