Musical Minimalism: How To Finally Finish Your Songs 

Wooooo - last video before I leave for Paris for a few weeks. In the meantime, do me a favor and go get some sh*t done. Become a Patron ► venustheory.com/patrons

This helped me a lot : "Highly focused people do not leave their options open. They select their priorities and are comfortable ignoring the rest. If you commit to nothing, you’ll be distracted by everything."

"Pixar films don't get finished, they just get released." Handwritten letter to fan, from director of Monsters, Inc.

As an architect and (a self-proclaimed) musician I always try to remember that: The design is finished not when there's nothing else to add, but when there's nothing else to remove from it.

"9 times out of 10 when facing writer's block, it's because you are afraid of what it won't be" this perfectly describes my anxiety around a lot of tracks I can't finish. It's helped me to just give myself a deadline on a track and release it, regardless if it sucks to me or not. At the least, it builds skills for future tracks and it forces me to keep moving forward. Thanks for the vid!

Common misconception about 4’33, it’s not 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence, but rather 4 minutes and 33 seconds of ambience. It’s an encouragement to listen to how musical the world around us already is, and courts the idea that the only thing that separates noise and music is perception. If you watch John cage perform the piece, he usually does it outdoors with life and nature making sounds around him, not in a sterile soundproof concert hall.

"Music is a top down thing. You can't master your way out of a bad mix, you can't mix your way out of a bad arrangement, you cant arrange your way out of a boring song and you cant sound desing out of a fundamentaly crappy idea." man that was just BRUTAL TRUTH!! ❤

“Rule of 3” *The White Stripes have entered the chat* I’ve come to think of minimalism as “it’s not about fewer things; it’s about the right things.”

any time I need to compose, I have a personal challenge! compose it with magical 8 bit plugin! give myself 3 channels. square, triangle & noise drums. does it sound good? export as midi, import it back in. EXPAND IT, MAKE IT BIG, MAKE IT BEAUTIFUL. :D

I’m 61. I’ve been recording songs for 45 years. And I’ve learned as I’ve (arguably!?) gotten better at it that the stronger the song (as in the copyrightable bits: melody and lyric), the less you need to support that melody and lyric. Great video, Cameron. Well done!

Really like your style. You're not only a good musician and producer, you are like a creativity philosopher, always pushing people forward to create, without fear. Best respect. Have you written a book? You should.

Filmmaker here, I couldn't help but feel how many parallels I could draw between music production and filmmaking. I think all of the ideas presented in your video can easily be applied not only to filmmaking, but many other art disciplines.

My jaw is on the floor right now. I'm almost in actual tears. Goosebumps! I've been producing for well over 20 years. I'm currently 40 years of age. In the last few years I started to really get burned out when it came to producing new music. I just didn't feel like sitting down and spending countless hours on making new music anymore. Especially due to the fact that I never really "made it" as a musician. I've made some awesome music over the years, but never was able to make a career out of it. The way I'd envisioned all those years ago when I pressed my first key. Because of that, it's lead to me getting burned out. And because of that, as well as NEVER making it within the industry, it lead to catastrophic depression! The feeling that I'd just wasted 20+ years of my life for almost NOTHING! Especially when you factor in all the naysayers throughout the years. The people telling me to "grow up.." or "get a real job.." or... "you better have other options than just music!" With that said.. I stumbled upon this video and it completely blew my mind. Similarly to the way you said you felt when you were 15 regarding the white canvas. For years I would make a beautiful song.. but always left the project in an unfinished state.. simply assuming it needed more! And not just more as far as vocals, but MORE sounds, more instruments.. MORE MORE MORE! I think we come to that point because these days instead of having a guitar, a piano, a bass, and maybe some drums.. we quite literally have thousands.. if not hundreds of thousands of different sounds/instruments/vst's to choose from. This has always made me feel like my instrumentals were always lacking, or that they NEEDED MORE! When in reality, some of the best songs I've ever heard in my life maybe have 3-6 different sounds in them. Including most rock bands etc. that are out there! I appreciate you for this! This may help me relight the candle that has been fading away for the last several years.

I finish my songs. It’s the ‘final’ finish that takes forever. Ears play tricks on you after you’ve lived with a song for too long. Good stuff.

