I’ve been fortunate enough to make music while I’m working. I work from home and I do customer service. In between calls I start my process of findings sounds and as the day goes on I work on my track little by little. By the end of my shift I have the idea of the track and by the end of the day I have the bulk of the song done. It’s been working for me for about 2 and a half years. 😎👍🏽
You are so funny. Practicing is more important to me than composing is because it makes creating music easier and more fun. To quote Miles Davis "If you sound good in the practice room, you're not doing it right."
Getting even more stoned and watching even more RU-vid bullshit instead of pressing that big scary red REC button in order to actually capture any of the bazillion ideas that won't stop playing and replaying over and over and over again in our heads could also be consider somewhat artistic as choices go...right?
As a “gentleman of a certain age” …I remember the dawn of the computer based sequencer, and its metamorphosis into today’s DAW. I’m way happier to do my music today because of the ease at which I can do it. Side note: your first time editing TAPE is frightening. But what I do like is that my “old timey” experience has made me better with today’s tools. Yes… all options are open and endless track counts await me. But being able to (mostly) play all my parts live, and get my ideas down efficiently is something I love… and I think is missing for some. Unfortunate. The quote that always stuck in my head was from a person I worked with who worked at a major music equipment company: “If your music takes more than 16 tracks… I don’t know if I want to hear it.” This has stuck with me and helps keep me on track. I’m going to go yell at some clouds now.
Dude you are becoming one of my favourites. you say it like it is.. I have now banned my self from scrolling RU-vid during productive hours. because of this exactly. I sendup watching more music making then I get done then I lost interesting go the track as its been to long since it really moved on & then I have hundreds of loops.. so this came at the right time!
Harmony is just one important component of what makes a musical piece genius . Melody. rhyth. form and most importantly Inspiration Harmony is an amazing color palette like Orchestration.
This is why I'm still subscribed to this channel. You just accurately portray what its like to make music. Even as a guy who has 5 or so videos on thier musician youtube account and countless unfinished tracks, i still relate to the guy whos doing this for a living. Excellent video, I'm glad I've stuck around.
Really great video. Thank you. I’ve watched a few of your sound design videos and noticed there hasn’t been a mention about the mixing / mastering stage. Is this something you can discuss? I’m curious to know how in depth this needs to be when submitting work to clients.
I am happy that I play in a band, in addition to making beats or whatever. I get to do live performances and release albums, so I don’t feel any pressure to make or release beats. Also, my band has a guy who can write entire songs and play every instrument better than the rest of us, so I don’t have to create and arrange entire songs all by myself. It also removes the pressure of releasing music, because it is not 100% mine and I am therefore not 100% responsible for what I release.
Novice musician: not knowing WTF a sample (or anything) is (why are the Romans analyzing things) Intermediate musician: spending all day on Reddit and RU-vid taking in opinions on using samples, not realizing half the people on there know even less than you and are posting to avoid practicing Advanced musician: 2TB and growing of quality, carefully curated and cleared samples because you recognize someone's already done all the stuff you want to do and it's better to take advantage so you can focus on assembling it and tying it together into something unique
One trick I have is to ALWAYS have a patch open in my DAW (usually an electric piano or some such thing) and play varying chord sequences while I watch a show (usually on RU-vid) on my TV, which is also my computer monitor. I keep the gain low enough that I don't drown out the video and if something interesting happens I'll pause the video and charge straight in. I start a lot of my work this way - no pressure, no rush - and I tend to crank out pieces left and right. My problem is when to STOP writing harmonic pieces (unless it's soundtrack work) and actually focus on lyrics and vocal melodies. I haven't found the magic elixir for THAT part, except for patiently waiting for some idea or snippet to jump into my brain.
No need to wait for a melody to jump into your brain. That sounds insane. No such thing as being out of inspiration or waiting for it to come to you. There's just time and effort. Just make sure you enjoy the time you spend making an effort. You can transcribe anything into music. Figuratively, but also literally. Look around you right now or better yet, go outside, get moving, take it all in and I mean truly open your heart and use your senses. Recognize the patterns and irregularities around you. Nature is great for seeing the balance, the eb and flow, etc. Take pictures if you need to. Then choose what and how to translate what you sense into notes or even entire arrangements and concept albums. E.g Say you have a shelve with books. Note they are all a different height and thickness. Draw a imaginary line from left to right over the top of them. Choose a base or midpoint for pitch. Consolidate if you have to. Now apply the rhythm, the theory, fit it into key and arrangement. Aaaaand you have a melody. -Or at least a great starting point and you didn't have to wait for it to come to you. It may have already been done, like anything and everything already has been, blablabla. But this came from your perspective, with your signature and you can sleep at night knowing you haven't blatantly copied someone else (even when no one really cares). You can apply this to almost anything. Objects, feelings, actions, smells, relationships, you name it and you decide!
I don't really think there is such a thing as laziness. I believe people inherently want to do meaningful stuff. I know I'm only picky with words, plus there's some good advice here and I thank you for it.
7:24 is SUCH a GEM 💯 I try to get peers of mine to understand this when I critique them because they only seem to like something when it's produced to pristine quality when the song itself would not be NEARLY as good without production. The true test of a great song is if it still holds weight without the bells & whistles.
And yet, another musical ego attempting to be more clever than relevant. Gosh what would all us music enthusiasts do but aimlessly wander indefinitely without such…guidance?
I have been implementing a monthly habit of producing something within 1 hour with my DAW. And it can be hot garbage but at least it helped me maintain or create stuff that I've been inspired by during my downtime. Plus it helps me pinpoint things that I need to do research or learn about once I'm done with my exercize. At the end I can also improve and polish whatever I made within that timespan.
What you said about using old school techniques and simpler mixing is so true. I see so much crap on social media with people getting into insane minutia with mixing when I keep saying "if your arranging and songwriting is good, mixing is a breeze".
