@@martyrx3436 "Good artists copy, great artists steal" as Steve Jobs said which was stolen from Picasso...who stole it from Stravinsky and the list might go on! :)
As a solo indie game developer doing music, art, and game design, I really appreciate that almost everything you say in these videos applies to just about any creative field.
Hey, I'm a professional music composer myself and have been looking for game designers to collaborate with. I see you do music for your games yourself but still I would love to connect with you! Let me know if this reaches you.
I've been writing music on and off for 30+ years, there's a lot of "muppets" trying to teach you music production on you tube. Mostly talking AT you without offering much useful advice. I like venus theory though as he is well read and the videos make a lot of sense. well done kid, box on!
Cannot like this video ENOUGH. That all makes so much sense. Saving this to my "useful music creation tips" list. The only thing I might argue a bit with is that artists get better with susbsequent albums - get better at defining themselves perhaps but quite often an artist's earlier albums are the ones held in most regard. So there's something in those earlier ideas/working methods that hit the spot. But regardless - this is such a great motivational video; great for repeat reference/reminders, thanks.
THE FLOW STATE!!!! When I was a kid, just learning to program, time would often evaporate. When I decide to learn how to draw a couple decades ago, once I got absorbed into a project, time would evaporate. Nowadays when I work on even a short musical piece time can still evaporate. Those are examples of my flow state. The difference for me with music is I find I have to go back a few hours, or a few days later and ask if it really sounds as good as I thought it sounded. But none of it goes straight to flow state unless I first start, which is another of your important points. Also, consuming a lot less coffee helps to keep me from jumping around from task to task and settle into focus. I love your youtubes. I find them quite inspiring.
Going from student to getting a dayjob has done wonders for my creativity as I now just have to do music when I have time instead of waiting for music to happen
Thank you for this! Cameron... (sigh) interruptions: calls, meetings, calls about meetings, calls interrupted by other calls :) Arrrrg... being a night owl has helped solve this for me - work while everyone in your time zone is sleeping :) 🔥
I tried making one track each day last month. I did pretty well, but fell far short of the final target. Just showing up every day was a huge part of getting me anywhere near my goal though. The other learning experience was that most tracks sounded better in the end than my sense of musical taste suggested while I was working on them. (I managed 16 tracks in 18 days.... then took a break!)
Some people find sweetspot in 1 finished track every week. Or you can higher the amount of days to the point where you feel chalanged but simultaneously comfortable enough to finish quality and complex track.
Congrats! That's no small feat! One suggestion though... "the goal" should never have been a fixed number of tracks. It should be "showing up every day and writing songs"! So you succeeded. Keep going!
One track per day for 7 days was the longest 'challenge' I've ever done. Just having your gear set up well, so that you can swtich on your computer, not have to start plugging things in, have a template in your daw with all routing already set up etc, makes it less daunting. You can get straight into it. As for getting into a flow state, the devil's lettuce works best for me.
it sounds funny , but .. find your way to Jam , keeping the music going for hours like a. DJ... learning that way creation and just pressing record when the time is right ... That Helps me a lot , just because i find it Fun , compared to how i use to program music in a DAW
Great info! Another tip I have found that works for me is if it is one of those times that I am not feeling it, I sit down and play a bunch of repetitive things, like practicing scales. Doing this for awhile seems to lull the mind into a different state, and it can get bored of playing them so you naturally start to play around and improvise other, more interesting things. And now you are creating.
Right on! Inspiration follows action. We tend to believe the opposite, that we have to be inspired to act. That's too rare to rely on. Start working and if you're lucky, you'll get inspired! Very well said!
A tip that I often give is "be ready to be creative." By that, I mean that when it's time to make something, you don't want to be doing system updates, authorise plugins or even load your basic instruments in your DAW. Use a template, have the shortest way from idea to realisation that doesn't involve tech and non-writing activities. Just sit and play.
this is a good one. For me, the switch from Reaper to Bitwig inspired a burst of creativity because the path from 0 to 1 became that much shorter as a result of taking advantage of the DAW's workflow.
"Do you like the idea of making a track or do you want to put in the effort" Nothing more satisfying than all of the effort and time coming together into a cohesive work of art. Gotta plan what's next while the paint dries and the next day you pull back the blinds and see the fruit of your ideas and skills. You see the mistakes you made and you learn from them, you know how to properly layer and blend, you know to avoid making another smudge mark like that in the future. It's always important to keep tabs on your growth and stay invested and willing to learn, THAT is passion
I never have inspiration and that is no problem, I just start fiddling around and sometimes I get into the flow state within minutes because some sound, some chord, some rhythm inspires me. I just love to sample things and then mess with the samples and see what comes out. The rare occasion where I do have inspiration never goes anywhere because I'm rubbish at creating the stuff that is in my mind.
It might sound crazy but the largest single factor in how easily I enter flow state is the amount of sunlight I've been exposed to over the previous few weeks.
Stephen King has said, of writing, that you have to put your butt in the chair and work at it for 4 hrs a day, whether it's flowing out great, or struggling, or barely at all. Some days will be good, some not so good, and some barely worth it. But you gotta do it, you can't just give up to try later, because trying consistently is how you get the good times.
For sure. Whenever I fall it a bit of a rut one of my sort of go-to challenges is 'track in a day'. Really makes you get your shit together and actually focus on progress haha.
I find myself making music 80% of the time in my head, with beats, with voice, beat boxing my drums, then eventually I take it all to paper, MIDI Controller and turning those drums into electronic ones, that is ableton live and it becomes an album. One tiny brush stroke at a time.
The act of actually doing is what matters. Even if you "fail". There is no magic involved here. Consistently work, and you'll find you improve. "Flow state" is nonsense; that just what happens when you have a good day.
"Action inspires action" Ya damn right. Just getting into the Studio and starting is key to getting the ball rolling towards a productive or flow state like session. It is also important to remember that not every session is going to be a 'winner'. Have fun and do other things when the thing you are working on has completely destroyed your motivation. Great vid, Cam.
