Not Listening To Other Peoples' Music For A While

[rhowaldt]

good question, good thread, thanks for that.

i spend long periods not listening to any music. this is almost never intentional, it is just the way it goes. my wife does not enjoy most music i like, so i rarely play it when she’s around. i listen to music on my way to work, but when i got a book to read i cannot do that at the same time so i take the book and leave the music. also, no matter how many Gb of music i have, i get tired of listening to the same stuff. so i need to actively keep up with new releases or try and discover new music in order to keep myself interested. frankly, the last couple of months most music i listened to was The Beatles, while i was playing Beatles Rockband. and the big difference for me is, besides the fact that i love their music, i feel like i’m playing the songs myself. it gives these songs a whole new dimension, which can be inspiring. only problem is that afterwards i’ll break my head over the question ‘how do they make it sound so goddamn awesome?’

i think it also works both ways. sometimes listening to music gives me inspiration, sometimes not listening to music gives me inspiration. any way the wind blows, nothing really matters…

i completely agree on everything MMD said.

[mandulin]

i hope this isn’t too much off topic but your post got me thinking and i always wanted to express my thoughts about this:

generally speaking, i don’t make the music i listen to 1. because i don’t know how and 2. i very rarely feel the need to recreate/imitate certain sounds or genres. that said i do get influenced by music i.e. if i’m on a drum’n’bass streak the next song will most likely have a more breakbeat-ish rhythm and a more adventures bassline than usual.
but i change my mood and the music i listen to very frequently and often when i create a song i try to express a certain atmosphere or idea rather than a specific genre.

not listening to other peoples music is no option for me. this is the way i collect “images” in the shape of music in my mind, visions if you like and the more music i listen to the more detail is added to these visions or i discover new nuances and make new associations. to say it differently: i explore my own mind and boundaries by listening to music.

thus me creating music is more like … well i like to look at it this way: i create the music i would like to listen to but that i can’t find anywhere else in this particular way of sound and arrangement. of course it leans heavily on known genres but i hope that it doesn’t feel too generic. and that’s the type of music i like to draw my inspiration from. the music doesn’t have to be good but it needs to have an idea behind it, something that sets it appart and makes it kind of personal.

i wouldn’t silence everything around me but instead try to free myself from given structures (mentaly) even if it means changing the way i experience and create music. but then again … i’m no professional.

[rhowaldt]

@Mandulin

i hope this isn’t too much off topic but your post got me thinking and i always wanted to express my thoughts about this:

generally speaking, i don’t make the music i listen to 1. because i don’t know how and 2. i very rarely feel the need to recreate/imitate certain sounds or genres. that said i do get influenced by music i.e. if i’m on a drum’n’bass streak the next song will most likely have a more breakbeat-ish rhythm and a more adventures bassline than usual.
but i change my mood and the music i listen to very frequently and often when i create a song i try to express a certain atmosphere or idea rather than a specific genre.

stop derailing the thread. if you want to express your thoughts, make your own topic.

sorry, it was a joke, i couldn’t resist.

i think your post is very much on topic, and i share your sentiments. i don’t make music in any particular genre, because i don’t know how and because i hate genres and names for styles and such. music is music is music. genres are for narrow-minded people who need a genre so they know the boundaries in which to listen to music. ok that might be a generalization, but it is my opinion.

good post. wow i’m tired, can’t write for shit. ignore this half-rant if you hate it.

[00.1]

Personally I can’t escape music because all my senses, as far as it can go, feels it almost everywhere. Its universal to me because of spacetime principles. The specified expression just happens to be manipulating air pressure in an entertaining way.

Originality in music can be construed in so many ways. I guess one way to look at it is by asking who your audience are and how willing & capable are you in communicating to your audience. It doesn’t have to be people, it could be you and yourself alone.

There is validity in ignoring some music or sounds, everybody has their own reasons. If other people’s music are truly getting in the way of making your own original expressions, Stop. Hammer time. See how music embeds memories.

