How to stop watching tutorials and start making music (a tutorial) 

Since you've sworn off RU-vid tutorials, try this handy (free) eBook containing my favorite Compositional Concepts that have helped me make more music over the last couple decades. bit.ly/FREEcompositionguide *disclaimer: this eBook is just as worthless as a RU-vid tutorial if you never put it down and actually start trying stuff on your own :)

Me watching a video about "How to stop watching tutorials and start making music" instead of making music :p

I've often been asked by people, "How did you learn to do that?" And my answer is usually, "By doing it. Badly. And gradually getting better."

and one day you find ten years have gone behind you, no one told you when to run you missed the starting gun.

My favourite fable is the art teacher who took half the class and said to make a flower pot every day for a month, and the other half had to make 1 perfect pot and spend all month on it. The half that did a new pot each day had way better pots.

This reminds me of the quote by Seth Goden: "Bad writing over time, if you do enough of it, can't persist. Good writing will slip trough."

Also worth noting... The stuff you do early on is probably gonna suck. Doesn't matter. Keep creating. Most things worth doing take time to get good at. Embrace the suck

Thats true with many aspects of life Sometimes i feel like people on social media watch other people having lifes they could have on their own if they just stopped watching them

Yes, this!!! "what are you going to do with all them ducks when they are finally in a row" - Seth Godin" stop lining 'em up, stop theory crafting, get started.

Another way to think about it is to do what painters and illustrators do: keep and use a sketchbook. While I don't do this consistently, I make "sketches" - or what can be called "demos" - where it's just a simple recording of me playing something that "catches my ear". They often come about whenever I go through my various instruments, either auditioning sounds or figuring out how the instrument works. These are never meant to be final recordings in of themselves (though sometimes that has been the case), but they do often spin-off into a final work. This "sketchbook" approach is also equivalent to a ritual/exercise writers can do where you write every day, either a certain number of words or for a certain length of time. The aim is still the same.

100% solid advice. I think watching tutorials instead of doing falls into the same bucket as buying gear instead of using it to make music. As the saying goes "create more than you consume". Your soul will feel far more satiated. Thanks for your thoughtful videos. 🙏

"You don't like being bad at things" THIS WORD. Social Platforms as practice is really a game changing idea. Thank you!

I’ve been hearing this so much everywhere and I’m glad you’ve reaffirmed it. I’m so tired of watching tutorials and ready to have experiences again. Experiences through the shit I create

A quote that has really stuck with me and that this video reminds me of: “Quality beats quantity. But quality quantity beats quality. But in order to get quality, you need quantity. That’s the irony”

Thanks. I needed to hear that. Recently joined a song writing group to make me accountable for 1 song every 2 weeks

Yeah. Since I've decided to go down this path professionally, I tried stuff like: making an entire song (one with lyrics) from scratch, including arrangement, recording, mixing...end product in just 24 hours. I found out I can do that. Just because I want it and put myself into workflow by time pressure.

You hit this topic right as I have realized it myself. I have spent so much time pouring over the internet to find the "right way" to think about music theory, DAWs, and the creative process. None of those countless hours matter when I am producing music because no tutorial is going to truly experience for my brain. I have to find out where I am short myself, focus those areas, and walk the path myself.

Signal is still one of the most beautiful thing I've ever heard.

Absolutely! We have to produce /compose a lot of garbage, to, from time to time, find a gem on the pile. Thanks for sharing. Stay safe.

Finally! A tutorial for how to not watch tutorials. I've watched it several times already but don't understand all the steps. With some hard work and dedication, I will get there! 😁

As someone who is looking to do a soft relaunch of their own channel and return to creating more music and achieving a healthy sustainable balance I really needed this video, thank you!

Ditto! I decided to make a melody and chord progression recently. I thought it sounded pretty good. But I asked myself, what if I could do better? So I tried again a couple of times. Boy, was I amazed... Having reinvested my time this way, the structure and arrangement of my music came together much, much smoother. I believe it is because the main thematic and melodic ideas were solid enough to build upon, such as a foundation. Keep philosophizing!

True for every craft, every form of art, every ability, just everything. Do it!

Will be right in it after finishing next two bars 😂

When I was young I was told not be afraid of failing, that’s just the part of the whole process. If you were meant to fail, good job, you are already moving forward. Another thing is that many people tend to stop.

I waaaaaaaas working on the iridium, then this dropped

Oh wow lolol The title made me laugh loudly. Thanks for that. Didn't watch the video because I'm busy making music right now, but appreciate the laugh so cheers!!

You are simply wonderful - thank you.