Great words! As the old saying goes, "most people don't recognize opportunity, because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work". This is how most of us (knowingly or not) formed live bands back in the 90s. Every one "wants" to be in a band, but almost nobody would put in the practice time to get the songs down. So... you book some live dates, tell a bunch of people you are forming a band, and set firm practice hours/days. At the end of 30 days, anyone who kept showing up knows all 40-50 songs, and is in the band. If you stay focused and keep working during practice hours, everyone who isn't willing to keep up with the work goes away.
This arrived in my feed at just the right time, suffering from procrastination and indecision to finish tracks lately. I am going to try the 5 minute rule, great idea 👌
This exactly. You get into flow by dedication and persistence, if you are crazy about music, it will come. I didn’t understand this until this year when I finally achieved the ability to reach flow almost automatically
I love how you always manage to give food for eye-opening thought. Btw, in times of nill creativity I personally find it very helpful to take a break for one day and completely forget about music production. I'm not sure why, but most often I feel refueled with ideas the next day.
Cheers appreciated, your videos always help me think a little differently. Being a fulltime carer for my 89yr old mother, who is in constant pain due to lung disease, bone infection etc, really makes it hard to switch off and relax, - luckily I'm retired, and music, for me, has only ever been an expensive hobby / creative outlet. I"ve tried late night sessions, when she's resting but I'm usually just too tired emotionally. I use to use weed as a creative catalyst, but I don't trust my old ears anymore, even when I'm lightly toasted these days, I just lose my sense of perspective regarding tone. And being a very empathic individual, I just feel kind of guilty being musically creative while she's awake, - doing something I enjoy, while a loved one suffers, just feels so wrong to me, somehow. So, I've just spent the last year+ creating patches, sample programs, experimenting with all the outboard I've acquired over the last 40+yrs, and while I'm not actually writing any music, I know that when the time comes and I feel I can relax fully again, I'll have plenty of new, original and inspiring tones, textures and instruments to work with... love to ALL, feel no hate
This video is timely, concise, and super informative even for someone who thinks they know how to be productive! This is what professionals do to get quality work done, and if you want to be a professional, learn to do what's in this video!
Thanks for the video. When stumped, I usually find chord progressions I enjoy and fit the purpose of the piece. If creativity does not immediately come, I start operating in the realm of music theory. Usually, some degree of creativity starts. If not, I at least have a technically sound start for the creativity to emerge at another time.
Showing up is the biggest thing.. plan out when you will work, how long ahead of time, then do that. Don't wait to just feel like doing it in the moment, if I did that, I'd never actually finish any music at all. I was just thinking how your expectations of what you can get done increase as you do this though, so you never really feel like you're 'killing it' for very long before you come to expect that output from yourself. This morning I was thinking, hmm I didn't really feel like I got much done on music this weekend, but in reality I had re-written some promo stuff, I wrote a brand new topline to a track, and I did a mix session on another track I'm finishing up.
That 5 min rule works like a charm. And Steven Kotler’s books are amazing. Love these videos dude, you have been killing it lately please keep making great content for us!
I'm getting my masters in music and music ed at Columbia right now, and we've been talking about flow state a lot in one of my classes recently (mostly getting students into it). What stuck in my mind the most is that idea of a balance between challenge and confident achievability - you want a little challenge to keep it interesting, but enough achievable familiar work to help with frustration control and help boost the sense of accomplishment. I think it's similar to the "zone of proximal development" if you've heard that one. Anyway, love the videos, cheers! (Also, I totally use that 5 minute rule for my own freelance audio work, it really works!)
Been almost a whole month for me of 'coming back to do this later'. I sit down, start something then after awhile I get up and forget all about it... it sucks at times cause I do want to do music but my discipline n work ethic needs to improve BIG time. I work alone n my late brother was always motivating me but since he got called back home, I've been having a hard time trying to make music in one setting. Your vids help out alot my guy 🤓👍🏽
I promise that after doing and being absolutely obsessed with graffiti for over 20 years, I think I was able to tap into the flow state on command, like I reached a point where I know that every time I start doing a piece it's gonna turn out good. I once stopped for like 4 years, and the very first time I picked up a pen I got into the flow state. I loved that piece so much it's as if I never stopped and got better even in the absence of making art. I think if you truly love what you do and do it enough that you can call yourself a professional you can start tapping into flow state on command. Like your brain and body starts to remember that feeling like it's muscle memory.
From my perspective I would say that biggest killer of "flow state" (actually every productive state) is anxiety. And while things we do for pleasure usually helping to hide from anxiety suddenly stop working when level anxiety became too high. And you can experience so called "block" as anxiety paralipsis. I don't have a special technique to deal with it. Maybe meditation/ healthy livestyle/sport if you have mild anxiety and Psychotherapy/medications+ everything mentioned above if severe anxiety.
My most consistent creative bursts are during February Album Writing Month (FAWM), where the goal is to write 14 tracks in February. Part of the drive to complete is because I’m part of a community of artists with a common goal. It also helps that I have used a theme during FAWM to guide my creativity. Good tips on how to make the most of your creative moments.
Man ever since Iv ran into this channel Iv done nothing but better. I owe you a thank you for this content there’s no one out there touching on these aspects of music and writing. I feel like your talking directly to me sometimes. Your “how I turned anxiety into a album “ is probably the only reason I’m still pursuing music. thank you for all your advice and sharing your experiences
Well hey thanks so much! Glad to be of service. Really happy folks have gotten so much out of these videos lately and it's been nice to be able to talk about some of this stuff that's a bit more uncomfortable - important stuff that we all need to address!
Imho creativity never really goes away , but it’s a mix of left brain and right brain cohesion that has a broad scale and can and dose easily get in each others way . Figuring out how that works in you and creating a modular, productive micro frame work that keeps it flowing and in some cases tease it is beneficial within a scheduled macro framework . Example For me writing “riffs “and “beats “ is often a session onto itself , arranging them into full songs is a separate session . Mixing is absolutely a separate session at the very end . If during the writing and arranging part I hit the wall then instead of trying to force it it’s time to hit Init and start crafting patches for later use and either that will reignite the muse or I got a new fresh library of sounds for the next session lol .
