Mozart went to see an opera and then went home and wrote the whole 3 hours of music down with no errors. He used to get music, even whole operas, appear in his head which he hated as he'd have to spend three days writing them down. Imagine you where born a musical genius and had no radio, TV, phones, internet, nothing to distract you, just other musicians to play and [gasp] inprovise with? Where do you think Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Wes Montgomery got their chops from? Not the internet! And if like Mozart you had played violin, had perfect pitch and read music better than your native language then yes you too would be able to tell someone exactly what to write down - just as chess players can play six games simultaneously blindfolded. Tonight I listened the The Ivors Composer Awards 2021 on BBC Radio 3 and its literally disgusting how talentless composers are today. So, there you go, we are all talentless and any 'art' piece you write are only listened to by the judges of composer award competitions. Social media is contemporary classical music's only hope for innovation - while it has vanished up it's own backside, other types of music have flourished into new genres. So next time someone gets 4,000 violinists to play the quietest flautando then puts it through a broken reel to reel with a chimpanzee playing bells and looped samples of an 80 year old Scottish fisherman recorded in 1963 and has the audacity to call it art just punch them in the face as hard as you can as a) it will stop this crap and b) you'll get instant fame.
I really appreciate when professionals talk about the things they struggle with. Nobody is perfect and nobody knows everything, if you aren't struggling with your music then you aren't trying. There's always more to learn, nobody ever knows it all. So hearing a professional actually recognize that and talk candidly about it is amazing imo! It's really appreciated!
What you say around the 4min mark, how essentially "not to fear patching stuff together" is a really important point and reminded me of the great Nobuo Uematsu who once explained that he wrote little fragments, day by day for like a month and at the end he just puzzled it all together and out came "One Winged Angel", once of the most unique and iconic pieces of video game soundtrack ever written....
That last bit spoke to me so deeply...I've learned that being a musician goes way further than handling music. It's a lot about handling yourself: your habits, mental health, self-awareness, needs, obligations....There has been so much time I wasn't able to spend time making music because I was dragged down by my inner struggles, even though I had exciting projects saved in Cubase
Re Tip #8. My dad was a theory/comp professor. He told me that at some point every composer has to face up to the reality that you won't be the next Beethoven, and instead focus on being the first 'you'.
When you have an idea and you've written it down, but you think it sucks just add a new parameter. Dynamics and maybe a different tempo can work wonders. They give a plain, rather stupid, idea a flow. They give it direction. Then after you can change notes, but you will see how much dynamic markings make a difference when starting with an idea!
Tempo: I was singing Durufle's requiem at one point. Durufle had written specific tempo markings on many sections. I was surprised how strong effect the change in tempo had on music. Dynamics: I think this is the key element across all music. You *should* have contrasts inside compositions and/or between compositions.
My problem is that I have plenty of ideas, but my inner critic speaks in a distorted, vaguely Germanic electronic nightmare voice, and I'm too disturbed to compose anything. ;-)
In composing the masterpiece that is "One Winged Angel," Nobuo Uematsu had something like 8 unique and different ideas where he had to sew them together.
Thank you David! I've been battling with a simultaneous eagerness and fear of creating music for years. As an adult learner I tend to notice way too often which areas of music are "too next level" and "out of reach" for me. Your approach to music edutainment helps me to concentrate on what is possible and doable. Tricks for confused moments, yes, that is me. I suddenly realize I am already a composer with a musical mind. I will not shy away from half-ideas anymore but embrace and cultivate them with your tips.
“Restrictions set you free” is one of my pet peeves related to Microtonality: If you have no boundaries, then there is no cleverness to be had. If I could telepathically transmit any arbitrary feeling into your mind, then it’s all just dream-state experience! What’s interesting is how turn a limited framework of expression to your advantage.
Two examples presented without context or what part of the video reminded me of them: Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde: last movement, singer has one phrase repeated three times, and a flute accompanies the first two but transforms the third by its absence Rachmaninov, Symphony No. 2: march featuring a tuba solo in the scherzo
David, you are an incredible articulator of musical issues. I LOVE the history of classical music (I'm a jazz musician) and you speak like a writer. What a treasure. I look forward to watching more of your videos.
The everyone else is a genius reminded me of a time many years ago, in the first class on the first day of grad school for chemistry at a Big Name university, the professor walks in a starts by saying "Let me be clear, none of us in this room will win the Nobel prize, including myself, now let's learn some chemistry". I suppose it is similar in composing where nearly all of the composers will not win the Pulitzer prize or a Grammy or Oscar or such.
