Lodger
Certified Funk Master
Hey, all,
Here's a trick that I've used for a while that really helps me out. As a music maker, I often find myself being inspired by ideas i hear in other people's work. As a musician, being receptive to this sort of observation is critical to maintaining a fresh sound and truly refining your production and composing skills. The only problem is that its difficult to keep all of the things that have inspired you in your mind at all times; good ideas are only useful if you have them at the right times.
The trick that I've devised for getting around this inspiration bottleneck is to use the computer to keep a cache of ideas for me. When I hear a section of a song i really appreciate and would like to use as an idea for a future project, I load that section into an audio editor, cut out that loop and save it in a Inspiration Bank folder. to make browsing easier, I have mine divided into such categories as:
Breakdowns
Introductions
Grooves
Basslines
Riffs
Transitions
Chord Progressions
Sound Selection/ Instrumentation
etc.
when I find myself needing inspiration in any of these areas, I have my ideas already lined up and ready to help me out. As an additional tip, I suggest spending at least 1 hour every week adding stuff to this bank. One of the best parts of this technique is that by copying and saving things that inspire you, your bank will truly come to reflect your own production style and values.
Please let me know your thoughts
-Lodger
Here's a trick that I've used for a while that really helps me out. As a music maker, I often find myself being inspired by ideas i hear in other people's work. As a musician, being receptive to this sort of observation is critical to maintaining a fresh sound and truly refining your production and composing skills. The only problem is that its difficult to keep all of the things that have inspired you in your mind at all times; good ideas are only useful if you have them at the right times.
The trick that I've devised for getting around this inspiration bottleneck is to use the computer to keep a cache of ideas for me. When I hear a section of a song i really appreciate and would like to use as an idea for a future project, I load that section into an audio editor, cut out that loop and save it in a Inspiration Bank folder. to make browsing easier, I have mine divided into such categories as:
Breakdowns
Introductions
Grooves
Basslines
Riffs
Transitions
Chord Progressions
Sound Selection/ Instrumentation
etc.
when I find myself needing inspiration in any of these areas, I have my ideas already lined up and ready to help me out. As an additional tip, I suggest spending at least 1 hour every week adding stuff to this bank. One of the best parts of this technique is that by copying and saving things that inspire you, your bank will truly come to reflect your own production style and values.
Please let me know your thoughts
-Lodger
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