"Never fear simple ideas" - 🙏🏻

For me the thing when I started to finish my tracks was when I stopped pleasing anyone else but myself with my music. This eventually led me to really like my own music. And I'm a firm believer that you need to be your own biggest fan. If you don't like what you create, how do you expect anyone else to like it? But, if you like your own creations, there's a fairly big chance that someone else will as well. And this has nothing to do how complex music I make, I just make what I enjoy to make and make decisions just to please myself. I haven't felt a writer's block since (I've been there back in the days and that was exactly because I tried to please other people, not myself - trying to chase the trends so to speak).

"Only having what you need" as a definition of minimalism makes perfect sense and can be applied to many things in life, including music production. This not only cures those from hoarding VSTs and unnecessary synthesizers, libraries, and MIDI controllers, but it also amplifies the likelihood of completing a musical piece or any given project. Thanks for the homework. Enjoy the wine.

Recording everything live as one stereo track is my favourite way of really getting s**t done. 👌

It’s strange when you hear exactly what you need to hear at the exact time you needed to hear it. Some form of synchronicity perhaps… I’ve had such a creative block that I haven’t touched an instrument nor booted up a DAW in almost a year. The ideas in this video somehow changed that and I’m actually excited; something I haven’t been in relation to composition in quite some time

This was something I noticed years ago when I got my first mastering gig. It was for an IDM compilation, and most of the artists on that album had been producing for 20+ years compared to my 5 years at the time. So I had the opportunity to listen to these tracks from much more experienced artists and force myself to think about how they were structuring their songs so I could bring the best master to each song, and inevitably I compared what they were doing to what I was doing. Without fail, I could tell that they had less stuff going on in their songs than I did, but there was much more intention (or at least the appearance of intention) behind every thing in there. It's taken years, but I feel like I've gotten much better at that now. When I sit down with an idea, I try to put only that down in the DAW with no other embellishment. I get that base polished up and then see if I hear anything else. My average track count hovers around 10-20 tracks (with half of those just being dedicated channels for each drum hit, and another quarter being FX sends). Average number of inserts on each track is 2-3 (EQ - often just a simple 3 band bus EQ with compression and/or saturation as needed). My most recent 3 tracks were finished in 4-6 hours each, and I'm still enjoying listening to them too.

Everything, from camera work, recording quality, editing, narration style and concepts delivered makes this an amazing video. This is premium quality content and it could easily be a whole paid masterclass by itself. Well done Cameron.

"So that's it. That's your homework. Get out." 😂 Awesome as always, Cam. Over complicating projects is definitely something that I struggle with quite frequently.

Found your channel recently and your production videos (from a moral perspective and feelings, like this one) got really deep into me. These videos are not only about music, but how to be successful in any other hobby or any other thing. You say such simple but very important things, and this blows my mind. Your videos really bring a new wave of motivation and self-confidence. I don't really know who you are as a person, but as a teacher and psychologist you are the best. That actually makes me think a lot and now I have no fear of my music being shit as hell. I was really scared of it but still wanted to hear what people think about my music. I have no fear and it's time to shine. Thank you.

I've watched and rewatched this multiple times now and I actually plan to watch it over and over again. I needed to hear this, thank you

Talk about timing! I'm in the midst of recording an instrumental album by myself and I can't tell you how much this resonated with me. In the past I've gotten stuck so many times due to option paralysis, over thinking things and trying to add so much to a piece in order to make it "enough" that they started falling apart and eventually gave up on them all together. There is something to simplicity and intent. A solid melody doesn't need much to spice it up ❤

I really love these kind of videos. It‘s inspiring for me, when You talk about the process of making music in general. Very refreshing between all the tutorials on small detail here on RU-vid. Thanks for sharing Your experience and information!

Your videos are timely as ever. Thank you 🙏 I’m opening my DAW to work on something I started yesterday. I’m going to keep this one simple and see what happens

I've followed you for a while now, this video is the reason why. Clear message, thought out and concise. Something I needed to hear. Thank you.

Thank you! Everytime I open this channel there's always a video motivating us to keep going on what make us happy and share what we can say on our music!

