Arrows Of Attention: 100 Music Production Movements

 

Move from a blur to clarity.

Move from sharp attack to slow.

Move from everything sounding at once to a single sound.

Move from bass-heavy to treble-light.

Move from sparseness to density.

Move from thick to transparent.

Move from on-beat to off-beat.

Move from left-panned to right-panned.

Move from macro to granular.

Move from static to dynamic.

Move from presets to your own sounds.

Move from stereo to mono.

Move from minimum input to maximal output.

Move from a single piece to a series of pieces.

Move from dry to reverb’ed.

Move from overlap to call and response.

Move from beats to pulsation.

Move from theory to practice.

Move from judgment to attention.

Move from stasis to change.

Move from bass line to melody.

Move from sequenced to through-performed.

Move from argument-like to meditation-like.

Move from you to your listener’s experience.

Move from programming to playing.

Move from relying on bass to relying on chords.

Move from relying on chords to relying on rhythms.

Move from contemplation to action.

Move from theme to variation.

Move from anything’s possible to constraints.

Move from random to deliberate.

Move from separate tracks to a cohesive mix.

Move from effects to the effect that you want created.

Move from rhythm to polyrhythm.

Move from certainty to ambiguity.

Move from what worked then to what might work now.

Move from nostalgia to equanimity.

Move from drum fills to effects fills.

Move from in the style of to drawing on a style.

Move from saying multiple things to saying just one thing.

Move from loop dragging to finger drumming.

Move from discrete to flowing.

Move from popular today to still interesting ten years from now.

Move from the notated score to the sequenced arrangement.

Move from background music to foreground music.

Move from an imperfect performance to a precise, edited one.

Move from audio to MIDI.

Move from Oblique Strategies to direct strategies.

Move from guessing how it might sound to trying it out.

Move from grand intentions to small-scale tinkering.

Move from making mistakes to experimenting.

Move from thinking in tracks to thinking in moods.

Move from sounding to muted.

Move from more volume to more EQ.

Move from adding to removing.

Move from linear to cyclical.

Move from fixing errors to embracing them.

Move from outcome-oriented to process-oriented.

Move from what didn’t work to what might.

Move from saturated with to hinted at.

Move from hardware to software.

Move from having to know to getting to know.

Move from borrowing to creating.

Move from a consistent volume to a fading up and down volume.

Move from accidental to deliberate.

Move from passive listening to critiquing listening.

Move from suggesting to articulating.

Move from just repeating to tracing a musical line over time.

Move from cadencing to leaving you hanging.

Move from abrupt shifts to crossfades.

Move from totally in tune to slightly out of tune.

Move from obvious texture to a more subtle one.

Move from sounding like to evoking.

Move from a small gesture to a grand one.

Move from a relaxed to an urgent mood.

Move from super dark to super bright.

Move from on the click track to around it.

Move from accompaniment music to standing on its own music.

Move from vague to clear-headed music.

Move from verse-chorus to bridge structure.

Move from tried and true to not yet proven technique.

Move from trying-to-be-commercial to happy-to-stay-underground music.

Move from perceptually boring to perceptually fascinating music.

Move from more of the same to a bit more of the new sounds.

Move from perfecting the music to actually putting it out there.

Move from distinct sounds to felt resonances.

Move from a piano sound to a piano-ish sound.

Move from playing to re-sequencing.

Move from the tempo as is to a more appropriate speed.

Move from the arrangement back into a new loop.

Move from a common time feel to an odd one.

Move from promoting the music to giving it away.

Move from trying to write a hook to designing an enticing space.

Move from trying to show off with sound to healing with sound.

Move from music that is unrelated to your life to music that soundtracks it.

Move from working on the music in bits in pieces to finishing it in big chunks.

Move from waiting for musical inspiration to building music prototypes.

Move from composing themes to improvising them.

Move from the first take to the seventh.

Move from yesterday’s musical work to today’s further refinements.