Aday
Offline
Melbourne, Australia

I'm making this post as a reference point for future us/me to look on and be reminded of the path of the weekly-beats way of life - and avoiding pitfalls like momentum dives and lack of inspiration.

(Edit Highly Subject to Editing)

* Don't Delete Anything (Save your stems!! Put them somewhere organised)
* Save Often (Computers suck, and will destroy your world with BSOD's etc)
* Stop reading forums, unplug your Ethernet cable if you have too!!
* Get sleep(or naps?) (Unproven if this is actually helping at this point)

Workflow Ritual?
* Turn your phone off?

After 2012 and 2014 I found a lot of learning to cope with this was mostly psychological, not technical. (There some how related!?!? (I'm not insane?))

Protip: Open your project file on your laptop/desktop ALL THE TIME, Leave it open... ALL..THE..TIME...when when not directly working on it.

Last edited by Aday (March 24, 2016 4:47 am)

Judgement Act
Offline
Adelaide, Australia

I dropped WB12 (and didn't participate in WB14), and it was due to the workload I had with school at the time. I regret that a lot, so my advice would be to suck it up, and release -something-, even if it's just some random junk you put together in an hour. No-one on the site will judge you for it, and if it's a competition, it's one with yourself.

In this case I feel it's true that something not great is better than nothing at all.

Last edited by Judgement Act (January 1, 2016 4:27 am)

fc
Offline
Melbourne, Australia

My advice to everyone, ever: get over preciousness and just MAKE stuff.

Tristan Louth-Robins
Offline
Adelaide, South Australia
vinpous wrote:

My advice to everyone, ever: get over preciousness and just MAKE stuff.

+1

Aday
Offline
Melbourne, Australia

Last edited by Aday (January 4, 2016 9:16 am)

Mr Mort
Offline
Pweter City
vinpous wrote:

My advice to everyone, ever: get over preciousness and just MAKE stuff.

+5

laguna
Offline
Madrid, Spain
NekoTheory wrote:

I dropped WB12 (and didn't participate in WB14), and it was due to the workload I had with school at the time. I regret that a lot, so my advice would be to suck it up, and release -something-, even if it's just some random junk you put together in an hour. No-one on the site will judge you for it, and if it's a competition, it's one with yourself.

In this case I feel it's true that something not great is better than nothing at all.

I remember hearing some of your stuff back in 2012, so I'll hope you stick around for a while smile

You said it: this is for you. It's not a competition.

Some thing that helps me is reworking the material I had sitting in my hard drive for a couple of months. Resample/remix yourself with no hesitation.

A lot of times you'll find that "that pointless nanoloop jam" that u thought it sucked gets more comments than "the definitive masterpiece" you were working and reworking for days, so we musicians are not always our best own audience smile

Prepare to be surprised... And man, glad you're here

Jim Wood
Offline
Santa Fe, NM
vinpous wrote:

My advice to everyone, ever: get over preciousness and just MAKE stuff.

Yes, yes and yes again.

CrazyBob
Offline
Polish Village, Chicago, IL
Jim Wood wrote:
vinpous wrote:

My advice to everyone, ever: get over preciousness and just MAKE stuff.

Yes, yes and yes again.

My mantra at all times: "It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be DONE!"

A deadline is an excuse to suck: "If only I'd had more time..."

It's a lie. If I'd had more time I'd've pissed it away just like I did every minute leading up to the last one. But it's a good excuse. It works.

fc
Offline
Melbourne, Australia

I'm glad so many people like my advice. One of the most damaging things to come out of the romantic era is the idea of 'perfection'. Ugh.

0F
Offline
Melbourne

Yeah, I'm hoping my focus for this year can be long-form jams with the occasional prog song thrown in. I'm also playing around with the idea of extreme repetition as a deliberate stylistic choice; so much so that I may actually have to disclose that when uploading tracks, for fear of people commenting saying "this is too repetitive" when it is the main focus of the track tongue

Sir Bunting
Online
Orlando, FL

Actually what you gotta do is cleanse your chakras. Spin them clockwise, and make double sure the aura of your solar plexus is yellow. It's the only way.

Yeah but for real, just work on something. Write what you can, select your favorite rhythm or motif from your brainstorming, then work off of that. An interesting initial 4 or 8 bars can carry you really far.

brim.stone
Offline
Southern Oregon
Aday wrote:

Workflow Ritual?
* Turn your phone off

Dang, yeah I really need to do this...

OP-1 Kenobi
Offline

i know i'm going to write a lot of music that sucks this year but i think that's a good thing and i've completed my first track and am just really chuffed to be involved and to see what everyone else comes up with smile)

E-dub
Offline
Oklahoma City, OK, USA

I'm fortunate in that I know I'm never going to come close to perfection with my songs.  But, occasionally I will finish one and be like "Whoa... I made that!"  And that makes all the others worth it.

home taping association
Offline
Newcastle - UK

i know it's been said already but in wb2014 i really learned the importance of 'just doing something'.  whether that's a quick improv jam session or a series of drones.  after a while i got used to that flow and ebb of having a few 'proper' pieces interspersed with a filler track when i was short of time.