Turning music into a chore is how I became a musician (2022) • Hacker News Board

Re: Turning music into a chore is how I became a musician (2022)

#31

Post by kansface » Sun, Jun 28, 2026, 3:19 PM UTC

bh91 wrote: post #17

I find something quite bleak about this. The joy of participating in music, to me, is one of the few domains where we can still, to an extent, hide away from the relentless enclosure and commodification of every facet of our existence in the name of capitalist value extraction. Imagining oneself as an assembly line in order to rush past the experience of the creative process and arrive as quickly as possible at a fin…

> But I can't help but feel that it is missing the point.

It’s perfectly fine if _your_ point in playing music is rooted in some flavor of anti-capitalism and your intrinsic joy of your creative process. _His_ point was to write an album during a sabbatical. He succeeded and then some!

Re: Turning music into a chore is how I became a musician (2022)

#32

Post by bryceneal » Sun, Jun 28, 2026, 3:56 PM UTC

0x1ceb00da wrote: post #22

titanomachy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Justin Vernon disappeared to a cabin in Wisconsin for months, where he wrote and recorded one of the greatest and most popular folk rock albums of all time.

Most likely he made the album normally and the story about the cabin was made up by jimmy and bob from the marketing department.

The stories around how music is made is a very under-considered aspect of the listening experience. Oftentimes those stories are not strictly true, but contain a kernel of truth, and it's the most compelling version of the story that ends up sticking.

How often do you listen to a song and think of these stories in your head? When you listen to the Beatles are you seeing Paul McCartney singing? I think for many people the answer is yes. These things (the story and the music itself) become connected and the story provides the context within which many people enjoy the music.

I'll admit this is a bit disappointing. I'd like to think that any piece could stand up on its on merits without some lore being required to appreciate it. But I have relented to the idea that this is just a very human thing. We do it with everything as it's just the way most of us are wired.

Re: Turning music into a chore is how I became a musician (2022)

#33

Post by rconti » Sun, Jun 28, 2026, 4:26 PM UTC

IAmGraydon wrote: post #20

I’ve been a recording musician for 28 years. Making music a boring chore is not the answer. The best musicians do two things: learn to turn off the over-thinking part of the brain that blocks creativity and second, understand music theory in depth for when that fails and you get stuck.

I think it's more of a psychological trick for the author, and it would probably work for me as well. Some people are incredibly good at doing what they consider fun. Others have a hard time turning off the analytical/anxious brain and will never do something unless it's an obligation.

For me, I'm much better at getting bike rides and runs in if I'm training for something, so I "have to" do my saturday long run. Others would do this "fun" (hobby) stuff without prompting but have a very hard time doing their chores.

Re: Turning music into a chore is how I became a musician (2022)

#34

Post by rfc3092 » Sun, Jun 28, 2026, 4:30 PM UTC

I’m a performer, not composer, but what OP describes is very similar to the routines performers do: technical exercises, rhythm section chores, improv, current pieces, etc. Reps are the only key.

Re: Turning music into a chore is how I became a musician (2022)

#35

Post by PaulDavisThe1st » Sun, Jun 28, 2026, 4:31 PM UTC

helloplanets wrote: post #9

I don't believe this is how great music usually comes about, not even Techno. It's missing the other essential piece. Being influenced by and completely immersed in a niche of other brilliant people. (The most extreme example of this would be the 90's Detroit-Berlin connection.) Paired with an obsessive work ethic in the studio. If it's only obsession in the studio, things come out dry, uninspired. If there's no surg…

> If there's no surge of energy running through your bones when making the music, why would anyone else feel anything?

There have been thousands if not hundreds of thousands of albums released under contract that the artists were not really into, yet listeners discovered them and were incredibly engaged with.

I'm thinking right now of the endless list of utterly mid jazz fusion albums (eg. on Columbia Records) that came out in the 78-88 period. Retrospectively the artists have said they hated the music, hated making it and didn't like the results, but there were plenty of people who loved it. I am sure there are other blobs like this. Now, the artists might be lying, or might have forgotten how they felt about it at the time, but that's what they say ...

So yeah, you don't need a "surge energy running through your bones". Sometimes that helps, sometimes it doesn't.

