"Once we give ourselves permission to struggle, we can have the patience with ourselves that we need to truly develop an idea and take it to the next level" -- SO true, not only for creative pursuits, but for so much of life as a whole.

"Simplicity is the highest goal, achievable when you have overcome all difficulties." -Chopin

“Don’t worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one.” - Miles Davis

Schooled painter here, if you put more and more paint on, the "white" of the prepared canvas doesn't shine through anymore, less paint is more "air" and results in a fresher picture. This is especially true for oils, which is a bit like "painting with stained glass".

"Do less, better" is the exact epiphany I had recently. I've been frustrating myself by throwing so much into a beat and having nothing sound good together, instead of honing in on every single aspect and giving it the attention it deserves.

Joe Hisaishi (Spirited Away & other Ghibli films ) can make your heart melt with like 3 well placed chords - proof that master composers don't need to shred to create a masterpiece. Fantastic piano playing in this vid btw!

It's so funny that I often forget that sometimes that I need to sit back and let ideas develop and evolve when it comes to my music writing even though I know that it's something that I actively actively doing my other artistic mediums like story writing.

I feel that what melodies and notes the music *implies* is often just as important as the actual notes are there. How often have you listened to a song, and sung along to the melody, and just completely ad-libbed something else that fits with it? That's an implied melody... and that's where composition and arrangment gets really interesting for me.

whewn you said "when everything is moving all the time, nothing is moving" gave me chills. subscribed.

I love the score to ‘Moon’ by Clint Mansell for this very reason. A simple recurring piano motif underscored with dissonant sound design. It conveyed very effectively and efficiently the underlying eerieness of what was unfolding.

more videos like this please!

That piano piece was fabulous. I could listen to it for hours, and most definitely will! Great video, I really like this new direction the channel is going for.

Magnificent video. Your composition and playing backs it up. Thank you for saving me from watching yet another video about a synth I don’t need.

This is why I listen to John Barry. Seemingly simplistic, but very moving emotional scores with melodies so memorable. His scores are what got me into composing since 2018. Thank you for this video.

Genuinely needed to hear this at the perfect time. Just subscribed like yesterday and man your channel is a gem. Really appreciate the beauty and insight you share with us. It most definitely does not fall on deaf ears.

These videos of yours are a god-send for composers/music producers!

Absolutely everything in life is pointing me to be more minimal in my music - something I’ve already come to terms with in my art when I realised and accepted most sketches look better “unfinished”. When I’m playing alone I can happily play a monophonic or duophonic melody, especially in a wind instrument. But when it comes time to record it… my maximalism kicks in. I guess I can’t willpower myself out of that - only through practice can it be overcome.

I am so grateful that I have found a KZfaq channel with content that I am highly confident from my understanding for example of watching my son struggle to create his music career; is relevant and valuable to the viewer who is me.

Wow! How great that I just found your wonderful channel! I´m a painting artist who is singing and just starting to work on my own songs again that I wrote as a teen long time ago. I can assure everyone that what you are saying in this video about composition in MUSIC is absolutely the same as I experienced in VISUAL art (and I´m a "real" painter on canvas - not using AI but human intelligence - lol). Composing a memorable painting is so much more than just applying rules. - I´m excited to learn as much as I can from you to make my (simple anyway) songs as strong as possible. I know it takes work and I love it! Thank you so much for your free lessons. I will remember you and give credit when I publish music in future. Best wishes from Austria!

The Rhythmic Nature of Jazz.

This is so true. I have started to listen to old songs on my hard drive and I notice that many of them have something strong, but it is hidden beneath a lot of crap. It took a long time to just have confidence to trust your ideas. It also took time to understand what was good and what was not. It is hard to describe, but you really need time to get to know your own music

I feel like you wrote the script specifically to address my current challenges. Just discovered your channel a few days ago and already one of my favourite! Great job on the content AND on the realization! Thank you!

