The time to nurse an idea is at the time of it’s birth. Every minute it lives gives it a better chance of surviving.
Napoleon Hill
About three days ago, I started work on the first music track that I will be able to call wholly mine – no unmodified presets, no proprietary loops or effects.
It’s been a somewhat terrifying experience at times, but it’s also given me some perspective on my creative process.
Creating something, I believe, ultimately comes from a series of yesses. I can’t say “no” to my creative self too many times before I end up stifling it.
For example, some of the synths I’m using don’t seem to quite match up at the moment. I could stop everything to examine why I feel that way, tinker with the synths to see if I can coax something better out of them, and generally earn myself a lot of wasted time and frustration.
The problem with this approach is it stops the flow. Creative energies always want to move forward. My impulses don’t care if anyone likes what’s being created – they just want to create.
With continued practice and with enough listen-throughs, maybe my instincts will suggest something else that can fit better. But if they don’t, I’ll just finish it anyway, and try to create something better next time. Or rather, I won’t try, I’ll continue until something better is produced.
What’s the difference, you say? It’s the difference between staying in the flow and suffering the equivalent of writer’s block.
See, every time I second-guess myself, I’m essentially saying “no” to the creative process. Even pausing too long will do this. “Trying” in effect, means I’m slowing down the process to put conscious control on what’s being created.
And that’s a recipe for disaster.
What’s easier is to birth the whole framework as quickly as possible. In a couple days, I’ve put together about three minutes, nine seconds of the track – pretty damn good for a first time. It doesn’t sound great, but my faith is that this will change later.
Once the completed idea is on the DAW, THEN I slow things down, look and listen more closely, and pull my hair out trying to get things to sound right.
But trying to produce something perfect from the inception is like trying to control the kind of baby you’ll have – while you are birthing it. Or um, so I’ve been told.
Here’s how I think it works: Out of the primordial soup that is your subconscious, an idea forms. That idea may only be part of a song, or it may be the whole thing. But regardless, you have to try and get the whole thing out of you, with as little distortion as possible.
Succeeding means you’ve produced something congruent with itself, and also with where your subconscious happens to be at that moment. In other words, you’ve just created an authentic slice of the human experience. Congratulations!
But if you take too long, or “try” to make it sound the way your conscious brain “thinks” it should sound, your subconscious is more likely to either switch ideas, or dry up completely.
I’m not saying we should just do everything on instinct – just the first stage, when the idea is at its most delicate.
In the spirit of this, I’ll leave off with my favourite video describing the artist’s creative process (it’s more about drawing, but applies to any artistic endeavour IMO). Enjoy.
Credits:
‘Woman Pregnant Female’ by Free-Photos from Pixabay