Creativity in music can be a delicate balance between contrasting forces. Expression, expectation, judgement, freedom, fame and doubt all have their place, so it is good to have a strong central idea of why you’re making music, and I would always contend that making it for your own enjoyment and expression is the best place to start.
Don’t be in a rush to get famous by following the fashion of the moment. Take time to develop your own style and create your own identity.
Or, if you do want to cash in quick, follow the fashion of the moment but still bring something of yourself to the table. We all have unique attributes.
I would always advise against slavishly following any one style, whether it’s an old one or a current one. Dip in to various styles and try and copy things but don’t worry when they’re not exactly the same – instead see that variation as a welcome attribute of your own style. Don’t get too hung up on details.
Work fast if you can. Capture the freshness of an idea, and don’t overwork it. If you can feel an idea is failing to deliver, just start again with a new idea. Keep moving, particularly in the early stages, as it is all good learning. I think I had about 20 terrible tracks in my first year, and about 100 in my second and about 200 in my 4th. I just abandoned most of them, or quickly arranged them to play with ideas, with no pressure to finish, although I made a point of finishing as many as I could, even very roughly, as that is a good practice in itself (see ‘knowing when it’s finished’)
The best music happens fast. For some reason, those special tracks always come as a fast flow. My 5 most successful tracks all happened like that. Of course you can take much longer to polish them up, but the initial main ideas come quickly.
Get to know one program really well. It can be tempting to switch or learn many programs but generally it’s better to see one as your instrument, and find out all its inside tricks.
Knowing when something is finished – this can be really hard for a lot of people, and it is possible to keep working on something until it is totally shit and all the original greatness has evaporated. I have done this myself many times. It takes practice to know when to stop,and when to say “good enough”.
Persistent effort and focus creates a sort of ‘channel’ that attracts more and more supporting elements. Maintaining focus and not being distracted is very helpful in the process. Just leave the phone in another room and shut the browser.
Knowing when to be sociable and when to retreat and when to work.
TECHNIQUE
Use your software the way you want to – just because one person uses it a certain way, doesn’t make that gospel.
Some good examples:
Burial arranged everything individually in Sound Forge, laying out individual samples until they sounded right, and using no grid or quantise.
DJ Shadow just used samples from records and put them all together using an MPC (sampling drum machine)
Shake Shakir does nearly everything on a Kurzweil K2000 keyboard.
HudMo started out with PlayStation – his first EP I think was done with that – and now uses FL Studio.
If you play an instrument, use it! Even if you use it in weird ways. Contact mics sound great.
Other cheap and easy approaches include using your phone to do field recording and also to record you singing. Check out ‘White Town – Your Woman’ and ‘Khonnor – Handwriting’. Super rough but great ideas.
Always try to find the balance between rhythm and melody. Sometimes just one side is great (like in ambient music, or very techno techno) but generally a mix is most satisfying, even if the rhythm is provided by instruments instead of beats.
Beats generally date music quite quickly. For more timeless music, don’t use beats, or keep them very stripped.
To make good creative decisions it is best to maintain a certain detachment from your work, which is why working fast is good – you have less time to let the intellect analyse and mess things up! Otherwise, try leaving a track alone for 2 weeks and coming back with new ears. It’s amazing how much clarity this can bring.
Don’t listen to half-finished tracks. When you come back to work on then they will sound fresh to your ears and new ideas will come faster and easier.
In general, always be subtracting where possible – making a piece work with the least number of parts necessary. This takes practice. I am not good at this myself.
In this approach each part must hold interest by containing variation, both in notes and in fx treatment.
