Curiosity/Personal Development

[Mat_Zo]

If there's one thing I've learnt about making music it's not the sound design or the music or the marketting, its about the idea of what it means to be a human being. I was lucky to grow up in a culture of self assessment and questioning the world around you, which is being lost right now. My favourite music growing up was grunge, and grunge wasn't about being depressed, or hating the world, it was about taking a step back and questioning and learning about the world around you, not because you have to, but because you WANT to.

The more you learn as a person the more you will learn as a human and therefore as an artist, the rest doesn't matter.

[Smather]

Can't agree with this more.  Something that everyone should apply to every aspect of their life,  the world doesn't have to be the doom and gloom that we are shown through mainstream media. Do a good deed,  fight the good fight and question everything.  It's really important in my opinion to just be human . 

[Commerce]

Music to me should always be a snapshot of where the person creating it is with their life and emotions.

[UsernamesGiveMeAnxiety]

Pretty much everything I've learned about making music is in alignment with what you just said. Thanks Mat!

[clearskys]

If there's one thing I've learnt about making music it's not the sound design or the music or the marketting, its about the idea of what it means to be a human being. I was lucky to grow up in a culture of self assessment and questioning the world around you, which is being lost right now. My favourite music growing up was grunge, and grunge wasn't about being depressed, or hating the world, it was about taking a step back and questioning and learning about the world around you, not because you have to, but because you WANT to.

The more you learn as a person the more you will learn as a human and therefore as an artist, the rest doesn't matter.

Making music is, in a way, an ability that allows us to transcend past this fleshy shell that we are encased in. I think you're alluding to translating your thoughts and concentrating them into sounds that are synonymous with the person you are at that moment in time.

A bit too philosophical for me, but I get what you're saying.

[Wontolla]

Making music is, in a way, an ability that allows us to transcend past this fleshy shell that we are encased in. I think you're alluding to translating your thoughts and concentrating them into sounds that are synonymous with the person you are at that moment in time.

A bit too philosophical for me, but I get what you're saying.

Not just your thoughts, but the human experience. People like music they can relate to. The best songs are the ones that can reach out into the listener, find something inside them, and dig it up. This goes for fiction too; even if your fictional universe has giant robots and magic lasers and yellow rats that shoot lightning, if the characters are believable, and they go through real struggles and deal with them like normal people would, it'll have an emotional impact.

One of my favorite albums of all time, Skyforger by Amorphis, is set in pre-christian Finland. I've never even been to Finland. But it deals with some very real themes, like finding your limits, and never being satisfied with your own work. The music is great, but it's the lyrics, which in turn inspire the music, that make it universal. And if you let your life seep into the music, you won't even need lyrics.

[Jay Cosmic]

Yes x100.

At this point (I've been making music for over 9 years) - it's more beneficial for me to learn about personal development, take the analogies, and apply those ideas to my music (rather than watching yet another video on compression or something).

Really interesting how the same concepts apply to any 'path to mastery'. 

[Emil Niklasson]

Wise words indeed! I know it to be true. However, I do need an reminder now and then when outer circumstances try to derail your path.

[entwenty]

I agree; part of the reason why I wanted to make music was because I wanted to create emotion and feeling and let others feel what I'm feeling.  I would listen to a song and be like, "How can I translate how I felt listening into something I can make?"  I'd try to make 8-bit style catchy melodies like in Mega Man 2 or even bone-chilling breakdowns just like in Trance.

Lately I haven't been inspired to make anything, but I hope lurking here more allows me to learn new ways to re-ignite that fire.

[Artless Venture]

I am living by this quote:

Nonetheless, I will venture into being artless, venture into being artless while still attempting to do what art has always done since the first piece of literature known to us; namely, present humans facing the human condition, humans in a desperate encounter with the silence of the universe, humans left on their own to make an inner decision about it all, each struggling to answer the questions existence itself has presented us with. - V. Virom Coppola

Very true words in this thread...
Artless Venture ♢

[varanj]

Music is pure bliss to me & don't know what really clicked inside me around 1994-1996 time, when i first heard my uncle play his old philips speaker (cassettes) of techno music & i had an instant hook up automatically to trance/tech music, it had a striking positive resonating effect on me and 5 years ago i got hooked on to Trap scene pretty badly....now i can't live a day without Trance/Trap/Deep House/Dub Step/Hybrid and experimental music..i feel there's so much more out there - the blends of cultural mixes (indian/afro/chinese) that guys like TroyBoi have done.

For me, music is Life and i aspire to be a DJ starting with my Ableton tutorials today. TRANCE is my drug, it gives me a natural instant high that builds up on me insanely with every new track. I come from an educated family background in India and have lived more than a decade in US, so i am a blend of both the cultures. Ironically, i am an IT Entrepreneur as well and producing my own tracks is something i really want to do now

[IKIS]

The hardest thing to overcome is myself.

[track7]

You need to stay aware of the world around you.. otherwise your music won't relate to it enough to be noticed.