Thanks VT for another very interesting, entertaining, and timely, video. This is such a crucial topic for all creatives. Motivation (put simply - why do we do things) can be 'intrinsic' - where we do something simply for the reward of the experience itself (as when we 'play' - this seems to be how you're using the term here), but it can also be 'extrinsic' - when we perform a task primarily because doing so will bring some external benefit (for eg. completing a production to generate income). Csikszentmihalyi discusses how certain personalities are more conducive to flow since they can reframe extrinsically motivated tasks (like meeting production deadlines etc) to get the intrinsic reward out of them also. Lennon and McCartney were a great case in point. They consistently reframed their 'work' as 'play'. Thanks again.
Awesome points as always man! btw.. I finally read "The War of Art" after seeing it laying on your desk in one of your videos... it's a game changer.. exactly what I needed. Thanks for all you do Cameron.
Awesome video Cameron! Ineed inspiration is ebb and flow, but if you work with deadline (ie. hired to compose for a film / game) you have to deliver. Showing up on time (actually sitting down, putting down the hours.) and using great inspirational material has been key to my own writing and creation of content on milestone deadlines. It' becomes like any other work, the only thing that changes is; sometimes it's really fun, and sometimes it can be boring projects but...hey it pays the bills. Working without a plan / deadline can be a real creativity-killer and things stall pretty quickly. We (humans) are lazy by nature, so we need the goals...the carrot! 🥕😄
Every word you spoke can be applied to visual media too (painting, drawing etc). Of course I do both music and art and can be a bit of a perfectionist at both so I needed to hear this and you offered GREAT ideas on how to move forward. Thank you bro, this was right on time. :)
Haha thanks - really been trying to frame these videos to be useful beyond just the context of music. So much of these struggles is consistent across all creative fields so it's nice to know that the videos are helpful for more people!
A great vid, just one small complaint: Motivation is not a myth. "The dedication to consistently put in the work" is you describing motivation. That is what motivation is. Or at least a qualitative form of motivation. Its also motivation to NOT put in the work, its simply the motivation to do something that isn't productive. Then theres a complete lack of motivation which is typically associated with depression where one can not see any reason to do anything what so ever. The world becomes dark, meaningless and hopeless. So motivation, in both its good and bad forms, is simply the regulatory process behind goal oriented behavior.
A metric f**kton of good info here. I resolved to my own form of discipline in sticking to a timetable, something very important when you've only got 1.5 days at the weekend to do anything. Week nights are a bust for me, as I'm usually absolutely spent after lugging computers around a warehouse all day, and only have between 8pm to 11pm to myself when I get home, usually ending up with me face-planting the desk with sheer tiredness around 9pm.
I resonate 100% with your thoughts, Cam! The only explanation for me is that I might have identical amplitudes of my superior harmonics as you.. 🤓 Jokes aside, you have my 100% respect and gratitude for making another essential video for our community, hope I don't speak just for myself. 🙏🤘
The thing that kept me from simply starting to work was the sheer amount of musical ideas I collected throughout the many years of music making and never made into finished songs. I didn't know where to start, so I often sat there and did nothing than listening to all of these ideas again and again. This year I came up with a plan. Usually I name my musical ideas with the date I had the idea. So I decided that every idea has to become a finished song at the anniversary of the idea either 25, 20, 15, 10, 5, or 1 year(s) later. Some songs can't be completely finished yet because they belong to a concept but those need to at least have a complete structure and theme so it will be easy to fit them into the concept. It works so great, I might have quite a lot of releases next year with all my music projects.
Usually when i want to create something but have no ideas i go for a long walk with out headphones and try not to think... Usually i will always start to sing in my head gibbirish to the rythm im walking and it evolves eventually something good... Buy try not to get too far cus otherwhise u gotta keep humming the whole time back so u wont forget it
Another really helpful video, thanks! I have read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's book Flow and also found it most helpful. I also find, as you mentioned, that just starting doing something kinda gets the ball rolling regardless of motivation or inspiration. I must confess that for me, most of what I do musically comes from just fiddling around and trying things out, not some premeditated plan.
Great book. He's written some off shoots which are also fantastic such as Creativity: The psychology of discovery and invention. Very cool to see a video about the flow state.
this was thought provoking, insightful, and really relatable! i can't wait to completely forget all of your advice in 2 days and go back to blaming myself!
Hi my man, i love the stuff you are doing. A good morning starts with a coffee and one of your Videos to relax to. I just aquired a polybrute and i watched all the arturia Videos about it. It is a great synth. I'd love to see how you are working with it. Some tricks or workflow improvements would help me extremely. Also I am sometimes a little bit overwhelmed with the possibilities, this monster of an instrument delivers. Cheers to you and please keep up your amazing content.
My secrets are having my TD-3 plugged in and ready to go and always having chopsticks available when brewing my morning coffee! Really, though, a lot of my creative process stems from listening. I'm always hearing bits of something I'd like to recreate, say just a groove, or even a single drum fill. When I work on stuff like that, ideas really do seem to fall out of thin air.
When I was first getting the hang of playing a keyboard I subscribed to a service called Melodics, and it had a great feature where it recorded your daily streak of playing for longer than 5 mins. So you'd invariably open it up for your daily 5 mins of practice and come away 30-60 mins or so later. Compared with the ease of slacking off because you "don't have time to spend 30-60 mins practicing", it's a remarkable difference.
Ok so this is for sure different for everybody but I feel like a schedule of writing is one of the worst things I could do to produce or achieve this flow state. Doing music full time for the last 4 months, for me if Im struggling to get in that flow, I listen to some music to pump me up and if I still feel lacking, I try to reproduce a song from memory (and my memory is poor) and always end up making a unique track from it, and is almost never a copy of what I was "aiming for". Im also a person who rewatches movies for the first time bc of said terrible memory! One big thing thats probably helping me is that I only started recording and producing in a DAW a few months ago. So while I have a solid drumming background, Im learning as I go every single time. So learning to write melodies on top of learning to mix just enough to make a decent sounding track. Its been incredible. In probably the worst year of my life, starting with losing my mother suddenly, to my newborn having undergo serious surgery on his skull, its been an incredible tool to help sort through my feelings and regain my confidence. Thanks for the video, I always love watching!