Yes! Do less better! Well said. Couldn't agree more.

Possessing the instrumental skill of a well trained classical musician and the ear of an improviser is the ultimate goal, IMHO. I can imagine music that I am incapable of playing, which is the most frustrating thing in my life.

Do less btter, make your initial idea so strong that people can't help but passionatly love and repeat it, and mix it together with the same passion! I love your insight man! Thank you for your wisdom!!!

I taught myself how to play music by listening to movie soundtracks, because I liked them, and how they highlighted moments in films, and made me remember them. I never learned theory, and when I tried to, it just took the fun out of playing. However, once I started doing covers of songs I liked, in styles way different from the originals, understanding some theory did become real to me. From all of that, I found the nerve to create original work, and I am still doing it. Your points about the trial and error of making music composition work, really hit home with me, because I've been doing, and will keep making music using that method. Its just been too rewarding and fulfilling not too. Entertainment in our world, music or otherwise, is so bent on result and spectacle, that I think we've lost respect for what artists go through to craft - not just create - things that are memorable to us. Its human ingenuity that makes that makes good art possible and even probable, and I think your channel is guiding us through that, in a clear, concise and very fundamental way. Thanks, much, sir.

6:45 - I love your playing here. Sounds like early Genesis.

@JamesonNathanJames you are a real gem. Thanks for this live stream and for sharing the project. And 35 is YOUNG trust me. When I was 35 I could not have imagined how it would feel for a granddaughter to give me a new name. You have so much ahead!

Good to hear your words on creativity and dealing with the oceans of theory currently available. I find that you convey the ethos of putting it all to practice in an objetive way - a very much needed voice on youtube music creative discourse. Compliments on your videos.

I needed to hear this. Thanks. Also, your video style (tone, voice, etc.) is like Venus Theory. Thanks. I like the low-key, no fluff approach.

This really resonates with me - thanks for expressing these ideas so clearly! 🙏🏻

@7:30 is a beautiful piece. Especially that chord with the b natural in the bass plus the entire B section. - luv it

Thanks for these wise words. I've seen/heard some super successful producers have incredibly complex sound design and arrangements. I've also the most ridiculously simple melodies and arrangements do just as well. Not sure there is a rule either way. I think you hit the nail on the head with emotion. If the song creates emotion, it will stick. Your track may be either simple or complex and not moving the crowd. So get to adding or trimming! There is no golden formula; however, when YOU find the formula that works for YOU....stick with it! Create the templates, tool boxes, and go-to sounds; and start churning em out!

Your insight is well appreciated if not fully agreed upon! There is something to be said of your compositional style as presented here... French AF in the best way

You are so great at givning an amateur like myself the confidence to trust the process and that my musical ideas are worth working on. Thank!

Id love them to explain madlib. Ultimate producer who displays less is more in a genius way

The silence betwin the note are as important than the note itself

You are a goldmine, thank you for sharing

I haven't watched more than a few seconds of this video, just yet. But I think you're absolutely correct regarding the thumbnail. I spent years trying to be as clever as I possibly could regarding arrangements and melodic progressions. Jamming as much feeling and emotion as I could into every little section of the piano roll. The thing is, when you do this, it just gets messy. No progression has the impact you want it to because you're not giving the song time to breath. You can't catch someone off guard or "hit them in feels" with a shift if the whole thing is wishy washy. Less is more. I'm also a semi-professional drummer and this is very much comparable. A nice fill is only impressive (to normal people) if it compliments the greater arrangement in an unexpected way. If the whole song is FILLS, FILLS, FILLS, any impact they might have had in isolation is completely lost. Ted talk over. I'll watch the video now. Great content, sir 🎉

Genuine and insightful thoughts you express there. First time I see one of your video ...Thank you for this passionate willingness of yours

+1 for limitations leading to creativity! Love this video. Love the whole series. I am getting SO much out of this. Thank you.