Thank you for your postings. Too many people think that music is something that God has given some select few individuals - whether it is performing or more often composing. Either performing or composing, people don't realize how many hours are spent "practicing". I went to a clinic with Dee Barton many years ago and he recommended everyone write a song every day whether it was AABA, Verse and Chorus, or and A, B, C march. Whether or not any of these become "hits" or the basis of a "magnum opus", the practice serves anyone who is willing to do the exercise. All this applies whether you "don't have any ideas" or "other people are geniuses and I'm not". Keep up the good work.
David, your videos are wonderful: useful, profound, honest and original, totally lacking pretension (the sign of a genuine artist/intellectual). Thanks for your generosity in sharing your knowledge and experience.
Your videos are excellent!! I became a fan after your Jacob Collier video. I'm new to producing in Ableton and this is very helpful. The Simpsons' writer's suggestion is *gold* for helping writing the book I'd like to as well. It reminds of Zizek's answer to how he can write so many books. He says there's no way he could write a book, so he just writes down all his ideas and then edits and organizes them adequately enough later that it passes for a book.
Hey David, thank you very much for your insights! Your talking about your experience not only on the subject of composing but also on the subject of developing your personality as a composer, is very inspiring.
Yay a new DB video!! thanks for the great content! I have a composition debut on my channel today! A violin and Viola duet. Big fan of your videos! Thanks again!
You wrote another brilliant video that I enjoyed immensely. I’m too embarrassed to call myself a “composer”. I just make stuff for background of images. I write carelessly, keep bits I should get rid of, and don’t rewrite often. Still, I enjoy myself and don’t have a bad conscience cuz I seldom listen to my final product. I used to paint and write poetry the same way. There, I’ve said it
I think it's important to like what you create and to revisit it for recreation and leasure after it's finished. I listen to the half hour of music I've created so far every day.
Just want to say that every video I watch of yours hits the nail firmly on the head for me like no other you-tuber. And this one does that particularly well. Very appreciative of the time you take out from composing to make these vids.
Thank you, David. That was very well said (and very familiar). One other issue I've often run into is knowing when I've actually completed a piece. I've had instances where a piece comes nearly fully-formed and I've finished it in a matter of hours, and I'm happy with it. Then there are other pieces that I want to tweak to death. (One piece I kept revising for 14 years!) So I've trained myself to work on a piece for no more than a few months, and then call it done when it's pretty much matching my intent. And I use each piece as a stepping stone, setting out to learn something new for myself when I compose it. When I feel the piece is finished, I don't concern myself with whether it's a masterpiece; I just move on to the next piece. I've found that if I come back to a piece years later, my mindset has changed from when I originally wrote the piece and I begin revising it with the new mindset. That's a futile task that never ends. So I've just learned to say, "done".
Very helpful and thoughtful David. Thanks heaps. I need to go through this a few times and take notes! You've addressed all the problems I'm currently experiencing.
Thank you for this wonderful video David. Most of this stuff is equally relevant to my field of the arts (not music). Your insight and clarity of thinking on the more confusing and frustrating aspects of the creative process mark you out as a first rate teacher. :)
I've been waiting for a video like this! All great advice. I know I've struggled with the last two in particular. Your point on the cultural implications of each instrument and it's history is a cool way of thinking of things.
There a few RU-vid channels that inspire and motivate me to push past my mental blockers and work on music. Your channel is one of them. Even if it's for 20 minutes, I usually open up Ableton after watching one of your videos. Thank you for sharing your work and perspective!
You really gotta write tons of stuff. I probably composed a hundred bad to okay pieces before I started making good ones. Also try and keep the pieces short, limited in scope and instrumentation (no huge orchestras) and try to have a goal for the piece like (this piece I'm going to do something cool with the oboe" or "this piece I'm going to see how much I can do with just harp and strings" and then build up from there. Don't worry about making it perfect or amazing. All my early pieces were short studies like this on specific instruments and combinations before I eventually moved up to a small standard orchestra (no auxiliaries) and then eventually moving up to the large scale orchestra I currently write for. There is no point in having lots of instruments and auxiliaries if you don't know how to use them.
Thank you so much... very good pointers and especially the number 8 really resonated and gave food for some thought on how to proceed with my own music writing and producing path.
Such a great informative video, I really thank you for the great advice. Through my composition journey, I think I've started to realize all these things subconsciously, but this video really put them all into words, and hearing the intuitive explanations really was enlightening. Let this video inspire the composers of the future!
