Tricks, Tips and Shortcuts Archives - Page 3 of 3

The Challenge of Choice

My latest track, ‘Sundown Ride’, is well on it’s way – hoping to get it done by the end of the month. Today I started work on the part that I love, but which scares me the most – FX.

I’ve started following a few podcasts lately to start getting a sense of the journey other artists have taken on their way to becoming known and respected. It’s been a hard hit on my ego, hearing the lengths some people went to in order to become successful. And that’s good.

What’s less good, is the fear and self-doubt that accompanies it. Primarily around my ability to communicate effectively with others.

Journaling: The Antidote to Producer’s Block

Some 20-odd years ago, a frustrated boy named Ian sat on his bed in the evening, and wrote his first journal entry.

Patience, Grasshopper

I’ve been working a little more slowly lately, as I try to process the mountain of information that is the Alchemy synth on Logic Pro X. I figured I would start with a trial run of that DAW, since it’s closest to Garageband in it’s UI. It’s still like drinking from a waterfall though.

Fortunately, that doesn’t scare me as much as it used to.

In my last business, I made the mistake of working too hard. I wanted to be turning profits now, or preferably months ago. I loved the idea of traveling the world, living off passive income generated by my wildly-successful online courses.

What happened was I became exhausted and burned out.

It taught me an important lesson, one that runs contrary to the words of motivational coaches, successful CEOs, movie stars, heavy-weight champions, and others.

Learning on the Job

I am frequently guilty of losing sight of the doing/learning balance. By that I mean the balance between learning how to do something better, and actually doing it.

The first time I tried to start a business (teaching online dance lessons), I became trapped by the doing, and didn’t have time or energy left for the learning. I was running to stand still.

Music production has the potential to do the same thing – there’s SO many cool things I want to learn, it’s easy to get lost in Youtube and Masterclass videos without actually applying any of them.

At the same time, when I’m closing in on a new song, it’s easy to forget the learning and put all my energy into getting it printed. Which prevents me from using the tricks I picked up previously.

So, I’ve devised a simple way to ensure I continue doing both.

The Purgatory Approach to Getting Sh*t Done

As a very distractible human being, staying focused on a single task has always been a struggle for me.

It was even worse when I was younger. I ran an errand for a teacher – something that should have taken 5 minutes at most – only to be yelled at upon my return for wasting half an hour getting there and back.

I have no recollection of what I did during that time.

The flip side

Declaring something to the world is a dangerous business; the world has a way of immediately testing you to see if you’ll hold to your convictions, or pointing out flaws in your theory.

For example, yesterday I talked how useful the piano was in helping me find melodies and harmonies I liked. And IMMEDIATELY after that, I began to see where this strategy falls short.

Harmonizing with Synths

The jazzy foxtrot is mastered and ready to go! Sadly it will never see the light of day it’s mostly made up of proprietary loops, and the one track I composed myself is a terrible-sounding saxophone. Oh well, still good practice.

Speaking of practice, I’ve figured out a faster way to create harmonies when designing tracks.

Category: Tricks, Tips and Shortcuts