Making Music Creative Strategies

for Electronic Music Producers

Catalog of Attributes

Problem:
Creative musicians find inspiration in other music. While we seek to
make music that is uniquely our own, every other piece of music we
hear is automatically processed and becomes an unconscious part of
our musical vocabulary. Taking too much is theft. Taking too little fails
to acknowledge our influences.

For musicians who aim to find and develop a unique voice, there will always be an
internal conflict to resolve when hearing music that is inspiring. To truly be
original, is it necessary to ignore all external influence? How much can you take
from other music before what youve made no longer feels like its yours? What
and where is the boundary between homage/inspiration and plagiarism/copying?

Unfortunately, these arent questions with right answers. Objective legal issues
aside, each artist needs to determine their own level of comfort when borrowing
from other sources. But there are some strategies that let you infuse your own
work with the essence of your inspiration, while simultaneously forcing you to
make something new. One of these is to write a catalog of attributes.

Solution:
Listen carefullyand many timesto the piece that inspires you (the source).
Study it, element by element and layer by layer, until you can write down a catalog
of its attributes. Once the catalog feels complete, set aside the original source,
instead referring only to the catalog as a template for your own new work (the
target).

Consider the attributes of sound, harmony, melody, rhythm, and form. Write
something concrete about what you hear for each attribute. If you re comfortable
with notation, feel free to use it in your catalog, but sparingly; the goal is to
capture only the framework or scaffolding of the source, including the aspects that
make it inspiring, but without simply recreating it. You should end up with a
description, not a transcription.

The catalogs level of detail may vary depending on a variety of factors: your own
ability to translate what you hear into words, the depth and complexity of the
source, the amount of time you choose to spend, etc. What is important is not the
actual level of specificity, but only that it gives you enough to use as a template
without having to refer to the original again during your own creation process.

A basic catalog of attributes might look like this:

> 122 bpm

> Sound elements: drums, (808, four-on-the-floor, lots of filter motion on closed
hats), bass line (FM-ish?), electric piano (distorted but dry), female vocals
(breathy verses, full-voice choruses), lead synth (big supersaw, but only after
the second chorus).

> Harmony: mostly D minor alternating with A major until breakdown. Breakdown
section is in D major (sort of?). After breakdown, rest of track is in E minor
alternating with B major.

> Melody: not much. Lots of D, with occasional jumps up to A and down to B.

> Rhythm: four-on-the-floor drums (basic house beat). Bass line is mostly offbeat
eighth notes (trance influence?). Cool metallic hit on the and of beat 2 every
four bars.

> Form: additive layering; drums start, then each element enters one by one. At
breakdown, everything drops out except hi-hats and bass line, then rebuilds
additively. Form is all 16- and 32-bar sections. (Verse 16, Verse 16, Chorus 16,
Breakdown 32, Chorus 16, Chorus 16)

This catalog of attributes could describe an endless number of new works. In fact,
you can probably hear music that fits these attributes in your head already. It is
complete enough to serve as a template but not so descriptive as to allow for a
recreation of any particular piece of existing music; if two musicians read the
catalog, there would be almost no possibility that they would use it to write the
same thing. Now try to put yourself in the mindset of one of those musicians; using
only the catalog as a recipe, make something new.

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