MetaMindMusic

The way you start anything has a huge effect on the result.

The first 10% of anything you do during the day, week, month or year has a huge impact on the rest of the 90% that follows. Once you build momentum, inertia is on your side.

If you’re serious about making 2024 your best musical year ever - it’s worth the effort to build a game plan

Why most people fail

The vast majority of people in the world do not do yearly reviews.

That sets them off at the beginning of the year at a massive disadvantage compared to those who do. Be the minority.

Those who DO a review usually use the wrong methods. The problem with most people's planning is that it’s too abstract, too touchy-feely, and isn’t actionable with clear steps to hit your goals.

Fact: Setbacks are constants. They will continue to happen again and again as time moves forward - that’s why you need to plan for it in advance.

• Life will happen and throw curveballs

• You will fall off the plan for your...

No matter your level of skill, circumstance or how much spare time you may or may not have. Creating music is ALWAYS within your reach.

Regardless if you’re a professional musician, a hobbyist or just getting started, you need to be prepared to capture ideas when they come to pay you a visit.

You know it’s the worst feeling ever when you know you had a #ST8 FIRE idea, that somehow escaped your memory. A fleeting glimpse of you inner genius, gone

The goal of this post is to help you capture those moments. To make music when inspiration strikes. You’d be surprised how many great ideas unveil themselves in the most unexpected times!

Anywhere, Anytime.

The #1 struggle I hear from music makers is that they simply don’t have enough time to make music. They’re never in their home studio because of their time constraints.

Day job, chores, travel time, studies, a semblance of a social life… sound familiar?

Check this. What if you didn’t have to be...

I’ve been staring at a dreaded blank screen for a while now, struggling to come up with an idea worth writing about.

I looked through my list of blog ideas, yet none of them really inspired me to pursue them at this moment.

Sometimes when you want to be creative, you hit walls.

And that’s okay.

What trumps crystal clarity, or the passion behind a great idea, is simply this: consistency

Developing a commitment to show up regularly and engage in the creative process is the pathway to all great works. It is the rhythmic relationship you have with your creativity that will spawn your moments of genius.

Law Of Rhythm

Let’s go down a little rabbit hole (a small one I swear!)

The Hermetic Principle of Rhythm states this: everything goes through cycles, yet everything has a rhythm or a pattern.

In today’s world, we see and praise great things, while often overlooking the process it took to achieve them.

That process, aka your...

Heyo! I recently got back from NAMM 2020 in Anaheim California!

I thoroughly enjoyed the weather, especially since I was avoiding -30 blizzards back home.

Winnipeg = A frozen death hole in winter. It should be called Winterpeg. For Realz.

As you might know, NAMM (National Assembly Of Music Merchants) is a trade show of all things music in one giant convention center. I’m not kidding when I say enormous, over 100,000 people attend this thing with several thousands of exhibitors and merchants.

Throughout the weekend I saw all sorts of new gear: guitars, pedals, drums, recording devices, plugins, software, amplifiers, microphones, etc. I also made a bunch of new friends!

As cool as it was to see all these new products, nothing (thankfully) really tempted my G.A.S (gear acquisition syndrome). 

In this article, I’m going to talk about how G.A.S can be the symptom of a deeper underlying problem in your music productions.

Inside Out

As music producers, we’ll...

Happy New Year!

We’ve just entered 2020, a new year and a new decade!

Along with celebrating the end/beginning of a year, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the past year and envision the next one to come.

We all have the ambition to make our lives better. Better health, better relationships, better opportunities, better work-life balance and most of all, make better music.

In this post, I’d like to help you not only envision what 2020 will look for you but how to transform yourself into the person to turn that vision into reality!

2020 Vision

Someone with 20/20 vision has optimal use of their eyes.

However, how clearly can you see your future through your mind’s eye?

The single most important step towards accomplishing your new year's resolutions is to have a CLEAR vision; to have 20/20 vision in terms of your goals and desires.

This is the perfect analogy for the year 2020. Muahaha

The better you can paint the picture of what you would like to accomplish,...

