Your best music !!!!!

[Darrell]

Is it just me or do you create some of your best music under pressure ? It seems that when I have to compose a song for someone, be it a wedding, infomercial, demo , I do some of my best work on short deadlines. Don't get me wrong, I HATE working like that but when I don't get the chance to criticize my work over and over again (start changing one thing then another & after a while ,YOU don't even recognize it or have completely gone into left field away from your theme), I'm surprised with the response that I get. Even when I've lost sequences (due to hard drive crashes, disk errors w/o a backup disk, or freak accidents) and the music is due in 2 days, sometimes it's better the second time. Anyone else has similar experiences?

[dansouth]

Working fast forces you to make decisions quickly and to not fuss over every little detail. Sometimes that can be good. On the other hand, I find that if I work on a piece over time, I experience little epiphanies and gain insights that add a lot to the final product. Ideas seem to bubble up unexpectedly.

 

The key is finishing the project. I like to say, "You are what you finish." Whatever gets you to the finish line is what's best.

[F7sound -]

I agree. My best music is created when my wife is standing over my head with a rolling pin in her hand... ready to swipe at me!

 

 

Michael Oster

F7 Sound and Vision

http://www.f7sound.com

[Mark Zeger]

I often write music the same way I used to write term papers. First draft, then edit, edit, edit, edit over a couple weeks until it finally comes together usually the night before it's due.

[Guest]

The best performances I have ever had have been under some of the most unbelievably stressful, chaotic, time compressing situations imaginable. But, you know, it's funny. You can't create stress in order to play well. It's just one of those things that happens, but we'll never tame it.

 

I kinda agree about the termpaper thing though. One guy we do a lot of studio work for crams us with tunes we've never heard a day or two before we hit the studio. Then when we get there he lays about half a cd's worth of new ones that we haven't even gone over and expects us do lay down all the tracks in one long session. Then we get to come back over a couple of weeks and tweak it. I hate him for this, but I can't deny the freshness and the energy he is able to milk out of us this way. The end result always amazes me that we ever managed to pull it off that way. So, maybe there is something to it. JW

[Gus Lozada]

Originally posted by dansouth@yahoo.com:

Working fast forces you to make decisions quickly and to not fuss over every little detail. Sometimes that can be good...The key is finishing the project. Whatever gets you to the finish line is what's best.

 

Another good thing about "pressure" is you HAVE TO declare "This is finished, ready for delivery" and give it to the customer. No further editing allowed, since the thing is gone...

 

I guess if I finished my time-based projects with a couple of weeks of anticipation, I'd start to re-work them... and perhaps get a very different piece with the risk of not ever finishing it.

 

I know, re-editing most of the times leads to better results. But there's always that "first idea" fresh thing that helped you to create the piece that if you loose it, you have to re-start it until a new result comes... if it comes someday...

 

How many ideas for a 20 second radio spot can you come with? http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/wink.gif

GusTraX@yahoo.com