This spoke to me on many levels, and can honestly be applied to just about every facet of life. This is beautiful. And there's a certain magic to demonstrating the concept that you're speaking of by taking such a complex and nuanced subject and explaining it in a clear and concise way without decreasing the scope and weight of the subject matter. Respect 👊

Awesome. I’d contrast great vs ordinary rather than pro vs amateur. But it doesn’t alter the point. ‘Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.’

This is so indepth. Im just blown away

Why is it so hard to remember these things? I've written down the same kinds of notes so many times and always find myself realizing I've forgotten again. Incredibly helpful way of driving these aspects home, as usual

Very well said! I agree 100%.

When I was in my music study years - in the early 2000's, I wrote all the music for my 'Symphonic gothic Metal Band' and while being at it, I went straight across al boundaries and general expectations for that genre. On purpose. Because I liked it and because I felt like mingling around it, just to see where it would lead to. It was also because I knew that the (very conservative metal) scene delivered those boundaries and because of that I liked the idea of stretching what was possible to the limits, meanwhile making my musicians having to push their techniques and virtuosity also to new levels. The main motivation however, was always to explore music. To figure out new things. To broaden horizons. Nowadays (20 years later) I still see the creative craftsmanship as a gift that deserves exploration and experimentation and I am still convinced that it should stay far away from restricted rules and paved roads. So much more fun!

Thank you so much! You gave me inspiration

This is probably the first KZfaq video I watched two times in a row. Fantastic. It is exactly the path I am trying to pursue for the last couple of months, so I connect with these thoughts immediately. I also have to congratulate your way of narrating, It's really pleasant to listen to and one can really concentrate on the message.

Thanks!

Great as always. I try to focus on quite few instruments but really to perfect them. Im tweaking a sound on Quantum over and over to make it as playable as possible. I dont need so many sounds but I do want the ones I use to be near perfect. Thanks for making all these fantastic videos!

I totally agree with this!

As years go by and I learn more ways to compose in a daw ir different techniques to use, all of those things become tools in my belt. But not every song needs every tool, especially not simultaneously.

These are great ideas, and exactly what I need right now. Thank you!

I think musicians should read about Bauhaus ideas especially what they say about contrast being the basis of visual design - this is so easily applied to music and when you realize that you can choose an axis for contrast among many options and that you can also have contrast of contrasts you start to get how to create meanings with musical language. E.g. your melody has that classic tension-release contrast between harmonically and rhytmically unstable first half and then very steady second half. When you see this as a structure you can think about which other structures could complement i.e. make a contrast with it.

Absolutely. Keep it simple and focus on the basics. Your own flavor will come through in the smallest of choices.

gah.. every one of your videos makes me get up. go to the studio. and start making music. Thank you!

Lovely, lovely, lovely piano music

similar to the idea of "do less better" is also restricting oneself in regards to the tools as well. just like adding notes, it's easy to add tons of VSTs, modules, and other musical software accessories. not only can this muddy up the track, but also splits one's focus, as you are now having to learn all these other instruments and tools; kinda knowing many things a little bit but not knowing any one of them thoroughly.

Great video treatise on creativity within constraints

I'm ready for your new concert album

There are several ways. Minimalism and less notes are one side. I'm in jazz music too and this with 4 note chord progressions helps a LOT in electronic music also to make more exiting songs. This is the other side.

Great video! I really appreciate honesty in your videos, no "this one simple trick will make your music genius" bullshit, only real thoughts on timeless questions. Btw if you're like to elaborate on term "musical idea", that would be great, bc after long search on internet I still can't grasp the meaning of it, scientific definitions just fly over my head. I think that one is tought for people without musical degree, such as myself. (sorry if english is bad)

Simple and Simplify are two different things. To Simplify requires a great mastery and profound understanding of the subject at hand. Simple is exactly just that, very rudimentary understanding of the topic. Yet if executed correctly it still can have a very profound effect.

