“Planned Happenstance” in Music Composition/Production
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
The human mind is interesting. Interesting in the way that no two of them are alike or perfect in any way. We all have limitations to the strengths of our percepts and instincts, hence we cannot foresee the outcome of an event or an action beyond a certain level of detail and certainty.
In the field of Music Production (or any other forms of artistic expression), artists seek this thing called “Inspiration” which is basically a specific arrangement/configuration of known elements (elements can be one or many of instruments, sounds, places, people, colors, patterns, feelings, just anything) that instantly drive you to create by making you feel something deep or unexpected.
It should be obvious that with the world as diverse as it is and technology like music streaming services and software that we should never run out of inspiration. But that’s all in theory. It happens a lot in reality. A music producer would be sitting for hours in the studio producing nothing at the end of the day. Maybe all kinds of artists face it in some way but I’m talking about people who make Music. Some people wait for a happy accident to just happen without realizing that there needs to be some entropy in the way they do things. It’s irrational to expect a new idea to come to you if you keep doing the same thing over and over. Sometimes the only way to enable the process is to stop trying so hard for a while and allow yourself new sensory experiences.
Exposing yourself to new music constantly
An Eskimo doesn't dream about a Mercedes. Not because he’s poor or anything but because in the environment that he’s exposed to, there’s no need for one. He is perfectly happy cooking hunted food and chilling in his shelter. It turns out that our minds aren't very different from theirs. Once you surround yourself with music that you like, you feel satisfied with it. You might even create a few pieces of your own, conforming to your favorite styles in some ways. But eventually you’ll run out of ideas, because you only know the sounds that you like.
Therefore, sometime you’ll have to look out of the box that you created for yourself and finally step out of it “just to see what it’s like”. And just stepping out for 5 seconds won’t do the trick, you have to stay there for extended periods to really get in the zone.
Listening to Music from new artists, genres, sources, countries for some days will give you a picture of new sounds, configurations and arrangement. Even if you don’t like it, your mind doesn't reject it completely.
Just “spending time“ with your tools also counts as a process in making music
Nowadays, most artists don’t have just one synthesizer or an instrument to write their music in. Their laptops are full with vst’s producing all kinds of sounds and effects.
The idea is to spend time with these tools without the intention of producing any music at all (especially if you’re experiencing a block). Spend some time learning how they work, turning random parameters up or down and seeing how it affects the sound, adding effects, re-sampling etc. Basically producing “sounds” before you get to music. You’d be surprised how sounds reveal melodic potential that ultimately forms musical elements. I divide my time between messing around and finishing an ongoing project. Because of the first part, there’s almost always an ongoing project and I’m never idle (even though I trash most of the projects at some point).
It’s important to give your brain enough opportunities to recognize hidden possibilities.
All this is not to suggest that it’s all you need for guaranteed happy accidents. New life experiences can also lead you to try lots of new sources of sound and mood. Art ultimately comes out of experiences and accidents. If you don’t bring a change in what you’re experiencing, you’ll run out of accidents and eventually, art. Once subjecting yourself to different things becomes a routine, nobody can stop you. Not even you.
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