Re: Turning music into a chore is how I became a musician (2022)

#36

Post by sowbug » Sun, Jun 28, 2026, 4:34 PM UTC

ericyd wrote: post #25

One challenge I've always had with having many concurrent project tracks is how to name them so they are distinct in my head. I made instrumental music so there's no lyrical line to hook into. Using "created at" datestamps for filenames is not great, but neither is obscure codenames.

You can follow the "correct horse battery staple" method the author referred to in the article. Another handy tool is a BIP39 seed generator (https://iancoleman.io/bip39/), but use the generated seed as a small pool of candidates that might catch your fancy. "hockey rival" or "pepper garment" or "frozen artwork" could be project names.

Re: Turning music into a chore is how I became a musician (2022)

#37

Post by 0x1ceb00da » Sun, Jun 28, 2026, 7:15 PM UTC

miyoji wrote: post #28

0x1ceb00da wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most likely he made the album normally and the story about the cabin was made up by jimmy and bob from the marketing department.

What marketing department? For Emma, Forever Ago was initially self-released and got noticed, then an indie record label signed Justin Vernon to distribute the album with an official pressing. The story and the album and its success all predate any marketing department's involvement.

Jimmy and bob were his buddies. They moonlighted as his marketing team.

Re: Turning music into a chore is how I became a musician (2022)

#38

Post by solumunus » Mon, Jun 29, 2026, 7:32 AM UTC

bryceneal wrote: post #32

0x1ceb00da wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most likely he made the album normally and the story about the cabin was made up by jimmy and bob from the marketing department.

The stories around how music is made is a very under-considered aspect of the listening experience. Oftentimes those stories are not strictly true, but contain a kernel of truth, and it's the most compelling version of the story that ends up sticking. How often do you listen to a song and think of these stories in your head? When you listen to the Beatles are you seeing Paul McCartney singing? I think for many people…

> I'd like to think that any piece could stand up on its on merits without some lore being required to appreciate it.

It seems like the majority of music I listen to has no lore attached to it.

Re: Turning music into a chore is how I became a musician (2022)

#39

Post by TyrunDemeg101 » Mon, Jun 29, 2026, 8:17 PM UTC

ericyd wrote: post #25

One challenge I've always had with having many concurrent project tracks is how to name them so they are distinct in my head. I made instrumental music so there's no lyrical line to hook into. Using "created at" datestamps for filenames is not great, but neither is obscure codenames.

This is totally something I ran into! I start with a simple Project 73 (increment the number always), then after I have started to get a good feeling of it, I name it something that sounds emotionally close to what the song feels like for me. I try not to overthink this part and just let it be whatever feels right.

From that point I can keep building/writing the song more, but at least now it has some identity.

Re: Turning music into a chore is how I became a musician (2022)

#40

Post by ingvay7 » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 10:15 AM UTC

nok22kon wrote: post #6

ingvay7 wrote: post #2

A lot of my hobbyist musician friends were way more prolific during covid. The extra time seemed to have unlocked their ability to be way more creative to de-stress. I myself had a burst of activity recording music and improving my guitar technique for a couple of years.Sadly it dipped again post covid. However, more recently I'm trying to find a middle ground with AI cutting corners with the boring repeatable stuff…

can you say a bit more about how AI is helping you mix? do you tell it "make the bass louder", or does it actually listen to the audio and goes "hmm, too much highs on the pad, let me turn them down a bit"

I usually ensure i have a vision of how it needs to sound. I know im going for lower reverb, more compression, more guitar prescence etc and have years of crappy mixes to my credit so pretty clear of what i dont want. Where it helps a lot is analying the first pass mix I make myself and then letting it know specific instructions like lower the gain but not below 3db , tell me any other changes to ensure i keep the compression intact. THen automate stuff like always creating a separate guitar bus with 2-4Khz boost and blend with main guitar track. Analyze the spectrum analyzer to analyze the sine waves and smooth the high ends. Also ask it to bounce separate mixes with headroom so i can pick one Im also building some tools on the side to let me create plugin tones based on reference tracks/axemen which I add to the mix ( had posted the link on here a while back). Working this way has helped me learn Logic with step function improvement since i dont let it take control but ask it to give me instructions ( like a senior engineer would).Just asking it to take control and mix without a vision usually ends up sounding pretty generic. Still a work in progress though. Hope that added some clarity.