Hi Jameson, I REALLY like your calm honest style. We are a lot of Independent artist trapped in between excitement and hopelessness being overwhelmed about all the fantastic possibilities, strategies, hacks and commitments. For me your channel that I just discovered has given me some comfort in the process - and now I will head over and continue my practice routine. All the best to you from New Zealand, Mads

Thank you, Jameson!

this is not a music making tutorial, this is valuable life advice

Thank you for this. Truly.

As a music producer and recent RU-vidr I feel like this video was hand crafted for me - really loved the insight in this

One thing that can stall a beginner is finding a process, especially how the process begins. Some start with the drums, some find a sample that inspires them, and some will start by building a chord progression. If your starting point doesn't work for you creatively, it won't be a solid foundation to build upon, and everyone's starting point is different. In my experience, a lot of the early suck comes from experimenting with different creative processes and the hardest part is finding that initial jumping-off point.

RU-vid is the greatest tool to procrastinate. As an independent artist I use it to see how much better other artists are and over analyze my own music. So thanks again. I am going to watch this everyday at the beginning of my daily jam sessions.

Wise words-thank you! I'd just add that it can go the other way too sometimes. I stopped making RU-vid music tutorials for the past two months, and my creative productivity has skyrocketed. (On the other hand, there was a time when making the videos also boosted it, as it focused my attention on certain aspects of music and made me explore and hone my skills with them more than I would have otherwise. But then it became too much a center of focus and thus a distraction. Man, this stuff complicated...)

Why do I feel so unmotivated when I get home from work? Why does it take more than a weekend to recover and feel human again? Why don't I ever get that time? How can any expression happen when I'm never more than a half inch from my anxiety?

“Signals” is an outstanding record 🎉

the music in the background hit me hard.. great video! informative.

Thank you. All the best, from the king of procrastination.

I read the title of this video and the Universe collapsed

You are right. Some might call it "Get things done". I try to finish any song I am working on. It doesn't matter how "good" it is in the first place. It is important to complete the journey during the song. In a second step, I spice the song up. Some might call it "Mastering", but I won't ever call me a mastering engineer. And so, the actual song grows and grows. And suddenly, it's ready to release. But I won't play the Social Media game. We all spend more than enough time on those platforms. Sometimes the people like what I do, sometimes not. That's life. But as long as I am happy with my song, I won't give a dime on algorithms and stuff.

wise words. listening you tour tunes on tidal. reminds me a little of jon hopkins...which is excellent!

You resonated with me when you said that you had researched all about creating videos… but you weren’t creating videos… I understand all about mid/side eq and how to unmask frequencies, but I don’t produce any music. You have made me question “what am I actually doing?” That’s a good thing btw Much thanks buddy

This made me think about how with my visual art, I looked at exactly one colour theory tutorial and then just… drew, and drew, and drew. I’ll see tips and tricks now and then, but I’m not seeking out image composition tutorials etc. (Though I am making use of photography composition lessons I learned 15 years ago.) Heck, I already was doing that when it came to playing my instruments. I needed a more scattered and varied introduction to music theory from various angles, but I’ve got enough of that now to get going too. I should just do the same with my music production. It’s just so easy to get tunnel vision on one DAW project, instead of doing a dozen little things like I do with my visual art or my live playing. But clearly, watching various videos about people’s process isn’t helping me get closer. Only so many times you can watch “I do the beat, then the melody, then the bass”; “well I do the bass, then the melody, then the beat!” before it stops being illuminating or inspiring or even interesting. I don’t even have writers block on specific elements. I’ve got a ton of melodic and rhythmic sketches I’ve done over the last few years. I’ve been thinking this was an inertia thing, to overcome by building-up enough momentum and just bashing out all the tracks I’ve got planned and sketched and so on. Maybe it’s actually a psychological thing, where the permanence turns me into a perfectionist. I did have that problem with my visual art as well, until I threw away digital tools and focused on my sketchbook. After a couple of years I was able to come back to digital art tools with a sketchbook mindset, so rather than constantly tweaking the first line I’d just do ten more and so on. I hope I don’t need the equivalent of a paper sketchbook, a PortaStudio with re-recording bounced layered tracks, to also gain that mindset when it comes to working with audio.

Great video. Just what I needed.

Excellent, well articulated advice. I resonate with your subdued and sincere delivery - subbed.

Thank you!

I watched RU-vid tutorials for 3 years learning my DAW and the craft of being a mix engineer/recording engineer.....and in my 4th year I recorded my first album and then another band. I did need to know how to record, but the REAL things I needed to learn came AFTER I hit the record button, not before. You are NOT the only idiot here. I am proof of that. :D

Jason Timothy would approve this message. He would like your Mental Game. Quantity > Quality. Ready, Fire, Aim. 15 minutes a day at least. "I don't feel like it" means to do it. Bound to Divide in his 8 hour Ableton lesson just says do everything he does.

