Pros and Cons of Computers
I always like to hear about people’s process— what works and what doesn’t, habits and methods of creative people I admire. It’s very personal, of course. Some people swear by their every day routine, others just need a deadline. Anyway, I could hear about that all day. They say you can’t really teach creativity, but maybe you could teach some everyday things that might help it grow.
Anyway, moving from grandiose to practical, I want to talk about something I’ve been reminding myself about lately— what computers are helpful for and what they aren’t. They are great at capturing things, allowing us to edit easily, playing realistic orchestral samples…all the things we need for “quick iteration.” The problem is, you need something to work with before you can really get into all that, something to base it all on.
For me, the computer is a bad place to come up with a good idea. Sometimes it is hard to even judge ideas when they are playing back on the screen, as compared with listening back in almost any other way. We can lose a sense of the whole when at any time we can pause and tweak things (and I too often find myself doing that). One thing I learned to do when making music that might accompany a film or ad is to play the music and watch something on YouTube to think about how they match. I was amazed how some things that might have bugged me before seemed fine, and other flaws jumped out. So, judging something as a whole while it’s “in the computer” can be challenging. I think that is partly because it requires us to just sit there not clicking, just thinking.
What I am remembering is that the instant feedback of playing an instrument has so many advantages…for the first stages, at least. Consequently, I am trying to spend more time at the piano or another instrument, just working out ideas until I know I like them. (It’s also more fun that being at the computer.) Then, when I move to software to arrange for string orchestra say, I have worked out a core idea already, like some chords and rhythms. It’s not to say it won’t change as I go to try and commit to a written out version, but the more I have decided about what the “content” will be before that stage the better, it seems.
Here I am, working out an idea, as I often do lately. Standing at the piano, experimenting and then quickly getting a video down, before being called back to my children.
Of course the exception to all this is capturing a performance through midi keyboard. That can be the best of both worlds because I can experiment, capture and then edit if needed. The only thing is, I sometimes forget to take the time to really work out a solid idea. I just hope I’ll get one but end up with a performance full of things I don’t want. And for me it’s not that fun to edit that into something I hope I will like in the end. Better to get some kind of core idea started first. When I do have a chord progression or melody, improvising on them does sometimes work. That improv mode can be helpful too, because it results in more idiosyncrasies and surprises. I may be contradicting myself a little here, but you can probably get what the main point is…find your idea first. At least, that’s my own advice for myself.
Lastly, we could talk about why this dynamic is true for me and may be for you. I think for me I’m just thinking too hard and too self-consciously if I am trying to decide on notes at the same time I am inputting them into software. When I am playing real instruments I am able to use my body and its accumulated knowledge and therefore draw on my subconscious and intuition so much more. There was a period of time where I loved developing things in front of the computer because then I could play it back right away. Now I’m remembering the advantages of stepping away from the screen.