5 ms·

I've been making music for 20 years, just noodling mostly. I've made some tracks that friends of mine love, but I don't want to do it professionally. I just enj

I've been making music for 20 years, just noodling mostly. I've made some tracks that friends of mine love, but I don't want to do it professionally. I just enjoy the relaxation involved. In about 2003 I tried something very similar, except I time boxed a song. I had to spend an hour and a half and each song could only take 15 minutes. That ended up being incredibly fruitful. You don't have time to think, you just go stream of consciousness through whatever comes to mind. Drums are weird? Too bad, there is no time, go with it. Throw in a 8 bar synth or piano loop. It's not good? Well, there isn't much time so on to the next thing. This ended doing a few things for me. For one, there was no second guessing anything. You just made what you made. For two there was no pressure to do a good job. You can't do a good job you are just rushing through. That lets things just flow. Thirdly it allowed me to try a ton of things that I wouldn't normally try. There was no wrong answer. All three are kinda related. I made some of my favorite songs that way and they are songs I still love. I later applied this to writing a technical book. I forced myself to write for 5 minutes a day, everyday. Sometimes it'd be 2 hours and other times it'd be 5 minutes but I got the book done and it became pretty popular. (also had a monetary penalty if I couldn't write on any particular day). I really love this way of working. Just time box and go.

kmewhort 4y ago
How did you apply a monetary penalty to yourself?
- rperce 4y ago
  I'm not the person you asked, but if I had to guess, I'd guess [beeminder]: goal-tracking software where if you don't reach your goal, they charge your credit card. Each time you fail, you get charged more. It's really good! [beeminder]: https://www.beeminder.com/ https://www.beeminder.com/
  - 4gotunameagain 4y ago
    [dead]
  - DoesntMatter22 4y ago
    lol. No. I just paid 20 dollars to charity. Never even heard of this thing
- hallway_monitor 4y ago
  There's https://www.stickk.com/ https://www.stickk.com/ which uses a referee system. You designate a referee and they have to corroborate your reports.
fortran77 4y ago
> I just enjoy the relaxation involved. I can't understand this at all. I've been playing piano for 50+ years. Still practice every day. Play in amateur recitals. It's fun, but hardly relaxing. It's a lot of work, concentration, and study. And as I get older it gets more challenging because of physical limitations (movement, eyesight, hearing) that I have to work around. My fingers don't work like they used to, and sometimes I have to decide to leave out a note, or move something to a different hand, etc. Painstaking note-by-note and phrase-by-phrase analysis. Memorization is also tough.
- dsclough 4y ago
  Practicing piano and fooling around in a DAW are completely different realms of music related activities. The pianists all know have given me the impression the activity is many more parts stress if the goal is practicing to be able to play a challenging piece, while working in a DAW can be more like splattering paint on a canvas when done like the parent comment describes
  - fortran77 4y ago
    Ok. I just expected musicianship to be musicianship regardless of the instrument.
    - whycombinetor 4y ago
      The difference here isn't the instrument, it's musical composition vs performance. You can compose and edit piano works in a DAW, or you can perform those piano works on a piano.
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
    - peepee1982 4y ago
      I have been producing music as a hobby for around 25 years. There were maybe two songs where I had to put some effort into practicing the parts I was recording. Maybe even just one. The hard parts for me are finding good arrangements, making stuff sound good in a mix, writing lyrics, finding ways to do certain non trivial things in my DAW, reviewing what software I want to purchase, ... Stuff like that. It doesn't involve much focused dedicated practice. It's just too general of an activity, and it's very easy compared to playing classical pieces on a piano.
kfrzcode 4y ago
I like to meditate behind the fretboard, get into a groove and let my muscle memory take over, while trying to remove my self and be present for the inspiration. Listening intently while not thinking or anticipating is difficult, but it's nice to have my fundamentals to the point where I can do this. It's made my practice routines more rewarding and unlocked me when I hit sort-of ruts in my playing.

kmewhort 4y ago

How did you apply a monetary penalty to yourself?

rperce 4y ago
I'm not the person you asked, but if I had to guess, I'd guess [beeminder]: goal-tracking software where if you don't reach your goal, they charge your credit card. Each time you fail, you get charged more. It's really good! [beeminder]: https://www.beeminder.com/ https://www.beeminder.com/
- 4gotunameagain 4y ago
  [dead]
- DoesntMatter22 4y ago
  lol. No. I just paid 20 dollars to charity. Never even heard of this thing
hallway_monitor 4y ago
There's https://www.stickk.com/ https://www.stickk.com/ which uses a referee system. You designate a referee and they have to corroborate your reports.

fortran77 4y ago

> I just enjoy the relaxation involved. I can't understand this at all. I've been playing piano for 50+ years. Still practice every day. Play in amateur recitals. It's fun, but hardly relaxing. It's a lot of work, concentration, and study. And as I get older it gets more challenging because of physical limitations (movement, eyesight, hearing) that I have to work around. My fingers don't work like they used to, and sometimes I have to decide to leave out a note, or move something to a different hand, etc. Painstaking note-by-note and phrase-by-phrase analysis. Memorization is also tough.

dsclough 4y ago
Practicing piano and fooling around in a DAW are completely different realms of music related activities. The pianists all know have given me the impression the activity is many more parts stress if the goal is practicing to be able to play a challenging piece, while working in a DAW can be more like splattering paint on a canvas when done like the parent comment describes
- fortran77 4y ago
  Ok. I just expected musicianship to be musicianship regardless of the instrument.
  - whycombinetor 4y ago
    The difference here isn't the instrument, it's musical composition vs performance. You can compose and edit piano works in a DAW, or you can perform those piano works on a piano.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  - peepee1982 4y ago
    I have been producing music as a hobby for around 25 years. There were maybe two songs where I had to put some effort into practicing the parts I was recording. Maybe even just one. The hard parts for me are finding good arrangements, making stuff sound good in a mix, writing lyrics, finding ways to do certain non trivial things in my DAW, reviewing what software I want to purchase, ... Stuff like that. It doesn't involve much focused dedicated practice. It's just too general of an activity, and it's very easy compared to playing classical pieces on a piano.

kfrzcode 4y ago

I like to meditate behind the fretboard, get into a groove and let my muscle memory take over, while trying to remove my self and be present for the inspiration. Listening intently while not thinking or anticipating is difficult, but it's nice to have my fundamentals to the point where I can do this. It's made my practice routines more rewarding and unlocked me when I hit sort-of ruts in my playing.