Ableton Forum

Was listening to an interview with an old jazz musician and he wasn’t “these kids and their damn DAWs!” but said you grow by making mistakes through practice and preferably in front of an audience. Making mistakes sitting in front of a desk by yourself and then correcting it digitally doesn’t cause growth. How many of you have been composing music for years and still can’t play an instrument proficiently?

Discuss.

nah...

growth through mistakes is right. But growth through just doing is also right.

One thing about it that I definitely agree with though is the working with/or in front of other people. I think it's being isolated that stunts creativity more than the actual medium

Forge. wrote:nah...

growth through mistakes is right. But growth through just doing is also right.

One thing about it that I definitely agree with though is the working with/or in front of other people. I think it's being isolated that stunts creativity more than the actual medium

But I also think online collaboration doesn’t cut it either for similar reasons. Not being able to bounce ideas off each other live on the fly just leads to a lot of time wasted with a lot of “OK, how about now?” after the fact back and forth and in a lot of cases you just end up settling because you lose interest or can’t explain adequately what you are looking/listening for.

Being a DAW producer has definitely dumbed down my guitar chops. The only saving grace were the 4 hours a day, 5-7 days a week, spent playing guitar for 12 years prior to knowing anything about producing on a DAW. If I play for 20 hours I get loosened up, but the "flow" is not the same. Also gone are the spontaneous days of bringing my guitar everywhere and meeting all kinds of people and jamming.

Forge. wrote:One thing about it that I definitely agree with though is the working with/or in front of other people. I think it's being isolated that stunts creativity more than the actual medium

The lessons you learn from the mistakes you make while performing in front of an audience will definitely be lessons you remember! Baptism by fire. One must get up to the edge, & take genuine risks. That's fertile soil for growth.

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter.
Try Again. Fail again. Fail better."
~Samuel Beckett

When you screw up on stage, coming back is in itself a creative decision where potential gold is buried!

Awhile back I was thinking bands deserve some credit if for no other reason you’re dealing with 3 or more egos with different ideas coming to a consensus on songs, but then I realized I was mostly reflecting on working alone or attempting to collaborate online. It’s way different and organic in a live situation riffing off each other on the fly. I know there are disagreements but they get worked out a lot quicker than going back and forth online.

I took my son to one of those drum clinics the other week and one of the drummers (Greg Bissonette - veteren drummer who's played with just about everyone you can think of) was talking about how only about 50% of it is about musicianship and the other 50% is about being able to get along with people.

Forge. wrote:I took my son to one of those drum clinics the other week and one of the drummers (Greg Bissonette - veteren drummer who's played with just about everyone you can think of) was talking about how only about 50% of it is about musicianship and the other 50% is about being able to get along with people.

I think that could be a universal metaphor for life in general.

aisling wrote:

Forge. wrote:I took my son to one of those drum clinics the other week and one of the drummers (Greg Bissonette - veteren drummer who's played with just about everyone you can think of) was talking about how only about 50% of it is about musicianship and the other 50% is about being able to get along with people.

I think that could be a universal metaphor for life in general.

Agreed.
+1.. on both.
I can easily say that about my work...

With home produced electronica I think it’s more like 10% about the music and 90% about social and public networking. When the next hot electronica artists popup this year I think you could gain some insight by researching how they got there. I hear a lot of new great electronica that I think deserves the attention but I also hear a lot that isn’t getting the attention I think it deserves.

Kind of hard to apply the 50/50 formula when you aren't really dealing with anybody else creatively.