It mercilessly attacks your music production process and destroys your best ideas.
Symptoms include:
Starting tracks but never moving any forward
Inability to arrange what seems like a great loop
Listening to 8 or 16 bars on repeat for hours
Perfecting loops for months and months without making songs
If so, I'm about to cure your Loopitis forever.
But before I do, let me first diagnose the cause of the condition...
In my last email (subject: avoid at all costs), I shared a simple shift in approach which makes a Universe of difference:
Practising Error Correction instead of Error Avoidance.
If you suffer from Loopitis, you're practising Error Avoidance. If you CAN'T STAND your music sounding bad at any point. If you refuse to move forward because it sounds rubbish...
If you practice Error Avoidance...
You are doomed to go round in circles.
But when you accept that much of your music will seem bad at the time. When you take the only rational approach to your unreliable opinion. When you realise that you DO NOT need to fix everything immediately...
You're on the way to a fun and free creative process.
Where you know errors are inevitable. They can be corrected at any time. That problems in the music are a "menu" of next steps to choose from.
You see, before any session, your first step is to choose which of the many problems to focus on. And that choice is determined by where you are in your creative process.
(For instance, when you’re coming up with an idea, EQing a hi-hat is a low priority. Or even something you choose to avoid until later.)
So now I've given you the Cure for the cause, let's move to a prescription to clear up your Loopitis.
Practice this for the next 7 days for immediate relief from all symptoms:
When you start a track, use the arrangement view.
Play/draw/record your 1st part.
DO NOT place the next over the top in the same 8 or 16 bars.
Instead, copy the 1st part to the next 8 or 16 bars and play/draw/record your next part there.
Repeat until you have a few parts playing and a basic "arrangement" of them coming in one by one.
Visually arrange (i.e. you don't even have to listen!) a few (even random) combinations of the parts you have along the timeline. (This visual arranging step can take a couple of MINUTES.)
Save the project and record an audio file of what you have. No need to listen back. No need to improve it. No need to do anything other than save the project and record an audio file.
Listen back to the track a few days later.
Notice the errors and decide which to focus on.
When you listen back, you're likely to have a terrible arrangement. But that's ok, as you'll hear the parts "in time" as a piece of music.
This makes it much easier to hear the errors.
So you can correct (not avoid) them.
Onwards & upwards,
Mike
"If you don't make crap, you'll get constipation."
P.S. A random visual arrangement you correct later is how you’ll cure getting stuck in the loop - for good.
But the Loopitis Cure is just the first step to fast arranging. Through a few simple steps, you can also make GREAT arrangements in the blink of an eye. It’s one of the skills we practice constantly in the the Magic Music Machine...
In fact, I'm working with a new group of music producers to double the quality and quantity of your music over the Summer using the Music Machine system.
We can start next weekend, so if you're interested, hit reply, and I'll get you all the details...
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