You hit the sweet spot between life-optimization, philosophy, sound design and comedy for me... thanks for being here and doing what you do! 🙌 You are awesome, Cameron! Enjoy your time in Paris :)

This felt like a massage for my brain. I’m tired of making complicated music. Thanks for the tips! 🙏🏾

bro these videos recently they are all straight up bangers and extremely motivational. Well done! masterful work

Needed to see/hear this today! Thank you! Always grateful for your videos 🙏

a wonderful post! Thank you for that. I've been trying to reduce my songs to 8 tracks or less lately. This also applies to 8 or less instruments. It's very liberating and fun as hell 🙏🏻✨🌈🍀🕊

I'm an Italian native language... But your video is pure poetry. You are a musician, have a beautiful deep voice and an incredible story teller. Keep it up.. I think you make videos better than the previous.. And I go suddenly finish my sketchy tracks !!! Cheers!

Thank you for a much needed kick in the keister! Your vids are always so helpful

Signed in just to tell you how much this video just changed my life. You put so much into perspective for me here, as someone who is *still* trying to find themselves musically, this helps tremendously. Thank you, friend.

I’ve been doing what I consider to be a type of minimalist electronic since 2019. In the beginning it was due to the fact that Live Intro only allowed 8 tracks to be recorded easily. But even tho I graduated to Studio, I felt compelled to make music with fewer elements than most people. I have a 14 track mixer (Tascam Model 16) and, except for EDM, I never use all the tracks. And somebody must be listening, I have over 750,000 plays.

I've been producing for around ten years, with some of those as a composition major. I've "finished" like 3 tracks, with literally 3 2TB harddrives (2 of them corrupted) of music started and not finished. It's gotten to the point I think something is wrong with me. I quit music after performance anxiety/medication and depression led to a bad car accident and traumatic brain injury and now work in the Emergency department. I still produce, more so these days now that it's more fun again. But it really still weighs on me greatly not having something finished that I feel proud of

I just wanted to say that I love your philosophical, highly motivational, educational and emotional, wide-ranging content so much! This video was my morning coffee for today and yes, hopefully I'll get some sh*t done! Much love and thanks from my place to you Cameron 💜

Man, discovering this channel made me see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was very scared that my music was not up to some modern standards of music, not having the same sound quality of many other producers, always felt like it was never good enough or that it was maybe too simple. I'll say this with utmost sincerity thank you man, I needed something like this. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! You have an amazing community here, seeing how much positivity and support people in your comments give to each other has encouraged me to keep on making music! Thank you fellas!

This is one of the big pro's of recording real amps and drumsets, especially to analog tape; at some point you'll just have to say "this is good enough, we're all done", rather than constantly blending amps, trying out different IRs, time align, autotune and harmonise everything into oblivion until every audible frequency is stuffed

Sitting down staring at a canvas and having all of the options in the world has always been my biggest struggle. I greatly appreciate these videos. I love you boo-boo.

I love the line of being afraid of what it wont be... that really resonates with me. Great video. Thanks for making it!!!

I never subscribed to a channel so quickly and confidently. You have a lot to offer your viewers and I’m happy and fortunate to become one of them 😊

Learning to become a great writer has been more of a spiritual journey for me. A lot of the obstacles I faced, i believed that making a great song was having a specific eq or a plug-in. I thought there was a short cut for everything!! My focus was not even on the music itself. I wasnt having fun at all. I was overwhelmed. Im glad to say that im doing better now and this video really nails it hard, especially when you're starting out. But this is a great reminder for me to focus on the right things and not lose the vision along the way.

bro i was literally about to search for some shit from this channel this video being in my feed is divine timing🙏

Your videos are some of the absolute best on the subject that I have seen at all. Thank you for your work! Going to try to figure out how I can support!

Thank you for this. Over the many years as a professional, working musician we have learnt about ‘less is more’. But your video reminds us of this in a fresh way. It’s so easy to layer. I’m currently writing new music and will again consider your words carefully. Thank you

We all look like fools when we dance, but we are all fools, so we may as well dance

Another One Bites the Dust & We Will Rock You, are two songs that I often think about when I begin complicating things, at that time in Queen's career they could have done anything they wanted, they had access to the best producers, engineers, and musicians, while these tracks are well executed & recorded their bare bones simplicity is the only thing that sticks. Let's go! Steve walks warily down the street With the brim pulled way down low

Yet another inspiring video that feels deeply true. The most memorable and productive ensembles I’ve played in and most stirring performances I’ve seen have often been minimalistic: the classic piano and voice is one of my favorites, or the classic quartets, whether V1, V2, viola and cello or piano (or guitar), bass, drums, voice. Thanks for the video.

