December 20, 2011

Trick #64: Start a musical daybook

It’s a new year, a new beginning. You’ve got a clean slate — what are you going to do differently this year?

My suggestion is to try making a musical daybook this year.

What’s a musical daybook?

Think of it as a diary where you can work out whatever musical or artistic issues you’re grappling with.

It can be a place to store little technical tricks that you might use (or reuse) in the future. Or reminders of things that worked. (How you got that perfect guitar tone, for example.) Or a place to store how-to information from web sites, books, and magazines that you’ve come across. Or a mish-mash of all of the above.

If you’re ever feeling a bit creatively lost, or if you want to see how much (or if) you’re growing as an artist, it can be illuminating to look back at older entries.

Besides, after keeping a musical daybook for a while — like, say, ten years — you never know if there might be enough material in it to turn it into a blog one day. (Hint: you’re reading it :) )

December 18, 2011

Trick #63: You DO care

“Any artist who says, I’m gonna write and play what I want, and I don’t care if anybody likes it, is full of s**t.” -Quincy Jones

If you’re honest with yourself, you DO care if anyone likes your art.

It’s OK to admit that. It doesn’t mean you’re a sellout.

Marc Sirdoreus said a similar thing on this blog back in September:

You see, I understand to an extent when people say “I made this music for myself, and I could care less if you like it”, but that begs the question: “Then why did you go through the trouble of mass producing it”?

I can see that it was fun to write the song in those situations, and it was probably fun to make the demo, too. But why’d you bother showing it to anyone? Wouldn’t it have been more effective to make the creation and hoard it if you are unfettered by anyone’s reaction to your art?

December 17, 2011

Trick #62: Interesting to make != interesting to listen to

One way to determine if a slightly off-kilter idea might be artistically successful is to find a similar idea and ask yourself, “How does this make me feel?”

For example, let’s say I have an idea to make a mix CD for someone, but it’s not an ordinary mix CD. (I admit — I came up with this trick years before it was passe to make mix CDs. Just bear with me for a moment.)

This mix CD has segues, overdubs, and weird transitional effects. Not quite a DJ mix, but something similar structurally.

And I decide to provide no song titles (so the listener can’t prejudge anything), no silence between tracks, and no complete songs — only snippets and abbreviated versions.

On one hand, something like this could be fun to make.

But what if you were the recipient of such a CD?

Would the style/format frustrate you?

Note the difference/gap between something that would be interesting to make and interesting to listen to.

The ideal project should be both.

December 15, 2011

Trick #61: Create the world you want to live in

Create the world you want to live in.

Do it through your music.

For example, I’d written a song called “Hey Lancaster”…

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…which was inspired by some old friends I had lost touch with — and missed.

A few years later, they were serendipitously back in my life. I’m not even sure how it happened.

I credit the song.

December 13, 2011

Trick #60: It’s not about you, it’s about your perspective

While you’re not writing about you, write from your perspective.

How do you find your perspective?

Carry a notebook around all day and jot down all the weird fleeting thoughts that go through your head. Those thoughts point towards your own unique perspective.

And if you can translate the attitudes of those thoughts into a song, you’ve created something that is uniquely yours.

Except you’re not actually writing about you — you’re writing about your audience, but from your own skewed perspective.

Get it?

December 11, 2011

Trick #59: It’s not about you

Songwriting is not about you.

The audience does not really care about you, personally. Especially not before they’ve become hooked on your music.

Songwriting is about your audience.

The audience wants to hear stories about themselves. They want to have a soundtrack for their lives. They want someone else to express something that they are unable or afraid to express. They want insight into their own existences.

Above all, they want to identify with someone.

Do not write the song about how you’re broke, how you’re trying to make it as a songwriter in the music business, and how you hate your day job.

Nobody cares. Nobody will be able to identify with that sort of song.

Well, except for those who are broke, trying to make it as a songwriter in the music business, and hate their day job.

I suppose there’s a market out there for that, but not an especially lucrative one (especially if your audience is broke).

Making your songwriting not about you does not mean you should pander.

Pandering is bad. Pandering usually comes across as “fake.” Most folks can smell “fake” a mile away, even if they can’t articulate why.

Making your songwriting not about you simply means to know your audience, and write about the things that you and your audience have in common.

December 10, 2011

Trick #57: Recognize and embrace patterns

All music is based on patterns.

Rhythmic patterns. Melodic patterns. Structural patterns. Logic patterns.

When does the music you’re working on feel ‘right’? It’s usually when you’ve created a pattern that is similar — but different — from a pattern that’s in your subconscious.

This is not plagiarism; plagiarism is when the pattern is the same thing. Something that feels right is when the pattern shares similarities, and the similarity was not a conscious choice.

For example, I made an album called Girls Aliens Food. I came up with the title while driving. I was thinking about the themes on the album and happened to drive past a strip bar which was advertising “Live girls… food.”

But it wasn’t until months later that I noticed that the rhythmic feel of the title shared similarities to a Lemonheads album that I like called Car Button Cloth.

Plagarism? Nope.

A conscious attempt to mimic the rhythm and logic pattern? Nope.

Did the title Girls Aliens Food feel right on a subconscious level because it shared a similar rhythmic and logic pattern with Car Button Cloth?

Most likely.

Recognize the patterns in your work and in your influences. Don’t try to copy them, but embrace the similarities when they feel right.

December 8, 2011

Trick #56: Stickers everywhere

Does your DAW have a lot of shortcut keys that you sometimes have to look up?

Make stickers for the most important shortcut keys and stick them directly on the keys.

For example, I use Reaper and have a sticker for the word “SPLIT” on my “S” key, “SOLO” on my “O” key, “PREROLL” on my F9 key, and so on.

An additional trick: use standard mailing labels in a printer to print out the stickers. Then put a piece of clear packing tape over everything you printed. Then cut out the stickers and put them on your keyboard. The packing tape will prevent the sticker text from getting smudged (and your fingers from getting inky).

December 6, 2011

Trick #55: Never take more than two days off

When in full-blown creating mode, sometimes you need a break. This is normal.

Take a day off to recharge.

Or take two days off.

But don’t take more than two days off.

For some reason, it’s very easy to lose momentum on a project if you take more than two days off. But one or two days always seems to be fine.

Go figure.

December 4, 2011

Trick #54: Recording a party where there is none

Need a royalty-free party sound with real room ambience — and without holding a party?

Record yourself having imaginary conversations. Do different voice impressions. Tweak the voices by speeding them up or slowing them down. You will likely feel very silly while doing this.

Put all of the conversations onto multiple CDs or mp3 players. Set up a bunch of stereo speakers in the dining room (or wherever you might have a party), each of them playing a different looped recording of a different length. Press the play buttons on everything. Instant party.

It’s especially eerie if you’re in another room of the house. Set up two mics and record the result.

I did this for the party noise on “Cocktails”:

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