A fantastic song can seem like it’s a personal little musical world.
When all the things fall into place, a tightly produced track feels as if it should have come from a single artist’s creativeness.
However, the reality is much more advanced.
Most music you hear is the result of many collaborators working together at completely different stages within the process.
In case you mostly work by yourself, you may not have thought about how much this aspect of modern music workflows can affect your outcomes.
Right here’s my hard truth for today: you need good collaborators to do your greatest work.
That’s not meant to be discouraging. In reality, it’s never been simpler for musicians to seek out the best collaborators and work with them on-line.
Here’s why collaboration issues, and the way to make the most of it with on-line instruments.
Playing solo
You could be tempted to think that the advantages of working by yourself outweigh the drawbacks.
After all, loads of iconic artists are identified for playing a number of roles in their work.
However, there are a couple of reasons why this strategy is so uncommon.
Doing everything yourself splits your focus and expertise throughout a number of different disciplines.
Even when you have loads of experience in a number of key areas, you might have to begin from scratch in others.
Studying these new skills is an effective way to develop, but it additionally provides time, stress, and issue to your workflow.
Working with collaborators allows you to play to your strengths whereas leaving the tough parts to these with the proper skills.
And the advantages of collaboration go approach beyond workflow. Working with others breathes life into your creative process and helps create the best conditions for inspiration too.
You may simply lose perspective once you’re the one particular person making creative selections on a project.
Your collaborators will problem you and supply the necessary outside perspective you have to do your greatest work.
Not solely that, working with others improves the quality of your expertise making music.
Hitting it off with a new musical collaborator and creating something nice because this is a tremendous feeling.
Don’t discount the advantages that enjoying your creative process and communicating musically with one other particular person can bring.
Legendary collaborations
Looking back via music historical past, it’s simple to see that collaboration powers a few of the most enduring music of the previous few decades.
Consider classic songwriting partnerships like John Lennon and Paul McCartney, or Bernie Taupin and Elton John.
Songwriters have always discovered inspiration by bouncing their concepts of trusted collaborators and working collectively.
However, it goes a lot deeper than that.
The proper mixer, producer, or session musician is usually the catalyst that turns excellent music into a classic.
Attempt to think about Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” without Eddie Van Halen’s incendiary guitar solo. Or the early pop era without Phil Spector’s iconic manufacturing.
At times even the proper manager has modified the game for an artist. Would the Sex Pistols have really had such an enormous influence without notorious impresario Malcom McLaren on their aspect?
In all these instances, putting suitable talents together achieved more than the person contributors might have on their own.
That’s the power the best team can unlock for you in your music.
Modern workflows
Collaboration is just getting more necessary. At present’s musical partnerships are fluid, distributed, and continuously evolving.
It’s not unusual for collaborators to be thousands of miles apart, separated by time zones, and even working in different languages.
Home studios and portable setups mean more work occurs outside of the normal studio environments.
And parts of the process that will have traditionally fallen to one or two key personnel at the moment are extremely interactive.
Just look at the credit of any trendy pop album and you’ll see a number of songwriters, producers and featured artists.
With all that in mind, it is smart to begin considering modern big-budget productions more like a feature movie.
The artist could be the star, however, there’s a complete crew working together to make it occur.
Discover your people
Large-scale collaborations like this may appear out of reach to all but the most serious projects.
However, there are more and more choices obtainable for anybody who’s trying to begin collaborative relationships on-line.
Right here’s what I mean.
The type of team that could be assembled for big track nearly certainly includes a producer, mix engineer, songwriter, and session musicians.
In the past, hiring somebody for any of those roles meant working with gatekeepers like labels, agents and managers.
And even if you did handle to make contact, there’s no guarantee they’d choose up your project.
At present, on-line platforms that connect musicians and industry professionals are altering the game for up-and-coming artists.
LANDR Network is one of the best places to seek out the right team to make your project successful. No matter role you’re trying to fill, there’s a proficient supplier on LANDR Network ready to work with you.
Work better together
Nevertheless, you select to seek out your collaborators, the advantages of working together are clear.
Whether or not you’re looking for a session bassist with the proper groove, a top mix engineer, or a simple songwriting companion, forming good musical relationships is important
Now that you understand some methods to benefit from collaboration, go out and discover your dream team of musical partners-in-crime.