5:48 Something that Earl Nightingale and Dr. Proctor used to say (may them rest in peace) was "Actions trigger feelings such as feelings trigger actions".
an I hook to your channel , the reason for that is you dig deeper when it comes to music making , this is something That I've been looking for before I stumble across your channel . KUDOS TO YOU !!1 AND OST O ALL THANK YOU SENDING HUGS FRO THE PHILIPPINES !!
It can be helpful to write out all the actions you would need to take to create a finished work. I have this little piano melody, so I need arrangements for that, choose instruments, variations, define the atmosphere, tune a reverb, figure out a rhythm section if any, I want some tempo and key changes, all things to think about that for a minute that help you focus on a certain aspect.
If you think it's hard to find inspiration when you're a full-time musician/creator, imagine being a hobbyist with a very busy family life and a full-time job with extremely limited time to make music... My 1 hour when I can grab it, experienced through very tired eyes, isn't always the most inspiring mindset. Bring on old age and retirement so I can spend all day doing what I want in the few years I have before I die at that age!!
Thanks dude :D Your videos that I stumble upon during procrastination and feeling annoyed with myself are perfect triggers ;) Edit: My 5 minute commitment right after this comment turned into a 1 hour bass recording session and I'm hyped as f about the riffs I laid down!
Just had that. I was working on a project, for months by starting out fantasicly, working properly awesome and than I returned again and all of the dust of creativity was completely gone. I tried to approach this song from a different perspective, with different instruments and different chord progessions, just to realize, we will never be as good as in the beginning, so I took a heart and deleted the complete project, with all of his states and approaches. I tried to solve and find the issue why I can't continue on that song and the more often I heard it, the more it made me frustrated. I also tried the 20 minutes trick, to achieve something, but even this didn't match up. So I haven't found the issue, that makes me boost again.
I am a producer and beatmaker, and i totally agree about the 5 minutes rule, even i'm feeling uninspired , i open my Daw and start with working on creating a drumkit, it's not the sexiest part of the creating process, but the five minutes fly away quickly, and once i have have a beat, or something else, i love to compose long ambient suites, i have a more precise idea of where i want to go. but here is the difference in my creative routine. I have ADHD, so it's really hard to stay focused more than an hour, and frequent pauses are almost mandatory, even with my meds. if a work more than the time period, It sometimes create an "alternative flow state" in a kind of hypnagogic feeling, half awake, half dreaming, were the final result can be total shit because i messed it up in the mixing process, or when i create the structure and the patterns, it can be awesome, and i often don't even remember somme parts of the process. Great content, as always, thank you!
You have to try getting a picture of the whole song in mind and prevent to start with a drum and bass beat. If you have a melody in mind, sing and record the melody at first to your mobil device or whatever. Then think about what other song gets close to you melody. Wait for some days and start with the melody, chords and background ear candy. Believe me, without drum and bass, you get a strong and outstanding picture in mind and your extremely excited to start with drum and bass. Try! 💡
For me, it's jamming with other people. That's what broke my lack of motivation/creativity/desire. I've been playing music for well over 30 years now, but the last several have been mainly on my own. Everything I've tried to inspire myself had always failed, until I was finally able to find somebody to jam with. What a fresh perspective can do....
See, I'm not very good at making music yet... I've only started less than a year.... I love it, but it's kinda stressful as I struggle with my own inexperience and learning the gear... I love what I make, but the process is a fight for me right now, and I feel mindblown by the end. Way better than boredom and stagnation though.
The need to 1up myself has become one of the major reasons I've released less and less over the years. It's a difficult cycle to break, especially when you're your own critic.
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 89 | คู่เอก "ยอดไอคิว vs คิริลล์"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Z3vYkHJ_5Ig/mqdefault.jpg)
Now get off TH-cam and get back to work 😅
🎼 Hooktheory! ► hooktheory.com/venustheory
Hei Sensei!
hahaha...stop bustin' muh balls man, I'm takin' a break right now...😜
Wait, how did you know I was on here.... *haha* Love your videos, I'm just starting out, they are very helpful. :)
Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working. - Pablo Picasso
Oooo that’s great
Wow this hits home
He said that because he stole from unnamed African artists and didn’t credit them lol…
@@martyrx3436 "Good artists copy, great artists steal" as Steve Jobs said which was stolen from Picasso...who stole it from Stravinsky and the list might go on! :)
Agree
As a solo indie game developer doing music, art, and game design, I really appreciate that almost everything you say in these videos applies to just about any creative field.
Hey, I'm a professional music composer myself and have been looking for game designers to collaborate with. I see you do music for your games yourself but still I would love to connect with you! Let me know if this reaches you.
I've been writing music on and off for 30+ years, there's a lot of "muppets" trying to teach you music production on you tube. Mostly talking AT you without offering much useful advice. I like venus theory though as he is well read and the videos make a lot of sense. well done kid, box on!
Cannot like this video ENOUGH. That all makes so much sense. Saving this to my "useful music creation tips" list. The only thing I might argue a bit with is that artists get better with susbsequent albums - get better at defining themselves perhaps but quite often an artist's earlier albums are the ones held in most regard. So there's something in those earlier ideas/working methods that hit the spot. But regardless - this is such a great motivational video; great for repeat reference/reminders, thanks.
I can't even begin to explain how this is EXACTLY what I needed to hear, word for word. Thank you, sincerely.
Glad to be be of service!
