Any methods on cleaning the subjectivity palette for your music?

Figure I'll post something since I made the thread. 

So I have found my method on occasion I need to do this. It doesn't always work, and when it does it is a partial fix. But forcing myself to focus on something for 15 minutes will usually do the trick. Meditation and mindfulness works, but even better is listening to noise music. Merzbow for example. Just focusing on it for a bit. Then after a while my brain feels "reset" is the best way to put it. The longer I do it, the more it usually works. If I am low on time, then switching working on a track from headphones to speakers, or even my phone speaker, also helps if I am still working on the composition of the track and not the mixing.

Actually I find switching to be very good for composition specifically  as you are forced to listen to it from a slightly different angle, and at least  for me I will get new ideas for the track this way. I will also put it on my phone, and listen to a track on my phone speaker from across the room, so I can't hear all the details, so my brain will make up new and different details to make the track I am hearing more complete.

Of course best way to do it will always be to just not listen to the track for a week or a month or more.... 1 or 2 months seems to do the trick, where I move on and don't listen to the track on purpose until I am in the right mood for music and enough time has passed.

My two cents on the music theory debate: personally I think the relationship between music and music theory is analogous to the relationship between the physical world and the academic discipline of physics. Of course the physical world came first, and the job of physical theories is to describe the world as it exists, not prescribe how the world should be. But theories of physics enables us to build things in the physical world that we wouldn't have thought to build without those theories. In the same way, music exists prior to music theory and the role of music theory is descriptive, but knowing music theory is nevertheless useful for musicians because it gives them ideas they might otherwise not have come up with.

Here's a video that illustrates the point I was trying to make earlier - you take certain pieces of music theory that help you in making whatever it is that you are trying to make. Saying that "I use music theory" without any qualifiers is kind of meaningless (i.e. saying that you use *every concept* in theory).

  On 5/28/2021 at 4:44 PM, psn said:

He wasn't behind on modal jazz or fusion jazz. That's ridiculous.

The reason he was able to innovate so much is that he wasn't jumping on trends. The whole "mixing rock and jazz" thing had been happening for a few years before Bitches Brew (and even In a Silent Way) was recorded, for example, it's just that we don't remember most of it now because most of the early stuff was coasting on novelty (or was to experimental for people to pay attention).

Also, part of what made his work in that period so good was that he pulled together groups made of a lot of the best musicians who were ALREADY PLAYING JAZZ FUSION for the In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew sessions.

  On 6/1/2021 at 1:14 AM, Rotwang said:

In the same way, music exists prior to music theory and the role of music theory is descriptive, but knowing music theory is nevertheless useful for musicians because it gives them ideas they might otherwise not have come up with.

exactly. for my part, i see music theory as knowledge of the "topography" of music. you don't need any knowledge of the terrain to navigate but knowing it vastly increases your chances of discovering new paths imo, besides increasing your chances of finding cool paths that already exist, and making things in general so much easier. 

  On 6/1/2021 at 1:12 PM, TubularCorporation said:

The reason he was able to innovate so much is that he wasn't jumping on trends. The whole "mixing rock and jazz" thing had been happening for a few years before Bitches Brew (and even In a Silent Way) was recorded, for example, it's just that we don't remember most of it now because most of the early stuff was coasting on novelty (or was to experimental for people to pay attention).

 

Also, part of what made his work in that period so good was that he pulled together groups made of a lot of the best musicians who were ALREADY PLAYING JAZZ FUSION for the In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew sessions.

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Yeah, and this is exactly my point - the most successful artists are able to grab hold of what's immediately available to them - be it new gear, new theory, the hottest session guys, a new style - and then come up with an amalgamation that's more cohesive/direct/refined than what's already been done in that field.

  On 5/30/2021 at 2:00 AM, Brisbot said:

Figure I'll post something since I made the thread. 

So I have found my method on occasion I need to do this. It doesn't always work, and when it does it is a partial fix. But forcing myself to focus on something for 15 minutes will usually do the trick. Meditation and mindfulness works, but even better is listening to noise music. Merzbow for example. Just focusing on it for a bit. Then after a while my brain feels "reset" is the best way to put it. The longer I do it, the more it usually works. If I am low on time, then switching working on a track from headphones to speakers, or even my phone speaker, also helps if I am still working on the composition of the track and not the mixing.

Actually I find switching to be very good for composition specifically  as you are forced to listen to it from a slightly different angle, and at least  for me I will get new ideas for the track this way. I will also put it on my phone, and listen to a track on my phone speaker from across the room, so I can't hear all the details, so my brain will make up new and different details to make the track I am hearing more complete.

Of course best way to do it will always be to just not listen to the track for a week or a month or more.... 1 or 2 months seems to do the trick, where I move on and don't listen to the track on purpose until I am in the right mood for music and enough time has passed.

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Is this the point of Merzbow? it's so unpredictable, but I tried what you said(with pulse demon) and it kind of works

  On 6/3/2021 at 3:27 AM, vkxwz said:

Is this the point of Merzbow? it's so unpredictable, but I tried what you said(with pulse demon) and it kind of works

I suppose if it works, then it's a legitimate point. I used Merzbow as an example because everyone knows who he is, it's worked for me plenty of times now, and he has a million tracks out to choose from. I think noise music in general does this. It kind of scrubs clean that part of my mind so I can work on a track partially refreshed and work from new angles instead of just falling on  "automatic intuition".... or whatever it's called. 

some good stuff in there. breaking with musical traditions/positions, observing, reformulating, transforming..musique concrète instrumentale..