Have you ever been frustrated by a slow repetitious process? Or just can’t seem to get songs finished?

Or the worst nightmare of the music producer… lose your work?

Music production is a vast subject. Whether you’re a beginner or know your DAW like the back of your hand, you know there’s A LOT to learn.

On the technical side, we focus on things such as EQ techniques, parallel compression, reverb buses, mixing strategy, etc.

On the creative side, we focus on the arrangement, melodies, harmonies, rhythms, lyrics, etc.

What’s most often overlooked is a proper workflow approach. With so much to learn, it’s often pushed aside. Yet, it can have the most impact on your overall productivity.

Once you’ve produced a few tracks you’ll inevitably realize that certain production methods you use might actually be slowing you down.

It’s time to design a home studio workflow to remove all your roadblocks and skyrocket your productivity!

And...

As music producers, we often face internal resistance. We face self-doubt and have to listen to the dreaded imposter syndrome.

Who invited him anyway?

This type of hesitation is something we will constantly face as creatives, we have to develop the skills and work ethic to overcome these types of problems.

+1 Creative Confidence!

I don’t know about you, but I’m somewhat of a gamer myself. I know Super Mario World like the back of my hand, and can definitely destroy you in Smash Bros.

Hadoken!

Gotta say it… I’m kind of a nerd. Though, I think I’ve struck a healthy balance.

I’d like to explore the mental framework of the “gamer” attitude and how it can level up your creative confidence within music production.

Researcher and game designer Jane McGonigal coined the term “Urgent Optimism”. Described as: extreme self-motivation, the desire to act immediately to tackle an obstacle. Coupled with the belief that we have reasonable...

Matters Of The Mind

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room…

Yeah, I’m talking about the elephant meme I saw on facebook of course.

More seriously, let’s address the heavy words in the title that always leave an impactful impression—Mind Control.

As shocking as this masterpiece animation is, it encapsulates the insidious truth. I’ll be honest, the imagery in the video fulled this article, so it may be a bit more freaky than my typical post.

The perfect article for your Halloween celebrations.

We Don’t Need No Thoughts Controlled

You can look at investigating mind control simply as observing what influences your thinking and influences your actions. If you have developed enough self-awareness, you can guide and moderate your thoughts and actions; you harness mind control.

However, if you don’t have control of your own mind, it’s a different story. Now you must begin to question the origin and intention behind your...

What’s needed in today’s music world to achieve a successful career?

MINDSET.

More specifically, a creative mindset of success.

A headspace that supports your creative talents and guides you towards building the career of your dreams.

What is “mindset” though?

Your mindset can be defined as your general attitude and how you shape your perceptions of the world (and yourself) based on your experiences. It is the single most powerful tool in your arsenal to support and serve you throughout the entirety of your life. DEEP

Your attitude and thought patterns are the mental architecture that will support all of your future efforts, opportunities and artistic creations.

Did I build it up enough? Lol

Ze Musicpreneur, Hon Hon

To be successful as a musicpreneur, you need the right mindset. Thankfully your mindset is something that you can control, you just have to learn to utilize it properly.

Success in the music world today has greatly changed from a linear to a...

I’m currently recording a debut ep from the ground up with a band.

As we discussed ideas and our plan of attack, I knew we would have to address certain key components as we progressed. Such as finding the tempo (or multiple tempos in this case) of the songs before recording. And deciding where we would record drums.

Keys To The Harmonicraft

Throughout the whole process, from first hitting record to completing the final mix, there are some crucial tips that I’ve come to learn over the years.

This is what I would tell myself 10 years ago when I was just starting out in the audio world. If you are a beginner or need a refresher on the fundamentals, you’ll find these invaluable!

1) **Get It Right At The Source**- If you are recording and mixing the same track, spend more time and effort on the recording phase. Get solid takes, stellar tones, and unique performances.

A high-quality mix is 80% the recording and 20% the mix. Properly tuned instruments, new strings, and...