Man this was super profound, thank you and well done

Refreshing insights - subscribed.

Such an amazing Video 🖤 Erroll Garner was one of those pianist technically and emotionally just on point. At least for me! 😊

Love your videos man, thank you🤝

So much agree with you - to master is to simplify. And that is not only for music, but a lot of areas in life.

Thank you for this video.

Love the video. I’ve benefitted by doing similar things myself - refining an original idea down to simpler versions to allow for more layering and growth in the arrangement. Really helps me escape my own 4-bar loop traps with more consistency. Oh and I love your piano playing. Great way to show the concept in action with a familiar instrument. Hope to see/hear more of it in the channel.

Man, your last 3 videos are amazing! It looks like they’re hitting the bull’s-eye of what is really important!

I want to hear MY favorite element of FOCUS clearly. Nor do I feel the need to make panoramic sonic mayhem. Most listeners and fellow composers will call it shit, but I have to stay comfortable writing my own stuff

You resonate, Mr. Jones. I dig it. Only a sincere and lengthy struggle with oneself can bring about the wisdom you present in this video. Upon hearing your compositions herein it becomes obvious that you have slagged off many trendy concepts and approaches in order to get back to a music that can move a person, a listenable music that does not beg to be comprehended but felt, experienced. Rock on.

Great video (and music)! You gave another perspective on limitation when you talked about 'common practice'. I'm having conversations about limitation as a means to boost creativity with a friend which is not a musician (a philosophy professor) and he just doesn't get it. I think we as musicians sometimes take some things for granted and forget to give some better context for non musicians. In this case, I think that telling him about how 'limited' some common practices are (and the classical period is awesome for him to understand what I'm trying to say) he can have a better perspective on this topic. Thank you!!!

Fantastic

You are the truth!

Wow one can tell you spend endless hours to get those piano skills. Wonderful! I agree with what you're sharing here: there is a good reason I love my digitakt so much: it's the limitations that pushes you forward. For the album I'm currently working on, I have set rules for myself. I cannot use more than 4 tracks, with the possibility of a fifth for effects. Everything is live played and a song cannot take longer thant 10 minutes. I am so happy with the results I'm getting, that I believe I'm discovering my type of sound so much better while working under those limitations. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and lessons. ❤

Good Stuff!

Your wisdom is a real treasure. Thank you for sharing.

An excellent example of limitations that aspiring songwriters need to realize is keeping unique melody patterns or motifs to a minimum of no more than 3 in a song (2-4 minutes). Too much leads to forgetting the melody and causing confusion, whereas repeating fewer melodic rhythm patterns with variations in the pitches will achieve a good balance of repetition and variety to keep a listener interested.

i find most people i interact with online are within their first 5 years of composing and producing music. when i work with them, i end up throwing out most of their ideas and just keeping what's good, they don't really like that i do this because they attach their ego to their work. to contrast, i've been doing it well over a decade and i sometimes make music that people tell me they like. i kind of think people generally have an unrealistic view of their own abilities, and the reason most people are within their first 5 years is that's how long it takes you to realize how average you are.

you are a boss, some of the best advice out there !

Yes man - 100% agree with you. I never even bothered to watch those videos for one very simple reason.. why would I make a song where one instrument does all that work? I'll add one caveat - when my piano roll does end up looking like that (because of a midi recording) - It's always with a ton of velocity changes so the right sounds pop out rhythmically.

Another great lesson, much appreciated! I couldn't agree more about limitations. I'm a big fan of minimalism and Berlin School synth music and I mainly record stuff live with minimal or no post, which makes simplicity in arrangement a no brainer. Thanks for these great videos -- it's wonderful to get the perspective of somebody with your knowledge and background. Cheers! :)

This video is a good meditation for me.

well said!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

minimalism is the key it let's the music breath and also having some silence in your music can make the emphasis of the drop or breakdown more better. I only need a piano, violin, sine bass and a break to make a good dnb track then just fill in the blanks with fx and risers lol it's that easy. when I play the guitar I dont need to call a drummer, bassist and singer to sound good as it's just complexity of flamenco that works.

