What I learned from Free Mix Friday

Posted By: Shagz
Date:

Well, seeing as the Free Mix Friday project was all about being productive, and I'm only getting around to posting this 2 months after the project ended, it would appear that I haven't really learned anything at all. ;) But assure you I have.

I was originally inspired to do the FMF series of mixes by my friend Ryan Kelln. Ryan's a programmer/artist/"art enabler"/copyright revolutionary. He's ridiculous smart, visionary, and a totally awesome dude to boot.

Last year he started a project called Image-A-Day, where participants would upload an image they made, either by taking a photo or by other means. Every day, people would need to take an image and think creatively for a little while. Some simply took pictures of their daily lives, documenting what happened to them and their family & friends, while others posted professional grade photos that they had taken on their travels.

For Ryan's part, he actually iteratively worked on a piece of software over the year that would suck in a set of images and make a collage. Later versions of the software actually "spied" on his computer activities: counting the number of mouse clicks and keyboard presses he made, what websites he went to, the titles of news articles he read, the temperature and weather through out that particular day, etc. He also open sourced the code so others in the project could download and contribute to it. (Of course, this would require people to learn Python, but you know, it was a nice thought :)

Not everyone made it to the end of the year, but most did, and it was quite a feat. Looking back across 365 images that represented a year in their lives, I'm sure the image makers got a real sense of achievement.

This idea, this intentional creativity once a day, was really interesting to me. It was interesting to others as well, as it kept coming up in other situations and conversations. I heard of a game developer who had been doing these "code sprints" where he would build a prototype (sometimes full-fledged) game in just 7 days, and a few years back Jonathan Coulton spent a year writing and recording a brand new, original song, every week, which eventually launched his music career. So I figured I would try this kind of intentional creative workout with my own particular passion, djing.

When I set out with the Free Mix Friday series, my only real intention was to just keep busy making mixes. I hadn't really been gigging in awhile and I took a break from the Off Centre DJ School in order to focus on my new responsibilities as a home church leader, so I wasn't getting that weekly dedicated time on the turntables.

I thought it would be pretty casual, just getting down on the decks and doing a rough mix of tunes. I was surprised to find that I ended up putting the same amount of effort & care into doing these mini-mixes as I was putting into my full-length cds, except just compacted down into a few days instead of spread out over a few weeks. Granted, I also didn't have to worry about album art, but still...the difference was quite astounding. In the space of 2 months I had completed more dj mixes than I had released in the past 4 years. What changed?

For one, I was being intentional about what I wanted to achieve. I had set a schedule, set a goal, and it was always at the top of my mind as a week started. I had regular time during the week, inbetween all my other stuff, that I dedicated to working on these mixes, and I scheduled everything else around this time.

While I think that the results of this work were professional, it also helped that I wasn't pressuring myself into putting together a full 70-min mix. I was free to make a mix as long or as short as I wanted, just so long as I made it. I could end the mix wherever I felt it was good to end it, rather than trying to find a full list of awesome tracks to fill in the time.

This really freed me up to muck around with a bunch of things that I hadn't had a chance to get into with previous mixes, like playing tracks in genres I don't normally play out, doing more scratching, creating loops and edits, faster transitions, mixing out of tracks before they get to their breakdowns, or even playing the portion of the track after the big breakdown/build up.

I was also free to come up with my own rules around what the mix should contain. I've often fought with myself over the contents of my mixes, around whether they should only be containing the newest of the new, or whether I can play dated tunes that I still love, etc. Also, whether or not it was a faux pas to play more than one track by the same artist. With these mixes, I just didn't think about that stuff, and just focused on playing great songs that went well together.

Most importantly though, the end result of each week was a dj mix, and I had an audience that was expecting to hear something new every friday morning. I was accountable to the people who were following the progress of the project, and I knew I'd catch hell (or at least be teased a lot) if I missed a week.

So, in the end, this is what I learned:

1. Why do it? To be intentional about your creativity, or your life goals, or whatever it is you're trying to achieve. You want to be persistent in the pursuit of this goal but you just can't get motivated enough to get off your butt and do it.
2. Or, alternatively, to practice and get better at something you already do, but not doing it in a full-on kind of way. More like an creative, intellectual work out or jog on the treadmill: it's not a marathon, but you're at least running.
3. Creativity is part inspiration, but it's also about persistence. I read an article in Time magazine a while ago about innovation, and how some people are successful and some people are not. There are some factors, like natural talent and access to resources, but usually there isn't too much intellectual difference between those who succeed and those who failed. Usually it was just that someone tried harder, longer. They kept throwing stuff at a wall until something finally stuck. They tried different tactics, different strategies, but they did so longer and more often than the rest. Even when something wasn't perfect, they always learned from and improved on it.
4. You could be waiting for inspiration to hit for a very long time. Having a framework and a schedule for creating something forces you to produce results. Some weeks you won't be inspired, but at least you made something.
5. Do it in smaller chunks. Instead of trying to think of the larger, end result, break it down into smaller, digestible or sprintable tasks. (use the metaphor that works best for you)
6. Doing work in smaller chunks also helps you build momentum towards the larger tasks, and gives you a sense of achievement when you look back over the body of work you've produced.
7. Having an audience or someone to whom you are accountable is key. You need people outside of you who are expecting to see some results on a regular basis. For me at least, this was a great motivator. These people cheer you on when you succeed, encourage you when you fail, and shame you when you're lazy. Feedback can be addictive.
8. Have a schedule, be consistent and always release something, even if you don't think it's any good. Your mistake might inspire something better further on down the road. Or it might turn out not to be a mistake at all. To quote Brian Eno & Peter Schmidt's Oblique Strategies: "Your mistake was a hidden intention"
9. Do your thing once a day or once a week. Once a month is too long between sessions.
10. Give yourself some rules to follow. Creativity needs a framework to give it some direction towards a goal, needs restraints to fight against, borders to work around. While some of what I was doing freed me up to try out new techniques, I still limited myself each week by saying "doing a mix focused on this artist or genre".
11. Only do one "thing a week/day" at a time. You are human, after all, and you don't want to distract yourself.

One of the more interesting outcomes of this project was how it inspired some people to start up their own "thing a week" projects, or motivate them to finally getting around to doing that thing they've been putting off. Over the years, I've received a lot of wonderful honours & accolades (a friend played one of my dj mixes in the delivery room while his daughter was being born; another walked/danced down the isle with his wife to the music of an artist I had introduced him to) but to know that I inspired someone to start living out a piece of their life that they had been neglecting...I dunno, I think that's pretty cool. :)

I hope you find this post just as inspiring!

Now all I have to do is find another "thing" to start working on...

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