THE FLOW STATE!!!! When I was a kid, just learning to program, time would often evaporate. When I decide to learn how to draw a couple decades ago, once I got absorbed into a project, time would evaporate. Nowadays when I work on even a short musical piece time can still evaporate. Those are examples of my flow state. The difference for me with music is I find I have to go back a few hours, or a few days later and ask if it really sounds as good as I thought it sounded. But none of it goes straight to flow state unless I first start, which is another of your important points. Also, consuming a lot less coffee helps to keep me from jumping around from task to task and settle into focus. I love your youtubes. I find them quite inspiring.
Going from student to getting a dayjob has done wonders for my creativity as I now just have to do music when I have time instead of waiting for music to happen
“If all else, you learned what not to do” , so true and so failure is just a step on the road to success.
Thank you for the tips, and also for the awesome Jazz music in the background
Thank you for this! Cameron... (sigh) interruptions: calls, meetings,
calls about meetings, calls interrupted by other calls :) Arrrrg...
being a night owl has helped solve this for me - work while
everyone in your time zone is sleeping :) 🔥
‘Failure’ is the most valuable thing you can encounter
My nerd senses tingled when you said "use dice to write progressions" lol, must try. Great vid! Coffee certainly helps too ☕
I tried making one track each day last month. I did pretty well, but fell far short of the final target. Just showing up every day was a huge part of getting me anywhere near my goal though. The other learning experience was that most tracks sounded better in the end than my sense of musical taste suggested while I was working on them. (I managed 16 tracks in 18 days.... then took a break!)
Some people find sweetspot in 1 finished track every week. Or you can higher the amount of days to the point where you feel chalanged but simultaneously comfortable enough to finish quality and complex track.
Congrats! That's no small feat! One suggestion though... "the goal" should never have been a fixed number of tracks. It should be "showing up every day and writing songs"! So you succeeded. Keep going!
@@ChristopherOrth Good thinking! Will keep that in mind for next time 👍
One track per day for 7 days was the longest 'challenge' I've ever done. Just having your gear set up well, so that you can swtich on your computer, not have to start plugging things in, have a template in your daw with all routing already set up etc, makes it less daunting. You can get straight into it. As for getting into a flow state, the devil's lettuce works best for me.
it sounds funny , but .. find your way to Jam , keeping the music going for hours like a. DJ... learning that way creation and just pressing record when the time is right ...
That Helps me a lot , just because i find it Fun , compared to how i use to program music in a DAW
2:41 😳 Cameron, I hope you never stop making videos. You inspire me a lot.
Great info! Another tip I have found that works for me is if it is one of those times that I am not feeling it, I sit down and play a bunch of repetitive things, like practicing scales. Doing this for awhile seems to lull the mind into a different state, and it can get bored of playing them so you naturally start to play around and improvise other, more interesting things. And now you are creating.
Right on! Inspiration follows action. We tend to believe the opposite, that we have to be inspired to act. That's too rare to rely on. Start working and if you're lucky, you'll get inspired! Very well said!
A tip that I often give is "be ready to be creative." By that, I mean that when it's time to make something, you don't want to be doing system updates, authorise plugins or even load your basic instruments in your DAW. Use a template, have the shortest way from idea to realisation that doesn't involve tech and non-writing activities. Just sit and play.
this is a good one. For me, the switch from Reaper to Bitwig inspired a burst of creativity because the path from 0 to 1 became that much shorter as a result of taking advantage of the DAW's workflow.
"Do you like the idea of making a track or do you want to put in the effort"
Nothing more satisfying than all of the effort and time coming together into a cohesive work of art. Gotta plan what's next while the paint dries and the next day you pull back the blinds and see the fruit of your ideas and skills. You see the mistakes you made and you learn from them, you know how to properly layer and blend, you know to avoid making another smudge mark like that in the future. It's always important to keep tabs on your growth and stay invested and willing to learn, THAT is passion
This comment just got me up off the couch and back behind the mic.
I never have inspiration and that is no problem, I just start fiddling around and sometimes I get into the flow state within minutes because some sound, some chord, some rhythm inspires me. I just love to sample things and then mess with the samples and see what comes out.
The rare occasion where I do have inspiration never goes anywhere because I'm rubbish at creating the stuff that is in my mind.
It might sound crazy but the largest single factor in how easily I enter flow state is the amount of sunlight I've been exposed to over the previous few weeks.
Stephen King has said, of writing, that you have to put your butt in the chair and work at it for 4 hrs a day, whether it's flowing out great, or struggling, or barely at all. Some days will be good, some not so good, and some barely worth it. But you gotta do it, you can't just give up to try later, because trying consistently is how you get the good times.
I found that having less time sometimes words better then to much time. It forces you to do it right now, instead of thinking I’ll do it later
For sure. Whenever I fall it a bit of a rut one of my sort of go-to challenges is 'track in a day'. Really makes you get your shit together and actually focus on progress haha.
I find myself making music 80% of the time in my head, with beats, with voice, beat boxing my drums, then eventually I take it all to paper, MIDI Controller and turning those drums into electronic ones, that is ableton live and it becomes an album. One tiny brush stroke at a time.
The act of actually doing is what matters. Even if you "fail". There is no magic involved here. Consistently work, and you'll find you improve. "Flow state" is nonsense; that just what happens when you have a good day.
Im going to watch this once a week from now on
'the flow state' !! Exaaactleeey! I keep saying dont stop my flow when im FINALLY in it !!
"Action inspires action" Ya damn right. Just getting into the Studio and starting is key to getting the ball rolling towards a productive or flow state like session. It is also important to remember that not every session is going to be a 'winner'. Have fun and do other things when the thing you are working on has completely destroyed your motivation. Great vid, Cam.
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
-Stephen King
Stephen "I can't remember writing that one, I was drunk and high" King found inspiration through whatever means necessary
i guess RR martin is an amateur.
Great words! As the old saying goes, "most people don't recognize opportunity, because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work". This is how most of us (knowingly or not) formed live bands back in the 90s. Every one "wants" to be in a band, but almost nobody would put in the practice time to get the songs down. So... you book some live dates, tell a bunch of people you are forming a band, and set firm practice hours/days. At the end of 30 days, anyone who kept showing up knows all 40-50 songs, and is in the band. If you stay focused and keep working during practice hours, everyone who isn't willing to keep up with the work goes away.
