Find a way in
Have you ever done double dutch jump rope? I remember learning how as a kid. It was SO intimidating to confront it at first. It’s two ropes, but it felt like eight ropes. It seemed like there were ropes everywhere. And I was supposed to somehow find a way into the middle of them? How on earth was I going to do that?
Finding my way into a mix on a song that someone else has produced sometimes feels like that for me. Everything feels difficult; the tracks all feel like ropes, disorderly and impenetrable. The song is in there somewhere, but I can’t get at it.
But: if I keep working, and keep trying different approaches, and keep experimenting, and keep refining, at a certain point all of a sudden I will realize that I’m in! Where before I felt like I was on the outside of the song, now I feel like I’m on the inside. Like it makes sense now, in a way that it hadn’t previously.
The nice thing about double dutch jump rope is that it’s clear-cut. If you fail to get in, you know immediately, because you’ve hit one of the ropes and the game stops. It’s unambiguous. But with songs there’s no such clear demarcation line. If we’re not careful, we can spend an entire day working at a song without ever quite getting to that inside perspective on what it wants to be, without realizing it. Because the song won’t just come out and tell you! It won’t collapse on you if you’re not doing it right; it will suffer on stoically. Perhaps forever, if you don’t figure it out.
What I’ve learned in my practice is that I need to take time. Days, often. Working at a song a few hours at a time over days, while doing other music work in between, can be so helpful. Songs are like people — some take longer to get to know than others.
And I’ve also learned that I need to clear distractions away, including my ego and internal chatter, so that I can listen — truly listen, not with my ears but with my heart. If I can get to a place where I can put myself to the side, the song will tell me if it’s where it wants to be.
Patiently — jamie