I have a ninth problem: When thinking of a melody in my head I start with something and then continue the melody. But as I continue I nearly always end up in a melody from already existing music. It is extremely hard to not fall back to already exiting pieces.
These are very good tipps. Especially the last one. With my 34 years I heard it a lot, that you shouldn't compare yourself, that your goal shouldn't be to be a master right from the start. And it is true! And although knowing that, from time to time I start comparing and thinking: Am I good enough to do ? Instead I should ask myself: Am I happy with the result I made? Was I happy making the thing? - If one answer is yes, you should continue it.
Thank you for this video. I appreciate very much your useful advice. A great problem I continuously experience, but which was much more severe at the very beginning, that is that I compare myself to higher professionals, or that I have something in mind that I am not yet ready for with my knowledge. That causes a lot of frustration. Then I said to myself that life will not end after this composition and I will always be able to write another one, a better one, and with each composition I am learning a bit more and I am getting practice which is one of the most important components of my skills. If it sounds strange when I compose for 4 voices, why not start with 3, or even 2. When I feel helpless about an organ, why not write for melody instruments first. I startet with poems, melodies and guitar chords, and I had a basic musical theory and voicing training. At the moment, I am writing chamber music to enhance my experience. I want to write for orchestra one day, too, but there is still a long road to go.
I think this is one of wisest thing I've heard in my entire life, and I would have needed to hear it like 40 years ago. Repeated and literally bashed into my head. Thank you so much!!
Composing from a fixed reference such as sunset, an abandoned house, a ghost town etc. can help tons to keep the music consistent. Actually, it's storytelling all about.
About tip 2: The first and only piece I ever stayed happy with after composing it has come together exactly like that. Over a period of two years I wrote down little fragments of music and one evening I suddenly discovered that they all fit together quite nicely.
This is fantastic. I watched this. Then some time passed and I watched it again. It is good. Very useful. I'm excited to write something new. Thanks again, David!
The points about making movement a part of the nature of the piece (as opposed to only in the transitions), and specifically pinpointing the "parts you're slightly embarrassed about" in your writing as the things that make your writing unique, were what I needed to hear today 🙏
Thank you very much David! Even though I am a pianist rather than a composer, I can really apply most of your tips to better deal with the inner critic both in the practice and performing settings! Very useful and helpful!
The last part may be the most usefull honestly. A lot of time, I hear a lot of people saying they hate a music genre or another, and some of them actually are genres I worked on. I tend to take these critics too seriously ( am I just doing crap ? / is there actually people who could listen to my crap ? / should I give up ?... ) even though they're not directly targeted to my tracks. As someone who made a lot of chiptune, I oftently hear people saying this kind of music is unstandable/not even music/lacking of "feeling". I love chiptune, I know how weird this kind of music is, and I would love not to care about the critics that are targeted against this genre, but I can't... Everytime I hear someone hating on chiptune, I take that personnaly because chiptune is fully part of who I am.
4:10 woo. That is exactly how I work. Work with a DAW, and I have this project which is just a collection of transcriptions or native ideas of a few bars. If I like it. Feel like it works as a hook, and I can find a few ideas that sorta work together, I just stitch em together. Pretty happy with the results. Seems like an efficient way of writing.
Fantastic video, David. A very honest account of some very familiar struggles. I think creative individuals need to be reminded of the fact that everyone else faces the same challenges from time to time, regardless of ability or experience. Oh and the "Three Blind Mice"/Amadeus mashup almost caused coffee to shoot out my nose. Keep up with the fantastic content!
What he said at the end is soooooooo so true. Self live and care as a composer is literally one the most different parts. Of all the stuff you know and learn, Nothing compares to this. It’s sooooo important. Everything else comes secondary.
Great tips! Like when I do painting, I always leave room for the universe to add magic in unexpected ways like those strokes that were not intended but add the most magic to the piece. I often look at my paintings and listen to my music and feel like some parts was not my doing. In other words, I may have the main idea and vibe but try not to be such a control freak over what actually happens in the details.
When I compose I just use my DAW as a canvas and start composing bits and pieces. It's never linear. Then I find that some of the fragments come together. and some don't. Sometimes my comps take months to complete. Great info... THANK YOU!!
Writers block is real… Whether it is music, a novel, a poem, a dissertation or the like - sometimes your brain just doesn’t work as you wish 🤷🏼♂️ I am never intimidated by other peoples’ compositions - I just wait until ideas come into my head, jot them down while playing and recording them at the same time and develop them either immediately or later. Putting ideas aside until later is good if you’re feeling “stuck” 🙏🤷🏼♂️
