Taking it one oil barrel at a time

How many of you have sat in front of your computer with the intention of making a tune (or writing a business report or preparing for a presentation) and found yourself not doing anything.  Nothing was coming out and the creative juices just didn't seem to be flowing on that day. Well, you can feel comfortable again knowing that you weren’t alone.  Whether you're just starting out or you’re a full time stadium filling dj/producer, this has happened to all of us.  The trick is what you do just after realising that you're staring blankly into space.  

Firstly, what you may not have realised, is that staring blankly into space is actually the creating bit of you kicking into action. All you need to do is give it some direction and lead the horse to pasture.

The name of the game is “Get moving and you’ll get creating”. In order to make that easier, here’s a framework that I got from Brian Tracey’s book “Eat that Frog” (affiliate link) that will help you do just that.  Yes, this is a book aimed at the business market, yes a business strategy for the studio might have seemed a little dry and unexciting, but when you consider that we're in the business of producing killer grooves, it suddenly sounds perfect for us, doesn't it? And you know what? You're right! It's working better than you could have ever possibility imagined!   

There's an old saying that by the yard its hard but inch by inch anything's a cinch. One of the best ways to overcome what may have seemed like the overwhelming task of producing a tune is for to get your mind off the huge task in front of you and onto a single action that you can take. Put another way… how do you eat an elephant? One bite at time!

Confucius wrote that a journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step. This is a great strategy for overwhelming the overwhelm, procrastinating about procrastination and getting more things done faster.  

A few years ago I met a man who told me about a time when he was driving in an old land rover across the heart of the Sahara desert deep in modern day Algeria.  He said to me "By that time the desert had been abandoned by the French for years and the original refueling stations were empty and shuttered. The desert was 500 miles across in a single stretch without water, food, a blade of grass or even a fly. It was totally flat like a broad yellow sand car park that stretched to the horizon in all directions.  More than 1,300 people had perished in crossing that stretch of the Sahara in previous years.  Often drifting sands had obliterated the track across the desert and the travelers had got lost in the night never to be found alive again.  

To counter this lack of features in the terrain as you crossed that flat wasteland the French had marked the track with black 55 gallon oil drums 5km apart which is exactly the curvature of the earth.  Because of this where ever you were in the day time you could see two oil barrels.  The one you had just passed and the one 5km ahead, and that was all you needed to stay on course. All you had to do is steer for the next oil barrel. As a result we were able to cross the biggest desert in the world by taking it one oil barrel at a time." 

In the same way you can get your latest track done by disciplining yourself to take it just one step at a time.  Your job is to go as far as you can see, you will then see far enough to go further. To produce the next club anthem you must step out in faith and have complete confidence that your next step will soon become clear to you. Remember the wonderful advice "Leap and the net will appear".  

A great piece of music, studio production or phat groove is built by performing one task at a time quickly and well, and then going on to the next task. A healthy life style is gained by eating a little less and exercising a little more each day.  You can produce an absolute belter by taking the first step and getting started towards your goal and then taking it one oil barrel at a time.  

To put this into practice in the studio, take a moment now to consider what your final track is going to be and decide what the particular oil barrels on your journey are. Once you have this solid structure of intent in place you are free to let the thrill of creativity take over as you roll, with ever increasing speed, towards your first barrel.

Of course doing the above assumes that you know where you are going, so how do you go about getting a feeling for where that might be?

This will be the subject of my next blog post. Till then, remember to connect with me below and happy music making.