Ctrl Z.

[noby]

I had a period this spring wherein for almost a month I didn’t listen to nearly any music whatsoever, just because I didn’t feel like it. I don’t think it had any affection on my creativity or musical abilities.

[pleasuretrail]

@mr_mark_dollin

Turn your goddamn TV off. Turn off your phone. Turn off your internet connection. These are often sludge-streams of ideas and emotions you’d rather go without.

!

for about two years now I have had no internet connection AT ALL in my home, (except for 3 months living abroad). and it has been very good as I have nothing else to do besides making tunes. sometimes you got to force it a little. a downside of no internet is off course no new samples etc. now i use my girlfriends internet but then I really take that time to get a hold of samples and stuff that I have been thinking about for a long time.
so yeah, turning it off for a while is a good way to not get distracted and unexposed to other peoples work.

but I have come to terms with the fact that I actually need the internet now, and will now get my own hehe.

[dj_io (organic io)]

@mr_mark_dollin

I’d encourage silence for those who are starting to feel numb to the impact of music. I’d also encourage silence if you’re realising your creative work is derivative of a cultural fad which you no longer identify with.

Turn your goddamn TV off. Turn off your phone. Turn off your internet connection. These are often sludge-streams of ideas and emotions you’d rather go without.

Silence isn’t truly “no sound” though: it’s a remarkable gift where you can better cultivate awareness. Inspiration can be found in ordinary sounds: birds, machines, wind, rain, liquids, food, walking, pets, cars, voices, as well as the noises inside your body, the ringing in your ears, the inaudible music of your soul. When I pay attention to my own “soul voice” I can hear this endless screaming, both joyous and terrifying!

But yes, reclaim silence. The canvass is just as important as the paint.

Hey Mark… Sorry it took me so long to reply to this, but I am thankful for your post. I agree with a lot of the things you said here… Very good advice.

All these references to awareness and being in the moment make me suspect that you have studied Eastern philosophy a bit? I myself have been following the path of Buddhism for a couple of years now.

[Foo (mr_mark_dollin)]

@organic io

All these references to awareness and being in the moment make me suspect that you have studied Eastern philosophy a bit? I myself have been following the path of Buddhism for a couple of years now.

I like to cherry-pick good ideas from here and there.

[rhowaldt]

@mr_mark_dollin

All these references to awareness and being in the moment make me suspect that you have studied Eastern philosophy a bit? I myself have been following the path of Buddhism for a couple of years now.

I like to cherry-pick good ideas from here and there.

most of his philosophy is extracted from ‘Notting Hill’ though.

[It-Alien]

I would not be able to add something about the topic because people telling they spend long periods not listening to other people’s music have pretty said it all, but I can add an idea/experiment: sometimes it is funny and inspirational to listen to music from another room with closed doors, or in general from a non-favourable point of hearing; this way, structures of a song which could otherwise be difficult to perceive may get your attention and be a source of new ideas.

I have never done this on purpose, but everytime it happened to me the results were fascinating: many times, when I had the chance to listen to the same song from a better point of hearing, the results were really funny: music I would have hated seemed awesome from behind a wall

[dj_io (organic io)]

@It-Alien

sometimes it is funny and inspirational to listen to music from another room with closed doors, or in general from a non-favourable point of hearing; this way, structures of a song which could otherwise be difficult to perceive may get your attention and be a source of new ideas.

I’ve noticed that before too! I think part of what’s happened to me before is hearing the music “On the wrong beat” … I.e. what I think is the “1” is actually the “3” or something like that, so it adds a completely different and weird flavor to the music. Then I get closer and I’m like… “Oh… that’s… something else entirely”

I’ve also noticed my laundry machine when it’s on the “spin dry” cycle makes some interesting rhythms. There’s also the times when the laundry gets off center and the whole thing starts banging around really loud, making what sounds like a house beat. So I have to run into the room and turn it off before it breaks itself. But I’ll usually dance to it for a second before I do.