It's amazing how RU-vid recommend me your video right after I uploaded my latest video talking about finishing our projects and getting detached from perfection. I'm glad to have found your channel, which will surely inspire me 😊

Totally agree. Got caught up in buying gear that looked cool as opposed to providing me with maximum value. Now I’m sitting with a beat machine and a Hydrasynth and have been having way more fun and producing more than when I had all my extra equipment

Almost like i waited for this 1 from you - i do minimalist songwriting, embrace looping, 4-6 tracks max etc & that's how I released 1 EP a month since 2 years, making it 100 songs by the end of this year.

Such a beautiful video on all aspects. Mad respect for all the time and energy you put on this.

Excellent video! Calm and well spoken, direct into the point, packed with information. Thank you for taking the time to make this video and have an excellent day

Great video! The philosophical ones don't always land with me because I'm an amateur philosopher and I've got 20 years on you. But this one, I needed.

This is a great video! I'm in my 50s, so when I started out, the best thing I could get my hands on was a cassette tape 4 track machine. It was amazing being able to overdub and I had so much fun making music. Now, I have pretty much unlimited tracks, the ability to edit, cheap or even free software versions of effects or synths that would have been well out of my price range as a teen. This is fun too, but can be massively overwhelming. Recently I've been going back to recording live as a single stereo track, or picking 3 instruments and allowing one track for each plus a vocal, playing from beginning to end rather than comping.

I appreciate you taking the time to make this. It's a good way to look at it.

Wow, thank you so much for making this video! I have been thoroughly reflecting on this issue recently. Awesome conclusions, analysis, and delivery, couldn't agree more. Great video, much appreciated.

Very important to remember. Artists. Don't "follow" rules. Might know them, might learn ourselves techniques. But each is their own freak, let it out, let it leak. Never fear, keep on, otherwise you will go wrong.

I started watching your videos back in the days of "what's the cool new free plugin this week?" You don't make those any more. Thank you. The changed focus is a better focus. These videos are worth watching. They're worth watching now, and unlike the cool new plugin videos, they'll still be worth watching ten or twenty years from now. Music changes, but why we make it doesn't.

You smashed it! 🎉🎉🎉 Thank you thank you thank you, I needed this

Hey! Thank you for sharing our interpretation of Composition n.7. I love your vids and when I saw this I couldn't believe it 🖤🖤🖤

Frank Zappa reckoned that minimalism was about getting orchestras performance-ready in less time and for cheaper. Given his own insanely complicated music, which he had to pay orchestras to learn and perform, that's an understandable position.

i feel like minimalism is excellent when you're starting out creating a track. as in, you want to make the core idea (chord progression, melody, whatever) so good that it could just be played on its own. then of course, you'll add parts, mix, master, etc but the goal is to find/create something so good in the beginning as a core that it feels EASY to add all that stuff on top. if it feels like a chore to add stuff to a song, maybe go back to the drawing board

Thank you for existing and being so great. 😊❤

1st video of yours I’m seeing and I’m beyond grateful ! New subscriber here 🎉 blown away by how much you packed into an 11 minute video.

This helped. Thank you

I've been using a rule of 3 for a while interms of limiting influences. I like it as an arrangement tool though, so I'm gonna try that. I've been reducing my production tools like plugins, guitar tones and synth patches too. It's really streamlined my song writing and made it a lot more fun.

this really helped me get out of my writers block. having a clear vision of what the core 1-3 things are for each part of my track and making sure they're executed really well is so powerful. thank you for this

Exactly what I needed to hear right now, thank you!

Nice video! I personally think it's not a matter of how much you write, or how many elements you use in a piece of music. I think it's a matter of how much control you have over what you write: Do you have a clear form and structure in mind? Do you elaborate and derive the elements of your song, either melodic, harmonic or structural, from essentials building blocks that you decided for your song (es. An interval, a melodic phrase, etc)? I believe that, aside from an aesthetic like minimalism or any other aesthetic really, it's a question of how much you are aware of your process and how much you're conscious about what you're doing and what you're working with. ✨

The differences between those times when those older compositions were made and now less distractions that's the difference between 30 & 40 years ago no social media not smart phones you could actually think and enjoy life honestly I feel bad for younger people nowadays their lives are centered around these things and that's not a good thing.

