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Your listening habits in relation to your music creation
This may be an oddball question, but I'm wondering about people's listening habits when they're also working on a piece of music.
Other than the music on the forum, I find myself listening more to the piece I'm working on or relying on memories of the music from artists I like. My spotify listening has gradually gone down to zero. Maybe that's not a good thing in the long term.
What are your listening habits in relation to your own craft?
Comments
Between making my own music and working on other people’s music, I rarely have the desire to listen to music for my own pleasure these days. When I do, it’s very deliberate and focused listening sessions say roughly once a month. I’ll take a couple hours to pop on the headphones or fire up the studio speakers to listen to a new album I’m excited about, or maybe an old favorite.
But I’ll also admit I’ve never been the kind of person who could just have music on in the background all day either.
I’m a bit like @Tarekith . I rarely casually listen to any music when I’m between two projects and almost never when working on one. I do listen to some music posted here though.
Other than that when listening to music it is most often active listening either to transcribe it or study it. I don’t seek inspiration from other composers.
I never consciously try to copy anyone, but I would say Hainbach's YouTube vids have been an influence. I have very broad taste. A recent video made use of a Bill Evans midi track played backwards triggering some bell sounds, and reversed.
By far the biggest influence on me is not music, but new fx app releases. Tinkering with these opens up experimental possibilities I might never have thought of.
Wanting to make a vid on Audiothing Texture, I listened to what it could do and felt - after a fair bit of experimenting - that Geoshred Naada Veena would be a perfect candidate.
This is why it annoys me sometimes when people have an attitude of 'get the idea in your mind and then find the tools for it'. I prefer to let the tools guide me into play and experimentation, then see what happens.
I’m constantly listening to music unless I am teaching, watching something, making music, or attending a funeral or wake.
I tend to listen to a lot of DJ mixes as my music is DJ focussed. There's an uncanny valley effect with some dance music where in isolation it sounds fine but in a DJ set it just doesn't work, listening to other DJs helps keep me from dropping into that zone. Mostly.
I rarely listen to any other music when I'm making music. When I'm editing a video that I'm trying to line up music to, I'm 100% focused on the music for the video. With Stable Diffusion videos there's a lot of time when I'm waiting for the computer to render out my prompts so I'll try to catch up on listening to forum creation posts and crawl YouTube for music I want to hear.
I listen to music pretty much non stop when im not working on it. I spend a few minutes a day going over new releases, checking the spotify charts and updating my playlist, then depending on what mood im in, i usually just press shuffle on a playlist, or just shuffle all of my "liked songs" for a surprise.
I cant get enough new stuff, i love hearing how sounds evolve, especially what the trends are with pop and all the edm subgenres. I also use it as an excuse for research, as i am constantly in with new clients, who have an ever changing rolodex of influences, most of them modern.
When it comes to original music, or stuff i am working on, when i finish a new song, or get it to a point at least (arranged, sound designed, mixed, etc), i will often just loop that song in the background while cleaning, cooking etc, in order to listen passively. Sometimes new things come to mind in the subconscious.
I used to listen constantly to music before I got so into making it. These days I’ll sometimes put something on while doing housework or cooking, but often, after catching up on stuff posted to YouTube or Instagram, I’ll just want to start on working on my own stuff, or go for a walk or something. Sometimes while walking I’ll listen to music, sometimes I just want to fully connect with the world around me. I’m not bothered about being influenced - I think we all are, like it or not, so why worry? Im definitely aware of influences showing, often because I’ve come across a new technique or sound from watching/listening to other artists.
I entirely agree with @Gavinski re being inspired by effects etc. I was watching a video earlier where someone quoted Todd Barton (Buchla supremo) as advising people to “follow the sound”, which is excellent advice, for me anyway. I don’t often have music in my head that I want to create - I find it. The ideas in my head tend to be more on the lines of “what if I connect this to this and fiddle with this?”.
100%. I think I may be a bit more worried about not listening enough myself and being a little too much into what I'm doing at the moment.
Avid listener. Sure I go through periods where it’s less than usual or more but i listen to music in the forefront or the background at least 50% of the time. I often try to analyze songs too. if I hear something I like I try to figure out how they did it, like a music production puzzle. Lol. It’s always inspiring too. There’s lots of times when a track makes me want to look up the tab and learn the song, or it makes me want to Write something of my own.
I also find it typically helps my mental state. I’m rarely in a bad mood listening to good music, and if I am in a bad mood music usually gets me out of it, if only for a short period. It helps me in so many ways I can’t even list them all. There’s nothing like singing or playing along to a great track and feeling good about it. Listening, after all was the original reason i fell in love with music at a young age.
I have to drive to the office 3 times a week with an hour drive each way, so that’s at least 6 hours of dedicated listening time each week. I drive back roads whenever I can so I can just relax and listen to music.
