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Here’s the Quickest and Easiest Way to Triple Your Studio Output – #9 of 100

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It’s incredibly simple.

Forget how it sounds in your head.

If you can’t start, finish, or always get stuck, I bet it’s because you keep trying to make it sound the way it does in your head.

The music in your head is an excellent place to start. But unless you’re Mozart, striving to make it exactly as you imagine it will end in failure and frustration.

You see, the way it sounds in your head is just that. In your head.

When I realised this simple fact, the quantity of work I finished (at least) tripled. The music was better too.

4 reasons to stop

1. You’ll miss moments of genius.
By concentrating on what’s in your head you’ll ignore or reject the other (possibly brilliant) ideas that come out of nowhere. These are gold dust. Jump on them. Hint – they’re what most people call inspiration.
2. You’ll lose momentum.
If you’re going to finish your music, momentum is key. Trying to make it exactly the same as the music in your head will bring you to a screeching halt.
3. Danger! Boredom!
You’ll tweak and twiddle for hours in your quest to make the sound in your head. And after listening to the same thing over and over you’ll get bored of it. You probably won’t even remember what you were trying to do in the first place. The only thing you’ll remember is that you didn’t do it.
4. You won’t hear what’s really playing.
This is the kicker. If you focus on what’s in your head you won’t listen to what’s coming out of the speakers. Then you’re in danger of hearing what you want, not what it is. Which (because you spent ages trying to make it sound like the music in your head) is probably a pile of crap. When you say “why is it so awful this morning when it was so good last night?” – this is why.

How to forget what’s in your head

Yes – start by trying to make what you hear in your head.

But when you have a vague approximation, stop thinking about the music in your head and start listening to what’s coming out of your speakers.

Do something crazy. Be creative. Play. Have fun. That is why you’re doing this – right?

Reframe it. Play the same part on a different sound. Play a different sound on the same part. Try a different rhythm. If it’s not working, try something else.

While you’re jamming, constantly keep your ears open for the ideas that were never in your head, but which sound amazing.

When they happen (and trust me – eventually they will) jump on them, even if they’re not what you were expecting. Especially if they’re not what you were expecting.

But above all, make it sound good in your ears, not in your head.

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Filed Under: Featured Post Tagged With: Productivity

How can I help you?

Claude VonStroke (Dirty Bird, USA)

Mike Monday’s process has helped me enormously. I have two record labels, a heavy touring schedule, a wife and two children, and a music production career all running in tandem. There are times when it seems unmanageable and i get lost in a downward spiral that limits my effectiveness as a leader and my ability to be creative in the studio.

Whenever i have a session with Mike we talk it all out and a sense of calm comes over me. i get back to basics and work out all the things in my head that need to get worked out. His process is both calming and therapeutic.

I would also like to add that the additional fact that Mike is a music producer himself and a veteran DJ lends itself to an extra level of trust. I don’t think i would take advice or listen to someone in the same way who was from outside the music industry. In an nutshell I find Mike Monday’s process to be an extremely valuable way to organize and free my chaotic brain to do what it is supposed to be doing.

Johnson Peterson (Yolanda Be Cool)

“I found the time with Mike to be extremely beneficial. His process opened me up to ideas that, even where obvious, I had overlooked or forgotten and I am looking forward to taking them with me to the studio. It was definitely worth it.”

Janelle Palmer (Tutukaka Coast, New Zealand)

“What your course has done for me has been remarkable and I really feel so grateful to you…

Radical is a good word for it! The most unexpected thing I’ve found about the course is the impact it has had on other areas of my life – I was quite surprised about that…

These are definitely transferable skills we are learning here!”

– Janelle Palmer (Tutukaka Coast, New Zealand)

Brett Adams (Los Angeles, California)

“I already think this is one of the greatest decisions I’ve made, and we haven’t even started the curriculum yet.”

Vernon McCarthy (Wellington, New Zealand)

“I just felt inspired to send you a really quick message to say hello and let you know that I am going great guns at the moment.

Managing to get a average of two hours every day producing. This is a huge turn around for me and am loving it. It hasn’t been easy though but I have kept at it.

And much of it has been due to the help and inspiration from yourself, the group and me now actually putting in the work. The online community is such a good thing. Everytime I have gone to have a look I have found something relevant to my thoughts and that has helped me.”

Joe Roberts (London, UK)

“Mike has helped me to start living the truism that it’s not what you use to make music, it’s your ideas.

Those ideas only mean anything when you start putting them down though and that’s what this course has already helped me to start do regularly.

I’ve made more headway in two weeks than I’d managed in a couple of years on my own starting projects, then giving up and starting something new but never seeing them through till completion.”

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