An Updated Personal Reflection

For the past 13 weeks I have been partaking in an industry course to further my knowledge of the music industry and how to present myself professionally. Before I started the course I had previously been producing for upwards of 4 years and was in a position where I was feeling confident with my production and employability skills. I was put in a position where I had to research topics outside of music and speak about materials which covered all types of media.

Through this I learned that there is possibility everywhere to draw out components of any type of media or emotion and incorporate it into my music. Whether it be a sad scene from a movie or propaganda from a political party, there will always be elements that are able to be extracted and converted into music.

Growing up I always had issues with focussing on a specific topic for an extended period of time, but for some reason I never came across this issue during my studies. I guess I was so interested in what I was learning that it never bored me. Procrastination was something that i challenged with whilst studying or working on an assignment, but I read In a production book years ago about a technique which is supposed to be very helpful for studying or creating music called time boxing. I 100% recommend to any producers that experience writers block, whether already skilled or just starting out, to try time boxing.

Instead of setting 4 hours of studio time to work on creating a new song, break it down. Instead set an hour to composing and then take a 15 or 20 minute break, then set the next hour to mixing or even to continue composing if you’re not happy with all you midi and instruments yet. Repeat this process as often as you can, not only to rest your eyes from your DAW but to rest your mind as well. Not everyone can force creativity and those who can are likely to have tried time boxing before, whether it be to do just an hour mixing on a Sunday morning or something. The book I have mentioned can be purchased from the Ableton website (https://makingmusic.ableton.com/)

I think if I was to partake in a course like this again I will make sure to not only write notes down, but to re-write them again into a seperate book at home because for me, the more I write something down the easier it is for me to remember.

I will continue to post updates about my debut album Atychi on this blog so keep your eyes peeled, along side with interviews of local Brisbane artists, music news and personal developments or walls I run into as an upcoming music producer.

Jordan Bayne

ATOM