Do you ever think about unlearning?

[AK]

You lot are just weirdos. Knowledge never killed creativity, look at da vinci, he knew a lot of sh!t about a lot of sh!t and he never lacked creativity.

If you could unlearn, where would you stop, what is it that you have learnt that you wish you hadnt? If you have lost the creative spark, you cant blame that on knowledge. Its not the case.

[oblioblioblio]

i think there is kind of a correlation.

obviously practice, experience, knowledge. This is the centre of this way of life.

But, I think that these things can sometimes get in the way of fresh raw stupid playing.. happy accidents, blissful unawareness. etc.

Maybe the key is balance ?

[tone-def]

i don't understand this either. in 2008 i had about 6 months not making any music and i must have forgotten something because my beats haven't been the same since. unlearning is bad.

[patrick bateman]

As I've become more experienced, I realise also that I've become more harsh on myself with my own personal rules and restrictions.
I remember when I started out, I would sift through my Itunes and throw songs into Ableton, using snippets here and there, changing sounds completly, etc.
Over time I've come to dislike the use of Mp3's and I therefore try to be more musical, creating my own stuff.
Looking back, it all seemed so easy then to get ideas going fast as I didn't care if it worked or not, I would just try it out.
Maybe being more musical will pay off in the long run.

Just wondered how you guys feel about the rules you set to yourselves.

yep I know what you mean. That's why I can't decide if I hate the vinyl lovers or the mp3 creators or both :-). Sampling from vinyl is a common thing and I was shocked a long time ago when I discoverd that 70% form some of my fav tunes was just sampled from old records. But I can't sample a riff or something from a mp3 without having a major headache especially for idealistic quality reasons. I'm a bit audiophile, but this format discussion does harm the music more then it helps. Therefore most music is useless for sampling today.

sample from the wav file?

[AK]

i think there is kind of a correlation.

obviously practice, experience, knowledge. This is the centre of this way of life.

But, I think that these things can sometimes get in the way of fresh raw stupid playing.. happy accidents, blissful unawareness. etc.

Maybe the key is balance ?

I neither see or experience the connection between knowledge/experience and a lack of creativity. To me it just suggests boredom maybe? People get stuck with the same ways of doing things in all walks of life and when some creative pursuit starts to get like a chore or repetative, creativity cant shine.

Theres so many ways to keep the innocent magic alive even by the simplest of concepts. Unless you are an amnesiac, you cant help learning and gaining experience, its the human thing to do so its impossible to use it as a reason for losing a creative spark.

Theres enough to learn in music for a single lifetime, you can never have learned too much and theres literally so much experimenting to do to potentially keep you creative until you die. Maybe people are just getting lazy and falling into ruts? You can constantly push your own boundaries of knowledge and so are in unknown realms and new territory, its nobodys fault but the individuals if things become stagnant because theres so many ways to keep things fresh.

[Casanova808]

I can't say this thought has ever crossed my mind. If anything, I wish I knew more so that my music could be richer and more expressive.

That being said, knowing more about music ruins a lot of music for you. Once you get your chops up a little bit and learn some theory, most of the stuff coming out right now sounds like complete bullshit. That is the thing about dance music from the 70's and 80's, people could still play and write and it was expected of you.

There is still plenty of good music happening right now, but it is exponentially more swamped in a sea of bullshit.

[kdgh]

keep the fun factor high.
Don't think too much. First make, then think.

[tone-def]

Don't think too much. First make, then think.

i disagree
can you come up with anything new if you don't use your brain. happy accidents will only get you so far.

thinking is good for you.