Another excellent video that I needed in my life 🖤

Such a timely video. Thanks for this!

Thank you and after many, many, months coming to your channel I decided to sub today. Cheers!

Incredibly grateful for this. ❤Thank you.

I've found this to be true too, but the hardest part was actually getting myself to do the thing regularly. Something I found that really helped was giving myself small, approachable creative exercises that I could do in about 15 minutes every day. For instance, for lyric writing, I found one where you just use a random word generator to spit out 5 random nouns and 5 random emotions, and then you just pick one from each list and write a metaphor using them together. Or another one where you take a random noun, use a rhyme dictionary to find a word that rhymes with it but that you wouldn't normally associate with the original word, and then try to write a few lines of poetry around that rhyme. I think the fact that the exercise uses random words kinda separates it from your ego a little bit, which makes it easier to practice quieting that inner critic and just do anything, even if it's not "good" because it doesn't feel precious to you.

Yep, Great Reminder!!! Thanks....

Great video!

I've noticed it is much easier to watch RU-vid videos about making music and buy expensive virtual instruments than it is to make music.

Thanks for this also dug the sounds in the one! 🌊

Than You 🙏🏻

I set myself with some gear... and a weekly show. For the most part of the show I just live mix some ambient music... but then I decided to do a small step up and offer a small (10 to 20 minutes out of the two hours the show lasts) semi-improvised live music. It gives me a week to prepare a set list, and then, prepare the loops, patterns and sounds I will use to play two different songs. And yes, I have made a lot more music, some are just... well, listenable. Others, I want to go, record the tracks and make a full song. So yeah, it works: Go and make music.

This is so important, thank you for talking about it!!

Long time listener first time commenter, but also frequent drinker so who knows, fabulous advice. Thanks for all you do!

Well said.

Yup. 👍

Excellent advice. Thank you! Although my experience in all fields shows that, on the grand scale, the artist is not the best judge of their own work and how it is received, however, on a daily basis, exploring ideas, getting over the terror of the blank canvas and learning to differentiate the more promising parts of what we do will ultimately result in work that we can feel some pride in. Not making that mark or that sound results in nothing at all. All the songs you never wrote come out that way.

Nailed it. Also sometimes you get good at something by accident, just because life made you do a lot of it for some reasons...( ofc it's also because of you xD )

As some one who is intentionally putting off music production until the next year. Because of wanting to pursue other skills. I found your video as the best first step when i inevitably jump into music in the future. Also found a connection between your advice to my passion of learning drawing. So in conclusion great video

yep i've made over 100+ tracks over the last 2 years and eventually i made some stuff that didínt suck completely . it still crap but it's getting better

So smart he is. Inspiring idea to just make a lot more much more frequently.

I've been wanting to learn how to produce for over a decade, feels impossible for me to learn it all on my own (adhd go brrr) and I can not afford the courses I see offered throughout the years in general. (even fl studio will be a few months of saving up) Keep beating myself for not getting the ball rolling (would mess around in a free daw, but get upset at it being bad despite me being completely new to this, spend hours on tutorials and just get more lost) but this advice helps, just need to figure out proper resources for the foundations and CREATE. Perfectionism is the beast I need to defeat. Edit: Just noticed the links in the description! Thank you for providing free resources.

I'm in a state where I feel completely empty at the moment - like I have absolutely nothing to add to whatever I have done before. I know from experience it's just a phase and it too will pass, but for now I'll just watch another tutorial thank you very much.

Best ambient, soulful album ever ❤

Just thank you, simple important words.

Somehow you are right

I remember watching a video about how prolific Mozart was, and it inspired me to just make as much stuff as possible, just like you're describing here. I did this 2018. So much creativity came out of those sessions that it sort of snowballed into 2 or 3 albums worth of material that is culminating in a huge project that should finally be done this year.

