Learn the tools, then let go. Understanding the tools to make music, whether that be a DAW, soft-synth/plugin, or complicated hardware, is the only thing standing in between you and actually creating a good piece of music. The only thing standing between a good piece of music and a timeless work of art is learning to “let go”. By “letting go” i mean…. re-igniting a dying flame, rediscovering how to play again like a child after many years of adulthood. I realized something very important. Children have this incredible gift, imagination, but they are unable (usually) to make it tangible in the form of a beautiful painting or a song. Their drawings are usually terrible but we as parents applaud and smile and tell them “good job” even though we know that its crap. This is because they cannot connect the inner world with the outer world. The same holds true for adults but is reversed. Adults have lost their “spark”. They also can’t connect the inner with the external because the internal has died. As a child we must learn how to communicate through physical means and how to tame our wild nature. As an adult we have to learn how to travel back to our “seed state” without forgetting what we learned. As kids we must learn self control and healthy expression and as adults we must free ourselves from bondage never forgetting our lessons. This is the ultimate aim, to find that point of balance. Learning the tools to make music requires left-brain development and the expression itself requires the spiritual right brain. The left and right brains work in completely different ways and can often times be in conflict with each other. Left brain understands mathematics, right brain doesn’t understand anything but feelings/emotions. The right brain is one with the infinite. Once you’ve reached a sufficient level of understanding the tools, doors are open to you. After that, it’s all about how you summon the holy spirit and walk through these doors.
