Creative Flow
“Flow” can mean so many things to a creator. How an artist gets into their creative zone, how a track develops over time, how to assert a unique sensibility or style into one’s playing.
Just as plentiful are the ways in which artists attack that search for the almighty flow state. Below are 5 course lessons showcasing the variety of creative approaches our artist instructors take, when prompted to detail their relationship to flow. But these links are only accessible with an active Soundfly subscription.
So make sure to subscribe to level up your toolkit, and gain access to everything else Soundfly has to offer. Here are our favorite 5 Lessons On… Flow Enjoy!
Ryan Lott: “As you’re playing around, you’re accessing a more intuitive place.”
Ryan Lott is a firm believer in leaning into chance for inspiration. A huge piece of advice he gives is to keep the microphones rolling and capturing everything, which allows you the freedom to play around and try things, and never worry that impromptu magic will be lost.
Jlin: “Enjoy that moment, you can’t get it back. You can only surprise yourself once.”
A great flow for Jlin is when she can create a variation of something, inside a variation, and then a tipping point occurs where it takes her track to a completely new place she hadn’t anticipated. For her, “flow” doesn’t mean continuity, but evolution and change.
SIRMA: “I love leaving room for some experimentation at the very end.”
In this lesson from Modern Pop Vocal Production, SIRMA walks us through her typical working process for recording background vocals. Allocating purposeful moments of precision and free spaces for ad-libbing, flowing through a session means mediating between the two.
RJD2: “Things like this will happen that are ‘happy accidents…’”
In one of the most hands-on lessons in his course, RJD2 shows us his streamlined technique for capturing varieties of samples off the same record, exemplifying a fascinating ability to react and adapt to whatever the samples are giving him, as he flows through his process.
Kiefer: “One thing all great improvisers have is a distinct time feel.”
One aspect of improvisation and performance that learning musicians often miss is to develop their sense of touch and time feel. For Kiefer, how one plays the notes and rhythms of a solo, or a melodic phrase, is key to developing a unique flow through musical bars.
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