Great piece! This brings me back to college as a classical guitar student and all the great debates that raged in our theory/style classes.

Great video. I appreciate your wit and straightforwardness. I love simplicity in music and feel if the song itself conveys the emotions the writer intends, that’s all you need. Thank you for your work, It’s on another level. ✨

While I have to appreciate your point of view and something like the "rule of three" when striving for productivity, I think something is lost thereby. I love when one can listen to music and discover a new detail everytime. And how these "discoveries" change upon whom you ask. For instance, I myself am a guitarist and find myself suprised to find another new melody or detail everytime I listen to the Dark Side of the Moon Album. A friend of mine is a drummer and he has a totally different musical focus so that his three perceived sounds might be totally different from mine. To find that indivualism in a song is hardly possible with the minimalism approach in my opinion.

Historically, I've had a "make the most of what you've got" approach to music-making. I tried to make each individual element stand on its own and sound as good as possible, and contribute to as much of the sound as needed. Thus, I needed fewer elements, because each element was "bigger." But lately, I've gotten away from that. I've been looking more at layering, at making tiny little things that add in the background. And it... makes things more complicated. Maybe I can return to my roots and try to simplify my pieces.

I'm not subscribing too often to anything but this vid...bless u man, pretty awesome work🎉

This video was what I needed. Great work! Your core message was received

I pissed myself laughing at the school teacher retort… ‘but they did it!’ I’ve been messing around with a track, adding stuff… suck it, getting bounced, it’s finished, move on and ponder the all the other stuff I’m struggling to complete - thank you!!

Someone gave me this advice today: "If you don't release your music, how am I supposed to listen to it? If you don't wanna release it for YOU, then release it for ME"

First time watching your channel man. Amazing stuff. Keep it up🤙

This video and another one from whenuknow had me start and finish a whole track + video visualizer in like 3 days. Started it as soon as I finished watching this. Turned a pointless morning in an epic one. And I feel it's one of the best I've ever done. You are damn right. Thank you.

Man, this is some life-changing philosophy right here. Thank you. I've been trying to finish the 2 songs i'm working on right now for around 12 years because i wanted them to be too complex and epic. Now i'm inspired to just let them be and finish them. Great video bro!

Exactly what I needed to hear. Thanks sooo so much man.

You are the most useful resource on mindset for creating music I've ever come across, this is incredibly useful content and I really appreciate it

My problem is that I get too repetitive in a piece. I start strong, and then it just gets boring quickly because I don't know where to go from there. It's like the road just suddenly runs out in front of me and then I'm just sent careening into the woods...

Everything comes down to having good ideas but how do you know an idea is good? I think that's what happens to me most often. I start an idea that sounds good in my head and as I try to execute it, I'm met with the gap between my ideas and my skills. Then I'm left with the feeling of, "Was the idea bad or am I just bad and can't execute the idea properly?"

VT you are legit one of the best filmmakers on youtube even away from music production and I hope you take the pride you deserve in your work ❤

One of your best videos yet, VT, both in message and delivery. Enjoy Paris and keep doing what you’re doing! The music community is better for it 🙂

The Beatles are a fantastic example of a large catalogue of music created with minimalism in mind. With guitar, bass, drums, and vocals, and sometimes keys, they made an impressively diverse range of songs.

Those final words gave me the chills... This video was very inspiring, thank you! Greetings from Mexico!

I needed this. Great video man.

Great video man, awesome and practical insight. This is making a huge difference in my production. Thank you!

this is the best video ive seen in years, thank you SO much.

Love this channel, thank you for doing what you do

I needed this video 😇 I’m a composer that has a ton of works that are unfinished. I can easily get carried away with having too many ideas, leading to me not finishing it. This was such a helpful video. The rule of three is a super insightful approach to creative practice. I’ll be implementing this into my workflow for sure! THANK YOU 🙏

You deserve so much more than 281K subs. Super grateful for this one.