How to Develop The Internal Creative Genius

How to Develop the Internal Creative Genius

Let me tell you a story about two producers.

James and Matt.

(I apologize in advance if you are a James or a Matt. I’ll be nice).

They’re friends, and they’ve both decided to get into electronic music production at the same time.

James figures that the best way to learn and improve is to really focus on making good music.

So he spends the next 6 months working on one song. He’s trying to learn everything as he goes. It’s hard, but he knows that by the end of it he’ll have a masterpiece.

After all, he’s the one putting in the hard yards. Really focusing on this one project to make it the best it can be. He can’t wait to one-up Matt.

Matt, on the other hand, happens to come across the EDMProd email newsletter and learns all about the quantity-first approach to learning music production.

He tells James about it, but James laughs and thinks it’s a stupid strategy. “Dude, quality over quantity is the saying. I think you’ve got it mixed up!”

Matt ignores this and puts his head down.

Instead of aiming for perfection with each song he makes, he instead focuses on learning something new with each project.

He knows that with his current skill level (beginner), he’s not going to be making any hits.

So he sets himself a target of one song per week.

And with each one, he gets incrementally better.

With each project finished, his mental maps become slightly more ingrained and slightly stronger.

Now, let me ask you this:

After 6 months, who’s the better producer?

If it’s not obvious by now, you haven’t read the last few lessons.

While James is wasting his time trying to create a masterpiece (even though he’s never finished a song in his life), Matt is consistently and repeatedly finishing music.

He’s iterating.

And his mental maps are strong, especially compared to James.

Because James has only written one melody. He’s gone through the mixing process once. He’s designed a bass sound once. He’s done everything once.

Matt has done these things over 20 times.

He’s worked through music production problems and solved them. He’s practiced. He’s gained a deep understanding of how everything works.

In this scenario, Matt comes out on top every time.

You want to be Matt, not James.

The question is, how?

How to Make the Quantity-First Approach Work for You

If you’re not convinced this is the best approach, you can stop reading this email now.

If you know that it’s absolutely the best thing for you, then here’s how to do it…

Step 1: Let go of external markers & perfectionism

This is not going to work for you if you’re too attached to getting streams, plays, downloads, and followers.

It’s also not going to work if you’re too afraid to make something that’s not perfect.

You need to let go of these things if you want to progress as an artist. You need to be prepared to make some subpar work, because that’s how you learn.

Step 2: Commit to a target

Depending on your schedule, this might look like finishing one song per week, or one song per day.

The shorter you can make the timeline, the better.

Your goal is to finish, not to make something great. Don’t get caught in the “tweaking trap” where you endlessly try to perfect your song.

Step 3: Focus on learning something new with each project

If you’ve watched a tutorial or read a blog post and come across an exciting technique, try it in your next project. Use that project as a learning tool—as practice.

You’re running a marathon, not a sprint. You do not need to learn everything at once.

Step 4: Continue until you naturally slow down

There will be a point, probably around the 12-month mark (depending on how much time you’re putting in) where you start to naturally slow down.

You find it harder to finish projects quickly.

This is because your mental maps are developed to the point where you know, with confidence, that you can make the song significantly better given more time.

It’s at this point you should start moving closer to the quality end of the spectrum. Not abandoning quantity, but instead paying a bit more attention to refining, tweaking, and improving (instead of just finishing as quickly as possible).

Now, the quantity-first approach is something you can absolutely do yourself.

You don’t need a course. You don’t need a book. You don’t need YouTube tutorials.

And if anyone tells you otherwise, ignore them.

But if you want to do this in the most efficient way possible, it’s worth following a guided framework that’s helped other people (especially if you haven’t finished your first few songs yet).

Our Foundations program takes this quantity-first approach and walks you through the creation of four full songs.

It forces you to develop these mental maps in ALL areas of music production—quickly and effectively.

If you’re interested, you can learn more here: edmprod.com/edm-foundations