In the last 3 months, I have produced and released 15 albums (a total of around 110 pieces of music) under different artist names.
To produce such a large number of tracks in such a short amount of time all I did was stick to one habit.
Non-Negotiables
A non-negotiable is something that you have to do every working day. Something that cannot be put off or delayed.
My non-negotiable was to write a piece of music every working day.
To ensure I stuck to this habit the first thing I did when I sat down was write music. I didn’t check my emails, I didn’t tidy up, I didn’t go on social media.
I opened up Logic Pro with a clear idea of what I wanted to achieve by the end of the session.
“Today, I am going to write some Dungeon Synth” for example.
I wouldn’t stop until I had written, and finished, a piece of music.
Sometimes I would be done in 15 minutes, other times it would take 2 hours.
When the track was done, I would export it and put it in Dropbox so I could listen when I was out and about (to check levels and stuff).
Letting go of perfection
Working in this way has meant that 2 wonderful things have happened:
- I have gotten faster at producing music
- I have gotten better at letting go of “perfection”
This has meant that I have embraced the idea that some of the tracks won’t be my best, and that’s ok.
If working as a professional composer has taught me anything, it’s that your own opinion of your music isn’t always the most objective (obvs).
As a result, I have released each album and moved on to the next one which gave me very little time to anguish over errors of judgment, lack of likes/streams etc.
Steps you can take to increase your musical output:
- Establish your goal (how many tracks and in what genre)
- Establish what your non-negotiable is (finish a track every day for example)
- Set a time and place for this to happen
- Stick to it (the hardest part
Just so you know, and don't beat yourself up, I did slip on some days but I would make that up by producing more than one track on another day.