You are right. By the way People want to give tips about orchestrating like John Williams but still struggle with cadenes lol me just watching

I think the comment you have shown at 1:33 while missing the point does have some validity to it: You are limiting your self severely in what you can express. The reason why this works so well for our creativity is just that this is the limit of what most people can achieve. It is not the case that simplicity is better, but complexity is just the enemy of our ability to understand and create such compositions. Having the melody be more complex with more nodes over a wider range being played at once means that not only does every single moment in time need a lot more attention to not sound wrong, but also their interplay in time becomes exponentially more complex. If you have your music is limited to 2 notes per hand at a time then you have 4 note, the next 4 notes will then most of the time not be that drastically different, giving you a range of like 50 different options to choose from. Do that for 4 beats and you end up with like 10 million different choices. A lot, where still the majority will not work for the style you want to create. But without those restrictions just for the first beat you would have many billions of variations to choose from and not just the majority but >99% of that will sound like crap. The range of potential errors and problems grows vastly faster to the point that it is near impossible to get it right. With a good team of composers working well together this can be split up into different responsibilities and a very complex melody can be formed that sound better than what they can create individually. Is just takes a lot more work and effort to get right and if 10 people work together perfectly that might just be "twice as good" in a sense than what each could create individually. I base this also on some experience with a local woodworking shop: A group of 4 people there sometimes work together when they don't have much else to do. Their individual works are great, but their combined works are just a cut above everything else - but that is 4 people working together and still just producing 1 piece that is slightly more visually appealing and for most of it - you can either have 1 very nice desk, or you can have 1 nice desk + 4 chairs for just as much work.

Background music is really good!❤

Contemporary consumption past 40 years music has become primarily vocal centric Such that a catchy verse and powerful chorus implies a set of lyrics Which is another beast of a puzzle.From an instrumental standpoint I find creating a thematic statement of notable character and a chorus or b section as a lifting progression easy enough (some times) Pre chorus is a stickler.Your point is spot on for instrumental composition .As an observation it’s been my experience that composition and songwriting although intricately bound to be of diverging elements and of alternative disciplines. So I believe a lot of your viewers may straddle the same fence .Nice playing

Awesome background music around the three minute mark there. Oh ... and the video is great as well. I think I agree with you, probably!

Great advice here.

I began my music journey as a producer. I played and forgot how to play the trumpet as a kid, and my family are solid singers so I had a good grasp of what I knew I liked musically but I still had a ton of room to grow. exposure to other types of music and rediscovering and recontexualizing some music from childhood mainly from games, and finding my high school bought a copy of FL Studio got the bug in me. I haven't studied jazz or really any music, but this video finally made "Play the right wrong notes" click.

Man, your videos are extremely helpful. Thank you for making them!

this is stuff I think about. but you have a real nice way of translating in to words.

Thank you for teaching. It was no ego in this video. Pure education GOD bless man

Latecomer to this video (and your channel), but I think I have a similar origin to yours - I took 13 years of violin lessons, ~8 of those in a Suzuki Method program. This led to me having good technical skill, but very little composition/improvisation skill at all. I'd love more guidance on how to make that mental leap.

Until recently, I have not felt my ability to manifest my musical thinking limited by my technical abilty. It's not that I have a profound technical mastery in any instrument, I have sought ways to bring my musical thinking to whatever instrument is in front of me. In the early days of midi, the situation seemed no different to a simple multitrack recorder, however, returning to music after a long hiatus and to instruments evolved from that primitive audio work station into an integrated instrument like the Maschine Mk3 and Maschine Plus, I am confronted by an extraordinary complex working environment where a dabbler like me finds it difficult to get a tune down. I've always wondered at the value of technique and delighted in the skill of others while not really considering it important for what I do.