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Do you trust your creative judgement?

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I don’t mean your reasoned, logical, “take every option and weigh each up rationally” judgement.

judgement

I’m talking about your animal, gut, in the heat of the moment judgement.

Because there’s 2 ways of making music.

One is to make your musical choices according to logic.

Reasoning. Cooly and rationally deciding between your available options.

Making sure you are making the “right” decisions.

The other is to trust your gut.

Go with your animal intuition. Let your unconscious mind run wild and go with it’s choices.

Do you have the courage to do that?

Because I want you to think about your audience. Your listeners.

Think about the way they will listen to your music.

Where they will be, what they will be doing when they hear your music. The state they will be in when they are listening to it.

What effect you want your music to have on them?

So let’s assume you are making music [mainly] for the dancefloor.

The state your listener is going to be in is highly unlikely to be analytical, rational and reasoning.

It’ll be much closer to the animal, emotional, visceral…

Unless you’re making music simply to impress other music producers.

Or chin strokers.

(Which is a perfectly valid source of motivation – for sure.

Although a sure way to impress both other music producers and chin strokers is to write something that they can’t help but lose their shizz to.)

So – if the vast majority of your listeners are (hopefully) going to be in quite a “froth” when enjoying your music…

…which method of making music is more likely to achieve this?

Which is more likely to affect and excite the animal, visceral, “in the moment” part of your audience’s brain?

By exclusively using your logical, rational mind?

“Thinking through” every single tiny decision?

Or by trusting your gut?

(I know which I’m putting my money on.)

How to Put Intuition Front & Centre

There’s a whole module in my full program dedicated to these 2 different methods of making creative decisions.

Because for sure – both have their place.

But I’ve noticed that most music producers almost exclusively rely on just one.

(and which you rely on will largely depend on what you do day to day in your job – of you have one. But that’s a whole other can of worms I’ll get into another time.) 🙂

Which do you tend to use?

By learning and practising how to use both, will mean you make much more music – much more often.

(Because when you get stuck with one you’ll know how to use another effectively.)

And it also leads to making more powerful music.

(Because you’re more likely to get those darned chin strokers off their asses!) 😉

But for now – here’s a ridiculously simple technique I used a heap to unlock my gut intuition.

Particularly when I found myself getting stuck in “analysis paralysis”.

The “Just Go With Your Gut” Method

This is the closest I could get to “free writing” when making music.

(Where you just write words completely freely on paper without allowing your conscious questioning mind to get in the way.)

So for an entire studio session I’d simply go with the first idea, sound, part or decision that popped into my head.

Never second guess myself.

Never try another option.

Just go with it and see where it lead.

The result? The process was much quicker. It was more fun.

And yes – the music was (usually) MUCH better!

Try it. It’s very simple. But it’s also a blast.

(This works a treat when DJing too. Every single time – always put on next the first track that comes into your head. Scary. But awesome. Cue crowd going potty.)

There is a problem though…

Using this method sometimes means getting a little carried away “in the moment”.

Letting your imagination and “animal brain” run free can lead to putting way too much into the track and getting confused.

Not the point.

Because when this happens, you can’t help but get that rational logical brain in to take over and make sense of the mess.

So to avoid the mess – use a framework.

Write your parts “in” an arrangement template you’ve made already.

Because then you’re much less likely to go off on a creative flight of fancy.

And here’s a fantastic little tool to do just that.

the-cure-low

With it – you’ll create the structure of the music first, before you create any parts.

You’ll then write your parts within that structure.

These boundaries will (ironically) give you the freedom to let your imagination and creativity run free.

Without disappearing down that dreaded music production rabbit hole.

P.S. This method also works a treat on finishing tracks you’re utterly bored of.

And I’ve got another tool for you right here to help you do that.

It’s called “The Magic Track Re-Animator”

So what’s your preferred method of making music?

Do you cooly and rationally weigh the options? Or splurge the contents of your brain into the DAW?

Do you use analysis or insight?

How would it help you to develop the skill of using the other more often?

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Filed Under: Featured Post, Music Production, Composition And Theory

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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)

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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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