I came to these realizations recently and thought someone might find them useful/insightful.
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Figure out why you want to make music. Don’t do it because all the cool kids do. Do it because you have something to say, even if it doesn’t seem substantial. Everyone has something to say, you just have to find it within yourself.
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Figure out what you’re good at, and put that front and center. If you’re good at writing melodies, write melodies. If you can drop sick beats 24/7, do that. If you’re good at arranging, go remix something. Just because somebody writes a song by starting with X, it doesn’t mean you can’t start with Y. The motivation to finish a track will come from that original spark - the thing you’re best at.
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Identify and get rid of all obstacles. In my case, I know that I can improvise awesome melodies, so I tried using a MIDI editor - didn’t work. Turns out I need to be in the moment, playing an instrument. My first equipment purchase was a cheap MIDI cable to hook up an almost-toy Yamaha keyboard (from a garage sale years ago) to my laptop. It worked. (I’m also working on obtaining a violin pickup and/or getting studio time to record, but that wouldn’t be as illustrative an example) We’re all creative, to some extent - our job is to remove any obstructions and give our creativity free reign.
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Listen to music. You might not consciously take away any specific techniques or ideas, but it may come out later. Expose yourself to as much variety as possible - it’ll hopefully give you perspective in your own music.
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Forget about technicalities at first. I tried to start making music several times, and I always worried that my EQ was off, or that I compressed badly, or that the samples were shit, or….you get the point. Let yourself be creative first, and technical after. If you have something nice to listen to while you figure the technicalities out, you’ll be much more motivated to finish.
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Stop trying to be perfect. Nobody’s perfect on their first try (actually, is there an exception to this?) Don’t let your OCD overcome the creative aspect of making music. I was always surprised when my violin teacher told me I played a passage well, even though I knew I played a bunch of notes out of tune and sloppy. I get it now - when I stopped worrying about getting everything perfect, I could relax and let myself play music, not notes. Essence first, perfection later.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been classically trained on the violin for 8-9 years so some things were already in place for me. Still though, I feel these points apply to anyone who wants to create, even with no music experience. Also watch this video.
Submitted May 02, 2017 at 12:55AM by jkudria https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/68qx7u/how_not_to_quit_as_a_beginner/?utm_source=ifttt