Page 42 - Zone Magazine Issue 014

STUDIO TIPS 004
How to stay motivated >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Daniel Daly
Wether it's struggling to pick yourself off the couch to run a 5k or bring yourself to finish your well overdue college project, we have all experienced problems finding motivation. Music production or any creative endeavor for that matter, requires a lot of concentration and focus, which sometimes can be difficult due to external distractions or lack of motivation. But don't give up right away if you hit a creative barrier, it happens to the best and most talented people and how you deal with it, is what separates success stories from the failures.
Tip 1: Be Realistic:
Something you have to realize no matter your skill level, is that you have to be realistic when it comes to production. You can't expect to sit down one day and produce a track start to finish and be 100% happy with it. Sure, it can happen that you may get lucky one day and everything just sits perfectly in place, but the chances of this happening are very small. If you sit down with this mindset, you are potentially setting yourself up for disaster when you hit a creative wall. When this happens, your motivation will take a massive hit and you will more than likely give up. If you were to approach the writing process with small goals in mind, you would be more likely to leave on a positive note and be excited to return to the track the next day. Some examples of how to implement this, would be to focus mainly on Drums for one day, Bass on another and so on. You could however come from another
direction and instead of focusing on producing a track, you could focus instead on designing and collecting sounds to make any future sessions much faster. By building up a repertoire of sounds, you are essentially saving yourself a tonne of time that you might waste in the future, digging through endless amount of samples, thus allowing you more time to focus on being creative. Efficiency is key when producing music, as you want to lay down your ideas as quick as possible, before your creativity runs out.
Tip 2: Try Something New:
Producing the same type of music or implementing the same techniques with no success over and over again, can often produce boring results. As the popular saying goes “Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results,” This idea translates across a lot of everyday life and change is something you should never be afraid of. If you were to come from the Supersaw filled background of Trance and attempt to make Drum & Bass, you would often find yourself having to learn and implement new techniques and plugins, to make the heavy Reese basslines of Drum & Bass. You can then take what you have learned from your time experimenting and use it to influence your own productions, essentially creating something new and unique. It can quite often be scary to make changes like this, as you might feel that you are doing your genre of choice an injustice. What you have to remember, is that genres need to evolve or else they become stagnant and fall apart. By experimenting and doing something that
might not be seen as a “traditional” style, or way of producing your genre of choice, you are in fact helping breathe new life into the genre. If Kraftwerk didn't take the structure of traditional music and fuse it with electronic instruments and custom made machines, we might have never heard electronic music as it is today. Music as is life, is all about taking risks and trying something new. You can never expect to grow as an artist or as a person, if you rely on the same ideas over and over again. Never be a prisoner to somebody else's ideas and always trust your best judgement.
Tip 3: Take A Break:
Sometimes when things just are not going your way, a break is the best step to take. Like anything in life, it is nice to have some time to relax and switch your mind off. Sitting in front of a computer for hours on end day after day, can be very taxing on both your mind and your body. Personally, I'd recommend taking a break from technology completely for a day and if possible get some fresh air. Sometimes it is the time spent not producing music, that can end up being the most productive. Spend some time actually speaking to real human beings, instead of chatting to anonymous users on various music production message boards. Use this free time to listen to new music, research new plugins and equipment and most importantly, enjoy yourself. Music production should be an enjoyable experience, not one that you feel forced into doing if you aren't feeling up to it.
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