Most evenings I play instruments, mostly piano, but usually some other things too. I’ve been drumming quite a bit recently, and have also been playing banjo and harmonica. A month from now that might all change.
I’m with @Gavinski that it is apps which guide my noise making, I like the instinctive, no-thought process of interactively shaping something through random and iterative processes, it engages a very different part of my brain than, say, the short story writing which is my other creative outlet.
My music listening is guided by Shazamming something, or following up leads and recommendations - often from people here! I will often have lengthy playlists of instrumental dark ambient playing as I read or bumble around, but when I make something myself it is all in making it until it is done - and then I put it on repeat and listen to it for hours.
You can always watch video clips, and requiems include some of the best music ever written, so the good news is you still have a bit more room to expand. 👍
When I'm between projects, I often take time to listen to Lofi music, whether Lofi HipHop, or Lofi House (i.e. real House, not the EDM stuff that Spinnin Records releases that tries to masquerade as House, lol).
Before a piano performance, I listen to a lot of Vince Guaraldi, Bill Evans, Michael Jackson's "Thriller", and Dr. Dre "2001", and nothing else. It seems that whatever I put into my ears for the day is what comes out of my fingers. "Thriller" gives my fingers precision, "2001" gives my music bounce, and Vince Guaraldi and Bill Evans give me some pretty sweet riffs and licks to add into the music I play.
You have a very good point, but what if I want to listen to the New York Dolls or Throbbing Gristle? 😺
I’m too old to continue being kicked out of somber gatherings.
Legit.
Most of my music listening is while working on game graphics and all that stuff stems from my inner 16 year old who started me with game graphics and was into metal, rock, industrial and film scores etc and apparently more successful in life than my inner 25 year old who had much more interesting tastes, that actually inspire the music I now make. But alas, I can't listen to that more interesting stuff as much while I work as it makes me want to be more free and experimental. Apparently my inner 16 year old was fine with me becoming a tool for the man.
I listen to music of my choice all day. One of the perks of my job!
hehe, if I do that I feel like quitting and getting a real life. Dangerous think for a slave!
Thanks everyone for your responses. Seems like what I'm experiencing isn't that uncommon, but I will try to get back into the habit of listening to the stuff I like.
Great question 👍
Strangely listening doesn’t influence me as much as the process of creating.
For me, reading about how people make music and watching people make music inspires me.
Many play instruments very well, but how many find ways to play them in interesting ways?
In addition, reading and watching people be creative in general inspires me.
For example, I have watched Project Runway with my wife and daughter many times and been inspired to create music or art from the methods contestants use in their workflows to make clothes!
In my 20s and 30s I had a huge appetite for listening to everything. And repeat listening.
Now, especially with the ipad’s ability to work on my own musical ideas almost anywhere, I will spend most of my music time that way, or at my desktop which has my keyboard.
I mostly listen to other’s music while walking or other exercise or in the car. I enjoy it but not with the maniacal fervor of my youth, but still love getting inspired by anything that catches my ear.
Having grown up before the internet I can’t help wondering how this ocean of music available now would have affected my musical experience. Would I have allowed some music, by repeated listening, sink in more deeply or would I just be continually gleaning and moving on to the next thing? Still, I’m happy to keep finding new things and obscure discoveries.
A think artists are all using what has come before and that’s good.
I like this quote from Goethe: “Refashioning the fashioned, lest it stiffen into iron, is the work of endless vital activity”.
I got a turntable a few weeks back, for the first time in decades (I went all-in on CDs in the 80s, iPod in the early 2000s etc).
I haven’t listened to so much music in years. I sit and listen, too. No phone, no book, just music.
Mostly it’s pretty chilled or experimental stuff. Mark Hollis, lots of Leonard Cohen and recent Nick Cave.
This coincided with some burn-out for making music, but all the Hollis and Talk Talk has inspired me in a new direction
@mistercharlie : I haven’t had a deck, or vinyl, for nigh on 30 years, but your comment made me realise that the long player-ness of an LP (clues in the name!) on a regular deck (as opposed to DJ turntables) must encourage a different engagement: there is less temptation to cross the room and keep skipping to a new track, or a new artist, or a new playlist… something to be said for slow, deep listening.
@Svetlovska That’s exactly it. Much less easier to skip around, and also a limited choice, as I am starting again from scratch.
Somehow, I also feel more commitment to a record over a streamed album. That said, now I have the habit, I find I’m listening to whole albums via streaming too.
Expensive hobby though. €30 releases make all iPad music apps look cheap.
Pretty much the same for me. I love watching music documentaries to get inspired to make more of my own music. Project Runway (and Making The Cut) are pretty good for that too