[rhowaldt]

@organic io

I’ve also noticed my laundry machine when it’s on the “spin dry” cycle makes some interesting rhythms. There’s also the times when the laundry gets off center and the whole thing starts banging around really loud, making what sounds like a house beat. So I have to run into the room and turn it off before it breaks itself. But I’ll usually dance to it for a second before I do.

i love how my visualization capabilities seem to be getting better and better each year

[Foo (mr_mark_dollin)]

I sometimes play CDs in the car that I haven’t heard in ages at very low volumes, just on the threshold of recognition. It’s brilliant for letting your mind take fragments of the music and then drift off with those fragments into your own creative space. I recently did this with Jon Hopkins’ Contact Note album, was a very pleasant experience.

[gregj]

hey

would our music benefit from us to stop listening to other’s music ?

do you think that the human brain is able to create on its very own, without any help of chance?

I have the impression that, in some extent, it is only able to make combinations of reminiscences or what you have already heard sometime, and make out what sounds good or what sounds bad (based on your tastes, which are steming from what you have been musically exposed to …)

So the process of learning to create music, or getting better at it, would be the learning of some set of rules, of which you are aware (music theory) or not. I don’t think the fact that someone practice music for years would have for consequence that he has a “better” imagination, but maybe he would have a wider “knowledge base”/overview of what sounds good and how to reach it.

By stopping listening to other’s music, maybe you restrict yourself to the access of what others have already found to be working (or not). It reminds me mathematics, learning proofs permits you to be better on others issues, not to be more limited in your way of thinking.

Maybe it is only my point of view and it is because I am a novice in music creation (so my musical thinking isn’t very much developped), but I have the impression that every time I would have composed a pleasant melody, I would have to charge chance’s account, certainly not some sort of reflection (that is where the parallel with maths stop). Some people are able to compose on paper, without physically hearing the music, but isn’t it always the process of trying and judging ?

All of this is my opinion, and “not totally” on the topic of this subject,
hoping not to do barroom philosophy and not saying too much bullshit

sorry for the bad english

[rhowaldt]

@gregj

do you think that the human brain is able to create on its very own, without any help of chance?

I have the impression that, in some extent, it is only able to make combinations of reminiscences or what you have already heard sometime, and make out what sounds good or what sounds bad (based on your tastes, which are steming from what you have been musically exposed to …)

the only thought i’d give you on this (as i agree on most of it), is ‘what about the first person ever to make music?’

not to question your ideas but more for interesting thinking.

[TheBellows]

I will put up an experiment, knock up some woman and lock her up in a soundproof room untill she gives birth and then let the kid grow up in that room with only a computer with renoise as a toy just to see what it can do at age 20. Maybe it’ll create a new genre?

[kejkz]

I am listening music all the time, and it have influence to my work, but I see it and feel it as a good one. I am still creating music that I hear in my head, and it is somehow connected to music I listen to. But it is some kind of mix of everything I like in different kinds of music. I am also not working exclusively at computer creating patterns from scratch, first there is idea that is mostly created when I am in a middle of other activities, like walking, going to job, into shopping, in times when ideas came by them self. And sometimes it takes a while, even a year maybe, between incubation of idea and it’s first recreation as song in computer-based format. So, what I am doing is constant update of myself through music and sounds that I hear every day, be it mine or music I hear on purpose or by accident.

[rhowaldt]

@TheBellows

I will put up an experiment, knock up some woman and lock her up in a soundproof room untill she gives birth and then let the kid grow up in that room with only a computer with renoise as a toy just to see what it can do at age 20. Maybe it’ll create a new genre?

i’d give you 20 bucks if you’d really do that.

[TheBellows]

I probably get 20 years too

[kazakore]

Why don’t we just hand Fritz’ kids some instruments and see what they come up with?