Producer's/Writer's BLOCK

    Yiir! Hope everybody is doing okay. Just a quick catch up and then I'll get right into it. Doing really well in classes, although this quarter has been a debacle on the faculty's part. Lots of crazy issues that don't really matter at this point. Suffice it to say that, regardless of the faculty issues, projects and assignments are still in full swing and due in a couple of weeks. Been learning a lot about how music is produced now-a-days. Actually had to re-create a few songs, all for finals, all of our choosing from a list. I chose to re-create Lil Wayne's "Lollipop" for my synth project. For this project, we were only allowed to use A certain synthesizer to create ALL of the sounds and instruments...drums also...no sample libraries allowed. Fun stuff. For my digital music project, we had to do a mash up. I chose to mash two Katy Perry songs, "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot and Cold". Again...fun stuff. Although, for this project, we were allowed to use sample libraries. Still had to re-create the whole song. So, next time you hear any of these songs, or any songs that sound like it, know this...I know how to create those sounds, from scratch. Fun stuff...SO...
    Any of us that are producers or writers is all too familiar with the ever so aggravating block of creativity. We've all been there, whether it's having trouble writing a verse, the hook, or even the beat itself. Unfortunately, I've experienced more than my share of blocks on both sides of the coin.  I actually bring this topic up in this blog because a friend of mine at school is going through it right now, and like I said, we all go there at some point. I felt this topic was blog worthy, and here we are.
   In my opinion, producer's block is worse than writer's block...more than a little too, but not that much. When you have writer's block, you're having trouble trying to figure out what you're trying to say, same as producer's block. However, you either already have a song topic picked out, and are trying to stay on subject; or you are trying to let the music tell you what you should be writing by how it makes you feel. There's a rhythm there for you, a groove that you can feel and perhaps start to freestyle a flow to. You have your rhythm and syllable possibilities, but you just can't seem to find the right words. Maybe you want a wider ranged vocabulary, and saying "Fuck" five times in two bars just isn't satisfying anymore (Good for you!). Or maybe you have the vocabulary selected, you really want to say "Fuck" at least three times because it flows nice, but everything in-between just isn't sitting well with the MC on your shoulder. My point is that you have a bit of a crutch with the snare cracking in your ear every second and the music speaking to you.
     When you're suffering from producer's block, all you hear is silence. You don't know what rhythm you want, you don't know the chords, the melody. Shit, you don't even know what instruments you wanna use. How bout the BPM's? There's step one: what's your tempo? You don't even know that? Shit dude...bad spot. You have nothing but silence. No groove, no rhythm. No melody to write to. Yes, you can freestyle melodys and bass lines. Maybe if you're a beat box you can spit a beat real quick and build off that...maybe. But if you're creative juices are blocked, you're gonna have a hard time.
    Regardless of it being writer's or producer's block, I believe both to be symptoms of the same problem...stress. Not in the obvious way, either. I don't mean to say that you can't make beats or write lyrics just because you're stressed. No, not at all. Everything revolves around what you're feeling. Period. You write certain lyrics to certain instrumentals because it's how the beat made you feel when you sat down with your pen. Maybe you already have a song topic in mind, and are ready to make a beat for it. The lyrics will make you feel a certain way, and you'll produce a beat that is relevant to your lyrics. Every time.
   When you're stressed, your judgment is blurry, and you can't focus. Sometimes it's best to just walk away for a while, however long that while may be. Could be a few hours, could be a day or two. Can't let it last too long though, ya gotta keep pressin. Otherwise, it gets the best of you and you just get lazy. Creative people have to stay creating, even if it's just a freestyle on the stoop. Stay focused. Sit down and just mess around on the piano. Don't try to write anything...just play. If you don't like what you're playing then stop. Totally. It'll come back to you when you're ready.
    These situations can be very tricky, because you really need to become fully in-tune with your emotions when you have a block. It's your emotions that dictate your end result. If you're not in the best of moods, your music will reflect that. So don't try writing some awesome pop love song when you're angry as hell about your neighbors dog shitting on your doormat. Instead, write an angry ass song. If you're feeling really happy, same rules apply. Don't sit there and listen to some piano ballad in Eb minor, expecting to write the next billboard hit. You'll lose almost every time.
    Gather yourself, gather your emotions and really think about how you're feeling. Make moves off of that, and stick to it. Everything is based off of your emotions, so trying to trick yourself into it is pointless. How many times have you heard someone say, "Man. I'm just not feelin it"? Blocks suck. No question. It's how we deal with them that makes us successful artists. You really have to find out what it is that's blocking your ideas and creativity. It's not like you aren't capable of doing it suddenly. It all comes from within. Stay centered, and control your emotions. Don't deny them...embrace them, and express them through your music. You have to know why you want to speak before you can communicate. What drove you to the piano? What drove you to your work station? What drove you to grab your pad?.......What drove you to put it down?
     In closing...I leave you with a quote by E.L. Doctorow, an American author, slightly modified to suit..........

--Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the listener (reader) -not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon. 
Peace...

If the drums ain't tight, the beat ain't right

   Allow myself to re-introduce myself....
   Welcome back, it's  been a minute. I was fortunate enough to go home for the holidays, and it was very refreshing, if not "centering", to go back home and see all my boys again. For the cats I wasn't able to meet up with, my deepest apologies...but I'll be back again. So, let's get back to it.
   I'm still doing the same things here, songwriting and film scoring. My film scoring class has gotten slightly more intense, which I think is friggin awesome. One thing, for sure, is this....film scoring is hard. Real hard. I think it's harder than songwriting, at least for me it is. You really have to get very artistic with it, and let your emotions get deeply involved. In fact, a very famous film composer, Hanz Zimmer said "All these intellectual ideas go only so far, then you have to own up to the truth that it better have an emotional content".  This basically means, that all the theory and technical shit you know is great and necessary, but you have to care and get in touch with your project. Everything else will eventually fall into place. You also have to decide who's perspective you're writing the music from, meaning which character is your music going to relate to. You need to have a main theme of the movie, but you also have to make sure that it tells the story of the characters. There's also times where your music will actually fill in the holes of the story that are left by the dialogue. Maybe even hint to something underlying the story that the characters haven't discussed yet. Pretty involved stuff. 

   Now, to the title of this...I believe it was Premier who said, "If the drums ain't tight, the beat ain't right". My God, the truth behind this statement is uncanny. Drums decide everything for you. Yes, melody and chord progression, rhythm, etc, are all very important. But your music is trash if your drums are trash...point blank. Unfortunately, drums are my weakest asset. Seriously, my drums are not tight lol. So, that is something that I'm going to need to work on and study...a lot. Another beef I have with my drums is that they always develop into a hip hop sound, which does NOT work for an R&B track or a pop track. Just isn't gonna work. So, what I need to do is take ALL of the hip hop tracks out of my iPod, and replace them with R&B songs. I need to really listen and analyze these songs, so I can learn how to do this stuff. 

  Luckily, I'm in the company of some percussion beasts, so for now I'm making instrumentals and letting the drums be done elsewhere. Gotta utilize your sources, and admit when you need the help.

  I also need to watch various genre's of movies and study the scores, see what they're doing. So, I guess I will no longer listen to music or watch movies for enjoyment, but for studying purposes. Jessica's going to hate me lol.

   Until next time, I leave you with this...

"The manner in which Americans ''consume'' music has a lot to do with leaving it on their coffee tables, or using it as wallpaper for their lifestyles, like the score of a movie --it's consumed that way without any regard for how and why it's made."-Frank Zappa.