If you’re spending all your time developing your skill set, and thinking about all the technicals involved with that, you’re not getting your creations out there.
I’ve fallen quarry to this for more than half my life. The first two years I spent at Belmont University, I attended as a music major. My thought process was that I would become “overqualified” to play the type of music I wanted to make. I would be a musician who could practically play and do anything on the guitar. And I spent so much time trying to perfect my performance of other people’s music, learn my way around the neck of the guitar, and being consumed with picking and rhythm techniques.
In parallel I had become obsessed with how certain records sounded. In particular how certain guitarists got the tones they got (The Smashing Pumpkins Siameese Dream, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness blew my mind). So I started trying to learn everything I could about recording-taking many extra studio classes in school that really didn’t apply to my major (until I bailed and switched majors later). By the time I graduated from college, I found myself working at a recording studio… recording other people’s projects…
I tell you this to illustrate that in both cases I made myself believe that I had to know everything and be able to perform anything related to my craft before I could begin working on my own original ideas and creations. I lost so much time putting off my own creativity under this mentality.
Creation could be thought of as a two-halved process. One half could be learning a certain level of technical skills associated with what you do. I would argue that this would be the lesser, least significant half. Then there could exist the half that pertains to the creation side of the equation, where you create something original with your own characteristic flavor or artistic expression. I would argue that this would be the most important part, as time after time we see amazing artists create works that are eternal, yet they are just average musicians (and in some cases, can’t play at all) themselves.
Part of your developing process is the part where you create, and then share those creations with others. That’s what allows you to get better at the second, most important part of the equation.
So stop practicing and perfecting, and share your creation with us.
The funny thing about the idea behind this post is that one of the most accomplished guitar players and composers told me this ten years ago, but only now has it begun to sink in.
This post inspired by the book This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel J. Levitin, and by the blog post But what have you shipped? by Seth Godin.
//stinson
My personal blog: Producer Notes
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