Glad i found your channel. Picking me right up from where i am. Thanks mate.
Thank you for these videos!
This arrived in my feed at just the right time, suffering from procrastination and indecision to finish tracks lately. I am going to try the 5 minute rule, great idea 👌
This exactly. You get into flow by dedication and persistence, if you are crazy about music, it will come. I didn’t understand this until this year when I finally achieved the ability to reach flow almost automatically
I love how you always manage to give food for eye-opening thought. Btw, in times of nill creativity I personally find it very helpful to take a break for one day and completely forget about music production. I'm not sure why, but most often I feel refueled with ideas the next day.
This was so good. Needed to hear everything said.
Cheers appreciated, your videos always help me think a little differently.
Being a fulltime carer for my 89yr old mother, who is in constant pain due to lung disease, bone infection etc, really makes it hard to switch off and relax, - luckily I'm retired, and music, for me, has only ever been an expensive hobby / creative outlet.
I"ve tried late night sessions, when she's resting but I'm usually just too tired emotionally.
I use to use weed as a creative catalyst, but I don't trust my old ears anymore, even when I'm lightly toasted these days, I just lose my sense of perspective regarding tone.
And being a very empathic individual, I just feel kind of guilty being musically creative while she's awake,
- doing something I enjoy, while a loved one suffers, just feels so wrong to me, somehow.
So, I've just spent the last year+ creating patches, sample programs, experimenting with all the outboard I've acquired over the last 40+yrs, and while I'm not actually writing any music, I know that when the time comes and I feel I can relax fully again, I'll have plenty of new, original and inspiring tones, textures and instruments to work with...
love to ALL, feel no hate
Oh boy did I ever need this video. Great job!
The video I needed at the time I needed it? Thank you so much!
This video is timely, concise, and super informative even for someone who thinks they know how to be productive! This is what professionals do to get quality work done, and if you want to be a professional, learn to do what's in this video!
Thanks for the video. When stumped, I usually find chord progressions I enjoy and fit the purpose of the piece. If creativity does not immediately come, I start operating in the realm of music theory. Usually, some degree of creativity starts. If not, I at least have a technically sound start for the creativity to emerge at another time.
Showing up is the biggest thing.. plan out when you will work, how long ahead of time, then do that. Don't wait to just feel like doing it in the moment, if I did that, I'd never actually finish any music at all. I was just thinking how your expectations of what you can get done increase as you do this though, so you never really feel like you're 'killing it' for very long before you come to expect that output from yourself. This morning I was thinking, hmm I didn't really feel like I got much done on music this weekend, but in reality I had re-written some promo stuff, I wrote a brand new topline to a track, and I did a mix session on another track I'm finishing up.
That 5 min rule works like a charm. And Steven Kotler’s books are amazing. Love these videos dude, you have been killing it lately please keep making great content for us!
I'm getting my masters in music and music ed at Columbia right now, and we've been talking about flow state a lot in one of my classes recently (mostly getting students into it). What stuck in my mind the most is that idea of a balance between challenge and confident achievability - you want a little challenge to keep it interesting, but enough achievable familiar work to help with frustration control and help boost the sense of accomplishment. I think it's similar to the "zone of proximal development" if you've heard that one. Anyway, love the videos, cheers! (Also, I totally use that 5 minute rule for my own freelance audio work, it really works!)
Been almost a whole month for me of 'coming back to do this later'. I sit down, start something then after awhile I get up and forget all about it... it sucks at times cause I do want to do music but my discipline n work ethic needs to improve BIG time. I work alone n my late brother was always motivating me but since he got called back home, I've been having a hard time trying to make music in one setting. Your vids help out alot my guy 🤓👍🏽
As for me, everything is simple and clear. Thank you very much
Man this kind of video saved an artist here. Thank you so much for this content
I promise that after doing and being absolutely obsessed with graffiti for over 20 years, I think I was able to tap into the flow state on command, like I reached a point where I know that every time I start doing a piece it's gonna turn out good. I once stopped for like 4 years, and the very first time I picked up a pen I got into the flow state. I loved that piece so much it's as if I never stopped and got better even in the absence of making art. I think if you truly love what you do and do it enough that you can call yourself a professional you can start tapping into flow state on command. Like your brain and body starts to remember that feeling like it's muscle memory.
"Action is the foundational key to all success, and motivation is the spark that ignites it." - Pablo Picasso
From my perspective I would say that biggest killer of "flow state" (actually every productive state) is anxiety. And while things we do for pleasure usually helping to hide from anxiety suddenly stop working when level anxiety became too high. And you can experience so called "block" as anxiety paralipsis. I don't have a special technique to deal with it. Maybe meditation/ healthy livestyle/sport if you have mild anxiety and Psychotherapy/medications+ everything mentioned above if severe anxiety.
Dear Cameron... Thank you from the bottom of my heart ❤
have you ever tought to work in cinemas as dubber or speaker... your voice is so deep and captivating you could also work to create audiobooks
My most consistent creative bursts are during February Album Writing Month (FAWM), where the goal is to write 14 tracks in February. Part of the drive to complete is because I’m part of a community of artists with a common goal. It also helps that I have used a theme during FAWM to guide my creativity. Good tips on how to make the most of your creative moments.
That sounds really interesting, do they have a discord server?
Man ever since Iv ran into this channel Iv done nothing but better. I owe you a thank you for this content there’s no one out there touching on these aspects of music and writing. I feel like your talking directly to me sometimes. Your “how I turned anxiety into a album “ is probably the only reason I’m still pursuing music. thank you for all your advice and sharing your experiences
Creating stuff is not the problem for Me its what to do with it after, IE release it for others to hear.
Well hey thanks so much! Glad to be of service. Really happy folks have gotten so much out of these videos lately and it's been nice to be able to talk about some of this stuff that's a bit more uncomfortable - important stuff that we all need to address!
