How to be productive as a musician
Image credit: Soundtrap
Completing projects is one of the hardest things as a musician but there are things you can do to turn your creations into regular results.
So you’re filled with ideas, in your head the enthusiasm for your next tracks – or a whole new album! – is abuzz, and you’re waiting to get back to your instrument and start creating. Then you sit down and it suddenly seems like a lot of effort.
One of the hardest parts of being a musician is summoning and maintaining the energy to produce and finish your ideas. We’re not talking about creative block – where inspiration for the ideas come from – but with finding the energy to create and maintaining that productivity to achieve an end result, and doing it regularly enough to build something.
Not just a result of motivation, sometimes a lack of direction and order will block you too. A chaos of ideas is natural for a musician, and putting them together and defining a path to completion is hard.
Don’t worry though! We have some essential tips to get you on the path to a completed product.
It’s about time
One of the biggest things preventing us as creatives from producing more is the time in which to do it. It can’t be denied, life gets in the way. But music is too important to push aside for us, right?
That’s why we need to look at our relationship with time and define it. Look at what your schedule is for the next 7 days. What do you have to do? Go to work, go to the shops, help a friend, eat and sleep. Those are your necessities, write them down and when they will happen.
Now, what are you left with? That’s your time to choose what you do with. Of course, there are probably loads of things you want to put in these pockets of freedom. That’s fine. But define some time that you can and will dedicate to music. No matter what, that will be the time in the week that you give to writing, playing, recording, mixing, whatever it is.
Defining that time stops the procrastination that comes from disorder and the sense of business. We do have the time, but when all the actions we want to achieve are swirling in our head it can seem there is no time in the world for everything we need to do and want to do. Laying it out helps us realise when there is time and making sure we use it.
If your routine is roughly the same each week, then lay out this timetable so that each week you have that same time allotted to music. Even if it’s only a few hours a week, over a month that adds up, and over a year that could be a completed record. If it’s not working for you, tweak the timetable and find the schedule that feels right to maximise your productivity.
If your schedule is different each week, try and find a few minutes at the start of the week to lay out what is going on for the next seven days and find your time to give over to music each week.
As busy as we may feel in this hustle bustle world, it’s sometimes surprising how much time we actually have when we lay it out in front of us.
Tidy space and an ordered mind
In the 21st Century, we are bombarded with distractions. Pop-ups on our computer, notifications on our phone, bills from last month lying on the table, a siren blaring past your window. Getting in the zone is hard when your surroundings are taking you out of it. Whilst some things are beyond our control (I don’t think you can ask the ambulances to take a different route), a lot of it is within our power to resolve.
Firstly, get your workspace in order. Whether it’s the sofa where you play guitar on or a fully converted studio room you’ve invested the time and money into making, get that thing tidy. You want to channel all of your energy and attention into creating, so no annoying trinkets stealing your gaze or piles of paper providing a subconscious sense of disorder.
If all you have before you is your instrument(s), your recording equipment, and your computer or whatever vessel you use to record with, then all of your focus can go into the music.
With that in mind, ditch the phone. It’s a bombardment of distraction in our daily life, so leave it out of the room. Or, if you really need it because you like to use it as part of the creative process (writing lyrics or using a metronome, etc.) then turn the Wi-Fi off, or at least notifications. That way, you won’t be interrupted by pings from the outside world which you can deal with after you’ve had a productive session.
Likewise on your computer, try not to have distracting browsers or apps open. If you can simply have your DAW or whatever else you’re using for the music then you can put your full attention into the creative process.
Whether you like it or not
Sometimes, you will sit down at your instrument or whatever you create with and it all just flows out of you. It’s the best, when creations come forth with so little effort. But sometimes, you’ll sit down with the best intentions to create and find nothing comes out at all.
That’s okay! It happens to us all. But, that’s not necessarily a reason to pack it in and try again another day. Push through the nothingness. Play regardless, even if its just replaying some old tunes or noodling. Maybe use the time to play with some effects.
When you’ve carved out a time to do music, do something musical with that time. You won’t always be able to come up with a new song to work on, but any time spent being musical – even if it’s not towards an end result – is time well spent. It keeps your head in the game.
The most special thing about this relentless consistency, is that you may very well break through to the other side. If you give up after ten minutes feeling like nothing is coming from you, then nothing will. But another 20 minutes of strumming that guitar aimlessly, you may stumble upon your best melody yet. You never know when inspiration will strike, and oftentimes just the doing will get you there.
Beyond the music
Putting all of your intention into perfecting your musical approach and output is a good way to get tired, feel burnt out, and find disappointment if you don’t see the results. But part of defining your time to focus on music, is giving that other time to yourself.
Spend some of that other time you’ve found free in the week to do something you really enjoy, not related to music at all. Relax, unwind, find pleasure in your actions. Because, if all of your energy is put into your music it’s very easy for it to become too much – and music is a passion, don’t lose the enjoyment within it!
Having healthy habits will also compound your ability to achieve more. Good sleep will give you energy you to create more, exercise will fire you up with enthusiasm, and good food will fuel your consistency. Don’t underestimate the knock-on effects of a healthy lifestyle in pursuing your creative goals. Even if they don’t seem directly related, they will boost your ability to approach them.
For some people, putting their everything into music might work and lead them to come out with amazing things. Just keep an eye on your energy and level of enthusiasm to make sure that you are still doing it because you love it and that you can keep coming to it fresh and satisfied.
Finish it
One of the curses of being a music maker is the infinite starts and the rare ends. How many projects have you started, played with, expanded on, and then saved, forgotten about, and moved on from.
Getting started can be easy, coming up with the first drum loop or melody line. You may even get as far as having the whole song structure and arrangement down on tape only to find yourself disinterested in the mixing stage and moving on.
But it’s crucial to finish things. Otherwise you’ll never have your breakout single, your magnum opus album, your growing fanbase.
Set a task to finish a project you’ve started on. Whether it’s something you start from scratch or one deep within your project folders. Decide a realistic amount of time in which you could spend to complete it, and then do just that. Don’t overthink it and try to do to much. Do just what you need to have a completed product.
Even if you finish the song and decide you don’t want to release it or would like to change things about it, you have completed something and learned about the process and yourself along the way. Finishing things is really one of the hardest parts of being a creative, but it is crucial. Try to finish one project before moving on to the next. Do this consistently, and before you know it you have a catalogue of fully formed music.
Make it work for you
Use these tips to help inspire you to get organised and kickstart the creative process. But don’t do things that don’t work for you. You may find that tweaking the methodology mentioned above gives you better results. You may even find that what we’ve said doesn’t work for you at all, and that chaos reigns supreme in achieving your creative potential.
That’s fine! Finding what works for you is the key. These are good tips to help you get on your way to a consistent schedule that pushes you further towards an end product and consistent results. But within that framework, you will find the way that really allows you to achieve your dreams.
So, put in the effort and find your route. There is no winning or losing as an artist, except in not doing.