Last
week I stated that every artist’s dream is to make a living by his art. There
might be some exceptions but overall everyone wants to do things he/she/it
loves and not being forced to do something annoying all the time (but most of
us have lame jobs…).
That’s
why I asked myself: why are there so many tutorials and books about ‘The hit
formula’ or ‘101 reasons your photos aren’t selling’ or ‘The secret of
Blablabla and how to make money with it’. Of course there are some basics you
got to learn first for almost every hobby. Playing an instrument, know your
camera and some stuff about exposure and apertures or which needles to use for
knitting. And of course there are some principles and patterns that you can
find in the successful songs, photos, pictures, etc. Be it some harmonic
movements, arrangements, mainstream-stylistic stuff (guitars, amps, focal
lengths…) – you get the picture.
But
you got to ask yourself: aren’t you sacrificing self-expression for some sort
of “success” using formulas? Using a specific sequence of chords for the sake
of a higher chance to become famous? Framing a motif to comply with a set of
rules but ignoring that you’d like it to look differently? There is an obvious
difference between creating something and analyzing the reasons for its success
later and forcing yourself to use a given framework.
It
kind of contradicts the ‘make your dreams come true’-theme that’s behind the
dream. There is always work involved in producing something. For my songs I had
to learn the instruments, some knowledge about theory, vastly improve my
language skills, mixing, mastering…video editing (and as you keep learning it’s
a continuing process). But most of the time you enjoy that part as you just
improve your ability to express yourself. Knowing how to get a result you can
hear or see in your head before you begin is the ideal. It will save you a lot
of time if you reached the point of ‘knowing what you’re doing’ and you can
focus on the creativity.
And
basic knowledge of the non-technical aspects might also be helpful just like
music theory, typical elements of your favorite genre of photography, typical
spices for your favorite cuisine. Depending on you, on your very own mind it’s
more or less difficult to ignore all the rules sometimes to create something
truly amazing, truly representing you or just find a path out of a dead end.
But what those books about the “ways to success” do is reinforcing the borders.
It will become more difficult for you to break through the walls of your knowledge.
Your subconscious kicking in in the worst of moments: using this and that could
make this a hit! It’s still up to you to decide against this then but the more
facts you read and know the thicker the walls will be.
My
way of writing music is pretty much impossible to be spoiled by this as I
randomly play stuff and then improvise fragments of lyrics and work on from
there. But I bought such a book years ago and it definitely would kill my
relationship to a song if I’d go ahead and said: let’s write a I-V-vi-IV song. It
wouldn’t even work for me if I had complete lyrics, used said chord progression
and tried to sing as I always have a melody ‘in my head’ when I write lyrics.
For photography I couldn’t resist looking for the perfect color contrasts, using
the golden ratio and ‘correct’ exposure – although I never cared for “success”
as a photographer. But for music it’s a completely different story.
Basically
using such theories as the foundation of your creativity is like playing puzzle
games with some blank areas for you to fill in on your own. It does not mean
that you and others won’t like it. It’s not just the same level of being
creative like coming up with it yourself (to me). Creating stuff is a quite
personal matter so if you’re happy with something like that keep going. But to
me it’s the completely wrong way. And I would feel really bad not creating ‘by
accident’ but instead just try to force a hit song that has no meaning to me.
The
question ‘why are there such books/tutorial?’ is easy to answer but why people
believe that using formulas instead of just living their passion will help them
is beyond me.
That’s
it, I’ll release a new song this week, so long
DrScythe
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