Imho creativity never really goes away , but it’s a mix of left brain and right brain cohesion that has a broad scale and can and dose easily get in each others way . Figuring out how that works in you and creating a modular, productive micro frame work that keeps it flowing and in some cases tease it is beneficial within a scheduled macro framework . Example For me writing “riffs “and “beats “ is often a session onto itself , arranging them into full songs is a separate session . Mixing is absolutely a separate session at the very end . If during the writing and arranging part I hit the wall then instead of trying to force it it’s time to hit Init and start crafting patches for later use and either that will reignite the muse or I got a new fresh library of sounds for the next session lol .
Thanks for this, dude. Seriously. This was exactly what I needed to hear right now. Stay awesome 🤙
Love these type of videos it's honestly so nice to listen to what you have to say about this topic!
Thanks VT for another very interesting, entertaining, and timely, video. This is such a crucial topic for all creatives. Motivation (put simply - why do we do things) can be 'intrinsic' - where we do something simply for the reward of the experience itself (as when we 'play' - this seems to be how you're using the term here), but it can also be 'extrinsic' - when we perform a task primarily because doing so will bring some external benefit (for eg. completing a production to generate income). Csikszentmihalyi discusses how certain personalities are more conducive to flow since they can reframe extrinsically motivated tasks (like meeting production deadlines etc) to get the intrinsic reward out of them also. Lennon and McCartney were a great case in point. They consistently reframed their 'work' as 'play'. Thanks again.
Awesome points as always man! btw.. I finally read "The War of Art" after seeing it laying on your desk in one of your videos... it's a game changer.. exactly what I needed. Thanks for all you do Cameron.
Motivation + Action = Motivaction
the most important video on the channel .. kudos for the clarity
Awesome video Cameron! Ineed inspiration is ebb and flow, but if you work with deadline (ie. hired to compose for a film / game) you have to deliver. Showing up on time (actually sitting down, putting down the hours.) and using great inspirational material has been key to my own writing and creation of content on milestone deadlines. It' becomes like any other work, the only thing that changes is; sometimes it's really fun, and sometimes it can be boring projects but...hey it pays the bills. Working without a plan / deadline can be a real creativity-killer and things stall pretty quickly.
We (humans) are lazy by nature, so we need the goals...the carrot! 🥕😄
Every word you spoke can be applied to visual media too (painting, drawing etc). Of course I do both music and art and can be a bit of a perfectionist at both so I needed to hear this and you offered GREAT ideas on how to move forward. Thank you bro, this was right on time. :)
Haha thanks - really been trying to frame these videos to be useful beyond just the context of music. So much of these struggles is consistent across all creative fields so it's nice to know that the videos are helpful for more people!
A great vid, just one small complaint:
Motivation is not a myth.
"The dedication to consistently put in the work" is you describing motivation.
That is what motivation is. Or at least a qualitative form of motivation. Its also motivation to NOT put in the work, its simply the motivation to do something that isn't productive. Then theres a complete lack of motivation which is typically associated with depression where one can not see any reason to do anything what so ever. The world becomes dark, meaningless and hopeless.
So motivation, in both its good and bad forms, is simply the regulatory process behind goal oriented behavior.
A metric f**kton of good info here. I resolved to my own form of discipline in sticking to a timetable, something very important when you've only got 1.5 days at the weekend to do anything. Week nights are a bust for me, as I'm usually absolutely spent after lugging computers around a warehouse all day, and only have between 8pm to 11pm to myself when I get home, usually ending up with me face-planting the desk with sheer tiredness around 9pm.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I resonate 100% with your thoughts, Cam! The only explanation for me is that I might have identical amplitudes of my superior harmonics as you.. 🤓
Jokes aside, you have my 100% respect and gratitude for making another essential video for our community, hope I don't speak just for myself. 🙏🤘
Excellent video! Definitely needed to hear this!
The thing that kept me from simply starting to work was the sheer amount of musical ideas I collected throughout the many years of music making and never made into finished songs. I didn't know where to start, so I often sat there and did nothing than listening to all of these ideas again and again. This year I came up with a plan. Usually I name my musical ideas with the date I had the idea. So I decided that every idea has to become a finished song at the anniversary of the idea either 25, 20, 15, 10, 5, or 1 year(s) later. Some songs can't be completely finished yet because they belong to a concept but those need to at least have a complete structure and theme so it will be easy to fit them into the concept. It works so great, I might have quite a lot of releases next year with all my music projects.
Thanks dude, I fell like that was the thing I needed to hear today.
The typing on the keyboard @6:41 while the piano was playing made me chuckle…then gasp with inspiration. Idk if it was intentional, but very sick!
Emotional connection to yourself and being honest with who you are can be a huge factor
Totally. Sometimes you're just distracted, tired, stressed.
@@firstname713 😆
@@firstname713 what
@@yeahthatkornel I know
@@firstname713 What’s this got to do with song writing and introspection 😂
Usually when i want to create something but have no ideas i go for a long walk with out headphones and try not to think... Usually i will always start to sing in my head gibbirish to the rythm im walking and it evolves eventually something good... Buy try not to get too far cus otherwhise u gotta keep humming the whole time back so u wont forget it
Another really helpful video, thanks! I have read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's book Flow and also found it most helpful. I also find, as you mentioned, that just starting doing something kinda gets the ball rolling regardless of motivation or inspiration. I must confess that for me, most of what I do musically comes from just fiddling around and trying things out, not some premeditated plan.
Great book. He's written some off shoots which are also fantastic such as Creativity: The psychology of discovery and invention. Very cool to see a video about the flow state.
I really appreciate your honesty and sharing your personal experience. It is very helpful and inspiring. Thank you!
this was thought provoking, insightful, and really relatable! i can't wait to completely forget all of your advice in 2 days and go back to blaming myself!
