In ‘A poor mixer blames their tools’, I helped you remove the first stumbling block that many people let affect them when it comes to creating music. Now, it’s time to dig a little deeper and focus on something very simple you can do that most people won’t.
Most people will never put a plan in place for their creative process. Those that do, often appear to be music-making machines. They’re those people that produce so much work, that we’re left scratching our heads wondering how they do it.
Have you ever looked at someone so prolific and wondered:
- How do they keep producing such great music?
- How do they keep the quality level so high?
- When do they sleep?
They’re all valid questions and they tie in to the fact that most people fall at the very first hurdle by comparing themselves to such prolific, creative people.
But the good news is that anyone you look up to in music is human… a mere mortal… just like you and I. Well, unless the wool has been completely pulled over my eyes and they’re all robots!
And the great thing about being human is that we are highly adaptable, creative beings, capable of achieving great things. Yet a lot of us are engaging in the musical equivalent of trying to cycle a bike with a flat tire. We’re getting in our own way.
You know that you shouldn’t compare where you are now to the achievements of someone at the very top of the music industry. Don’t get me wrong… admiring someone at the peak of their powers and having an aspiration to achieve similar results is healthy. But comparing where you are right now to their success is never going to be helpful and can lead to negative results.
Focusing on your goals and getting positive results for you right now is always going to serve you better.
And today, I’m going to help you understand the secret as to why some people really are music-making machines.
The big secret is…
They have a method. A systematic approach that they apply to their creative process to get amazing, consistent results.
If you deeply examine the greats in music, you’ll be able to see the common trends of a methodical approach, every time.
Songwriting geniuses like Paul McCartney and Ryan Tedder have that approach. World class producers like Rick Rubin and Paul Epworth have that approach. Great performers like Beyoncé and Ed Sheeran have that approach.
Whether they share it with you or not, you can be sure it’s there.
What’s even more interesting is that they probably don’t share it because they’ve learned that people are generally horrified or don’t believe them when they tell them the truth about what’s involved to be that good and that successful.
Let’s look at it on a much smaller scale. Take the standard office worker who somehow manages to look incredibly fit yet sits at a desk for 8-10 hours a day, commutes an hour each way to work and also has time for his/her family.
What’s the standard answer when someone asks how they stay in such good shape?
“Oh I just watch what I eat and try to stay active”
That reply is total bullshit. But why do they say it in the first place?
It’s because if they tell people the truth, it very often hurts and makes the people asking the question feel bad about themselves. The real answer to how they stay in such good shape is probably a bit more like this:
“I lift weights 4-5 times a week, make sure to get some high intensity cardio in twice a week, count every calorie that enters my mouth and make sure to take in enough protein and water to keep me lean.”
Now, like I said, giving an answer like that will make most people’s eyes glaze over and provoke bad feeling. So, after a few negative responses, the standard answer becomes more like, “Oh I just watch what I eat and try to stay active”.
It’s exactly the same with your favourite artist or producer. They won’t tell you what’s required to be as successful as they are because they want you to like them and they don’t want you to be discouraged from achieving your own dreams.
While that realisation can be a little disconcerting, it should also provide you with immense encouragement.
If they’ve done it, you can too. There’s a blueprint. And if there isn’t an exact blueprint for you, then you can build one.
You can create your very own method and like the greats, you can improve and iterate over time.
So, let’s take a very practical example of how this can be applied today.
When it comes to producing music in the modern world, having a reliable, organised system is essential for success. Without an efficient system, it’s like trying to cycle a bike with a flat tire.
Not only that, but organising your system and keeping things clean and efficient will spur you on to take the next step and the next step and so on.
It’s like making your bed in the morning. It’s a simple task but it sets you up to complete more complex tasks as the day moves on. If you don’t believe the psychological effect this has, then maybe you’ll believe a Navy Seal admiral:
Just like Jordan Peterson telling us all to clean our room, there’s incredible merit in keeping our houses in order.
From a music production standpoint, the equivalent is keeping our studio space, equipment and computer in order. I’m not here to give you a lecture on studio organisation and cable management, but I am here to help you maximise your time and potential as an audio creative.
Some of us are lucky to have very advanced, intricate, expensive audio setups. Some of us are running the show on an inexpensive system and some of us are somewhere in the middle. Wherever you are on your journey, it doesn’t really matter.
This point is universal…
You need a method
So, we know that we shouldn’t blame our tools or compare ourselves to others. That’s a great first psychological step. But the next step in building a method is much more practical. It’s the music producer’s version of making your bed.
It’s all about organising your computer for maximum efficiency and productivity. There are many steps you could take but I highly recommend the following five:
- A place for your projects. How many times have you seen someone who saves their projects (or parts of their projects) to their desktop, documents or some random folder? Keep your projects in a dedicated space, preferably on an external hard drive. If you can’t afford an external hard drive, then create a dedicated space on your computer’s hard drive and keep it clean.
- Organised folder structures. On the topic of keeping it clean… make sure that the dedicated space has an organised folder structure and that files aren’t just dumped in there randomly.
- Organised file management. As well as avoiding files dumped in any old way, make sure that they’re named and organised appropriately. If you have to revisit a project in 6 months time and all the files have been renamed and/or moved, you’re in big trouble!
- A backup. Any sort of backup will do. My recommendation is a spare hard drive that directly mirrors your project hard drive, along with a cloud backup. You can pick one or both but please keep backups. All it takes is one hard drive crash and all your hard work can disappear in an instant.
- A license/password management system. There are multiple accounts and license managers you need to login to on a regular basis – Avid, iLok, Waves, Native Instruments to name but a few. It might seem ridiculous but having to update licenses and forgetting your password could actually stop you from getting to the music-making process if you’re lacking the motivation and discipline to get going on any given day. Eliminate that risk by having a license/password management system. I like to use something like LastPass so that I don’t have to worry about remembering 100 different passwords.
As I’m sure you know well by now, I’m all about taking action rather than philosophising forever about a potential solution. These five quick action steps are something you only need to go through once. And by taking these small action steps that many people don’t, you’ll feel empowered to take bigger steps and keep progressing towards building and iterating an effective method over time.
By continually taking those positive action steps, you’ll find yourself becoming a powerful, music-making machine in no time.
Now, I’d love to know…
Have you ever analysed your own method? Do you feel it’s perfect or does it need work?
Leave a comment below!
professional sounding mix every time...
Hi Stephen!
I think you got some really good points here. Very basic, but you have to start somewhere!
I would add: do some work every day… or at least every second day, but not less. And if it’s only some production, mixing, playing your instrument, songwriting for 15 minutes. It doesn’t matter, but you should make it a habit. Thank you for this article!