Maybe I learn differently but watching a RU-vid video does give me ideas what I could try out, I do learn some techniques that I never knew and seeing some stuff does make me want to try it myself and it motivates me. Then again, I am not a professional musician which means I can take my time and do whatever I want. I needn't make a song every day. I'd get better at making music, for sure. But I'd probably miss out on something else, be it my GF or a sunny day or an afternoon nap. Who cares? 😉

Repetition is key with one caveat. In my days of mastering the art of playing the piano, I had a teacher, a mentor, who would guide that repetition and help me improve at least marginally over each next iteration. Without a guide, one can tread the same circular path ad infinitum, like my amateur piano player neighbor, who kept playing Motzart's Turkish march for 20 years with the same mistakes every time. I don't know where to find such guidance in the production of music. YT only gets you so far.

i thankfully got the inverse going on where i could never sit down to watch some 15 min tutorial without dying of boredom

Haven't watched the video yet, but the title gave me a giggle, so have a 'Like'

❤

I turn on the synths and i touch them. ❤

Haha yeah I suffer from this 100%! 😆

People fail to realize that even though practice can help, knowing if you're practicing correctly is what will make you improve quicker. Saying, "Practice," or "Get good," doesn't tell you what you're doing wrong and what you're doing correctly.

Meta!

I have no problem making music. I have a focus problem. I make noises without purpose or form and never really save or arrange. 😅

The first tutorial I ever watched was an abelton 10 tutorial. Its time length was a few hours divided into 2 parts. I watched the first 20 minutes before turning it off to never watch it again. That was 5 years ago…. Today I watch tutorials on the basics when receiving a new piece of gear to learn about certain functions. I’ve NEVER watched video telling me how to make the actual music that “I” want to make because that info’s already flowing through my veins, Even THIS video was stoped at the 3 second mark to drop this comment and after I press the send arrow I again will turn this video and my phone off to go create More of the Music that I’m inspired to make, am I influenced by others? Of course I’m sure ! But it comes in the form of inspiration and even those inspirations are from every single thing around me as I live day by grateful day. Hence the reason I don’t use samples but that’s another topic. Thank you @JamesonNathanJones For bringing this up and saying whatever it is you’re about to share with everyone because this really needs to be discussed more. Everyone, Allow your Heart and Soul to be your greatest tutor. 0:03

Me absolutely drowning in my 17 music theory/composition textbooks: “hahaha yeah, RU-vid bad 🤤”

Failing is the natural impulse to adapt, improve and overcome. 😂

Watching this now instead of the course from you lol.

I made music and in my twenties stopped because of work, life, family, time etc...I'm in my fifties now and last month I decided that I wanted to start making music again. Which leads me to your video and needing to stop watching tutorials. It's a difficult balance for me because 30 years ago, there was no DAW and plug ins. So I need to watch tutorials but your video comes at a time where I'm noticing that it's all I'm doing...watching tutorials...Being kind of a perfectionist is not helping either. I need to go back to the playing now otherwise I'll still be listening to classes in 6 months. Time has passed, I won't get these years back no matter how many classes or videos I watch. When I got my first keyboard and looked at it trying to figure out how it worked, I played with it and I figured it out. There was no internet so I had no other choice but to figure it out. I had less resources to help me learn but also no distractions. I need to do that again right now. I need to play and figure things out as I go along. I know there will be times that I'll feel lost. Then I'll go watch a tutorial but at least I will have started making something.

Do you start a new project every time you make one of these? Seems like a lot of overhead for each one. Are there any general DAW strategies to minimize set up time?

i use tutorials as my ear rest time. nothing resets your ears and gets you excited to work on actual music like listening to someone talk about compression for hours

Yep. I noticed that after I started to take actual paid music making courses (including a composition course and a synthesizer course from some dude called Jameson Nathan Jones) , my productions have grinded to a halt even though I try to actively utilize the learning from the courses. I mean, I'm learning a lot from all the courses, but still...

Short and to the point. Like the shorts worn.

You mentioned creating a lot of content before you make an official release and you mentioned two official albums in particular (Somewhat the Same and Signals). I'm wondering if you can comment on the statistics of the amount of listening you've had on these albums relative to the consumption of your RU-vid or Instagram content that is music (as opposed to tutorials and product comparisons). The notion that "The Album Is Dead" has been around for well over 10 years (maybe 20?). I feel like even that although no one has said "The Single Is Dead", on social media (as opposed to Spotify) that has also been true for years. So two questions: First, could you unpack your "reach" of your own music on Streaming (as albums that are very official and intentional) vs. your reach of music on Social (as experiments and are less official). Second: I think I know how those numbers are going to play out. And if that's correct, why do you hang on to the idea of an official album? Is it habit? Aesthetic preference? Other professional motivations? And I ask this as someone in their late 40s who absolutely clings to the idea of albums as the most important expression of musical art.

Can wait for the follow-up to this: How to stop making tutorials and start making music :)

Love your videos - they are always very well thought out. And the choice of background music - nice. Checking out Signals - great cover.

but what if you dont knowhow to do anything

You need both. Far too many think the way to become an artist is through creativity alone. It is not. You need meticulous study of the craft of others and the traditions of your genre as well. You could not have made that music without the knowledge you brought with you.