Hi my man, i love the stuff you are doing. A good morning starts with a coffee and one of your Videos to relax to. I just aquired a polybrute and i watched all the arturia Videos about it. It is a great synth. I'd love to see how you are working with it. Some tricks or workflow improvements would help me extremely. Also I am sometimes a little bit overwhelmed with the possibilities, this monster of an instrument delivers. Cheers to you and please keep up your amazing content.
I'm actually going through this at the moment. Excellent video!
Glad it was helpful!
My secrets are having my TD-3 plugged in and ready to go and always having chopsticks available when brewing my morning coffee! Really, though, a lot of my creative process stems from listening. I'm always hearing bits of something I'd like to recreate, say just a groove, or even a single drum fill. When I work on stuff like that, ideas really do seem to fall out of thin air.
Absolutely 👍 this was exactly what I needed right now, thanks ❤️
When I was first getting the hang of playing a keyboard I subscribed to a service called Melodics, and it had a great feature where it recorded your daily streak of playing for longer than 5 mins. So you'd invariably open it up for your daily 5 mins of practice and come away 30-60 mins or so later. Compared with the ease of slacking off because you "don't have time to spend 30-60 mins practicing", it's a remarkable difference.
Ok so this is for sure different for everybody but I feel like a schedule of writing is one of the worst things I could do to produce or achieve this flow state. Doing music full time for the last 4 months, for me if Im struggling to get in that flow, I listen to some music to pump me up and if I still feel lacking, I try to reproduce a song from memory (and my memory is poor) and always end up making a unique track from it, and is almost never a copy of what I was "aiming for". Im also a person who rewatches movies for the first time bc of said terrible memory!
One big thing thats probably helping me is that I only started recording and producing in a DAW a few months ago. So while I have a solid drumming background, Im learning as I go every single time. So learning to write melodies on top of learning to mix just enough to make a decent sounding track. Its been incredible. In probably the worst year of my life, starting with losing my mother suddenly, to my newborn having undergo serious surgery on his skull, its been an incredible tool to help sort through my feelings and regain my confidence. Thanks for the video, I always love watching!
5:48 Something that Earl Nightingale and Dr. Proctor used to say (may them rest in peace) was "Actions trigger feelings such as feelings trigger actions".
an I hook to your channel , the reason for that is you dig deeper when it comes to music making , this is something That I've been looking for before I stumble across your channel . KUDOS TO YOU !!1 AND OST O ALL THANK YOU SENDING HUGS FRO THE PHILIPPINES !!
It can be helpful to write out all the actions you would need to take to create a finished work. I have this little piano melody, so I need arrangements for that, choose instruments, variations, define the atmosphere, tune a reverb, figure out a rhythm section if any, I want some tempo and key changes, all things to think about that for a minute that help you focus on a certain aspect.
adore these style videos, very inspiring with some great tips for improving work flow. thanks so much
If you think it's hard to find inspiration when you're a full-time musician/creator, imagine being a hobbyist with a very busy family life and a full-time job with extremely limited time to make music...
My 1 hour when I can grab it, experienced through very tired eyes, isn't always the most inspiring mindset. Bring on old age and retirement so I can spend all day doing what I want in the few years I have before I die at that age!!
This is genuinely one of the best videos on creativity and flow state regarding music production that I’ve ever seen. Wow. Nice work!
Ironically, this is a very motivating video.
Thanks dude :D Your videos that I stumble upon during procrastination and feeling annoyed with myself are perfect triggers ;)
Edit: My 5 minute commitment right after this comment turned into a 1 hour bass recording session and I'm hyped as f about the riffs I laid down!
Just had that. I was working on a project, for months by starting out fantasicly, working properly awesome and than I returned again and all of the dust of creativity was completely gone. I tried to approach this song from a different perspective, with different instruments and different chord progessions, just to realize, we will never be as good as in the beginning, so I took a heart and deleted the complete project, with all of his states and approaches. I tried to solve and find the issue why I can't continue on that song and the more often I heard it, the more it made me frustrated. I also tried the 20 minutes trick, to achieve something, but even this didn't match up. So I haven't found the issue, that makes me boost again.
Always appreciate these motivational videos! Thank you so much.
I am a producer and beatmaker, and i totally agree about the 5 minutes rule, even i'm feeling uninspired , i open my Daw and start with working on creating a drumkit, it's not the sexiest part of the creating process, but the five minutes fly away quickly, and once i have have a beat, or something else, i love to compose long ambient suites, i have a more precise idea of where i want to go. but here is the difference in my creative routine. I have ADHD, so it's really hard to stay focused more than an hour, and frequent pauses are almost mandatory, even with my meds. if a work more than the time period, It sometimes create an "alternative flow state" in a kind of hypnagogic feeling, half awake, half dreaming, were the final result can be total shit because i messed it up in the mixing process, or when i create the structure and the patterns, it can be awesome, and i often don't even remember somme parts of the process. Great content, as always, thank you!
Here perfectly on time for "Why am I not doing music why am I looking at TH-cam instead?"
My psychiatrist said to me many times, art is 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration
You have to try getting a picture of the whole song in mind and prevent to start with a drum and bass beat. If you have a melody in mind, sing and record the melody at first to your mobil device or whatever. Then think about what other song gets close to you melody. Wait for some days and start with the melody, chords and background ear candy. Believe me, without drum and bass, you get a strong and outstanding picture in mind and your extremely excited to start with drum and bass.
Try! 💡
Needed to hear this today. Thanks.
For me, it's jamming with other people. That's what broke my lack of motivation/creativity/desire.
I've been playing music for well over 30 years now, but the last several have been mainly on my own. Everything I've tried to inspire myself had always failed, until I was finally able to find somebody to jam with.
What a fresh perspective can do....
See, I'm not very good at making music yet... I've only started less than a year.... I love it, but it's kinda stressful as I struggle with my own inexperience and learning the gear... I love what I make, but the process is a fight for me right now, and I feel mindblown by the end.
Way better than boredom and stagnation though.
The need to 1up myself has become one of the major reasons I've released less and less over the years. It's a difficult cycle to break, especially when you're your own critic.
Somehow you always make the right video for me to keep me moving :)