What do you guys think of setting (or having someone set for you) deadlines? Whether it's to release a piece or have it ready by a specific date.
Something i struggle with a lot is that i keep starting over and over again or even going back to a 'finished' track and making changes over and over again.. it's like an endless cycle.
However, for my last release i was invited last minute to be part of a collaborative album by SonderHouse with 12 other Canadian artists. By last minute, i mean that i had to compose, record and send my piece for mastering in 4 days.
My first thought was ''forget it, i'm never gonna make it'' but then i decided to challenge myself and give it a try.
Surprisingly enough, i went for a walk and got right into composing something. The inspiration came easily and i went straight to the point, without editing or making endless changes, in order to meet my deadline. Of course it was a super simple piece.. but the point is that having so little time to work on something, made me do it MUCH faster than i usually would.
I'm starting to think that having deadlines can be very beneficial, specially for someone like me who takes forever to release music.. but at the same time i truly believe that putting pressure on yourself can hurt creativity. so i'm 50/50 on that.
What are your thoughts?
Two years ago I composed a set of 8 pieces, all inspired by a Korean show I was watching on Netflix. I would watch two episodes on the weekend, then compose a piece (inspired by the mood or a particular scene) by the following Friday. I did like the the challenge, but I don't think I can do something like that again.
Yeah i agree with you. When you have deadlines, especially when it is very close, the search for perfection fails, and therefore we simply try to finish the song as soon as possible without having to change the melody, the chords, the harmonies every time just because we are not convinced. We are not looking for perfection.
I am not saying that we compose worse songs, but we simply focus more on the realization of the song itself and we distract ourselves less, avoiding necessarily correcting something that we do not like or that doesn't convince us. And yes, maybe creativity is lacking a bit, but at least we can finish the song.