Why I Recommend Quantity Over Quality (In the Beginning)

You don’t often hear this when you’re talking about a creative product, but I believe that if you’re in the beginning stages of learning how to make music, quantity actually tops quality.

It hasn’t always been the way I’ve felt about it, but I’ve changed my mind, because that’s what people do when they acquire more experience.

I now believe smashing out tunes in the beginning is the fastest way to develop and progress.

So, why the change of heart?

As I discussed in this post, details matter. I stand by that, 100%. It’s important to pay attention to and understand the subtleties that make up beautifully crafted tracks. These are the tracks that take you for a ride no matter how many times to listen to them.

It takes a lot to make tracks like this, though — it involves a ton of experimenting, problem solving and an unbelievable amount of patience.

These are all good practises, but — and perhaps I should have been a bit clearer in the original post — if you’re a beginner, there’s a good chance you’re not going to know how to implement the details that make a track so amazing.

Instead, you’re going to know that something’s not right and then spend three months fucking around while you try to figure out what it is.

This is not, in my opinion, a good use of your time.

It will likely slow your progress, dull your enthusiasm for making music and make you want to crawl back into your mother’s womb.

Bad habits.

Another problem with trying to push yourself too hard with your tracks early on is that — if you don’t know what you’re doing, and you likely don’t — you’ll start to form production habits that dick you over later on down the line.

For example, I spent years trying to get my tracks to sound as professional as the big dogs’ stuff, and all it did was instil in me a bunch of bad EQing and over-processing habits. Do you know how fucking annoying it is to have to go back and undo all that?

Things like filling in the gaps in the right way, finding sounds that work well together and understanding what your ears are telling you come with time. Don’t let the details consume you in the beginning, because, as I think I heard Culprate say, “You’re only gonna do what you know how to do”.

What’s the alternative?

My recommendation? Make shit tracks, and lots of them.

Yeah, now we’re getting into familiar territory. You’ve definitely heard this, right?

Get your shit out of the way to make room for the ground breakers. It’s incredibly obvious to me now, but it can take a bit of convincing if your ego has a good hold on you.

Smash out tracks like it’s your fuckin’ job already. Let them be shit. Still do you best to make them good but prioritise getting it done over all else.

A long line of shit tracks will lead you to your first true banger a lot faster than spending an eternity on the details of just a few.

Trust me on this. In the last 3 months, I’ve seen more progress than I have in several years thanks to this shift in perspective. Not joking. The tracks aren’t amazing, but I’m getting better at what’s important a lot quicker.

Think about this: would you rather be a beginner who produces shit music or a nothing who produces nothing?

I’m completely kidding about being a nothing. But seriously, beginners are supposed to be shit. This is exactly the time when you can smash out a bunch of tunes and it doesn’t matter if they’re terrible. I say take full advantage of it and do as much as possible.

Besides, working on full tracks gives you a much better and “bigger picture” look at how tracks work. It’s unbelievably easy to get bogged down in details that don’t even matter (let alone the ones that do) when you’re zoomed in too far. Leave it for the pros for now, I reckon.

Should I release the shit?

It’s up to you. You can read this to help you determine whether or not you want to, but ultimately, I think the answer is almost always yes.

Why? Because you’ll never be completely happy with your work and the earlier you start sharing your journey, the better.

According to people who know more than me, others want to go on your journey with you; they want to “grow with you over time” (I’m putting that in quotes because I heard it from someone else).

Having more stuff for them to listen to — even if it sucks — only means that there’s more capacity for growth in the future.

I’ve been doing it, and I’ve seen a significant shift in my rate of progress. I’ve released more music in the last three months than I have for years, and while I’ve still got a long way to go, I’m feeling a lot better about the road ahead.

Change as you grow.

I do think that eventually it’s a good idea to flip your priorities and focus on quality. I mean, you don’t have to, but if you’ve got the skills to smash out really high-quality work, it might be worth spending that extra time to get it even better. This could really make you stand out from the crowd.

Understanding who you are as a producer is key here. I know that I lose interest in tracks really quickly right now, so my best bet is to pump out as much music I can in the shortest amount of time.

When I’m further along, though, that might change. I might have more faith in my ability to finish tracks, and so I can put more work into them without losing interest. Or maybe I’ll just get really good at finishing high quality work quickly.

You can figure this out for yourself. Play to your strengths. As you grow as a producer, adjust your methods — if you need to. Over time, it’ll get easier to figure out what’s important to you and what your approach should be.

Until then, though, I wouldn’t worry so much about it. If you’re just starting out, use it an excuse to piss shitty music until it hurts. Don’t hold back — experimenting at the beginning without boundaries is some of the best fun you’ll ever have. It’ll make you into a monster later on, too.

And that’s all she wrote!

Ultimately, it comes down to you and how you like to work, but I think moving through tunes quickly at the beginning is the most effective way to climb the experience ladder.

There will still be pitfalls, no doubt. But if you’re working fast most of the time, the pitfalls won’t slow you down as much and you’ll have more patience to deal with them.

And never forget: it has to be fun. If it’s not, you won’t keep doing it.

If you’re not enjoying yourself most of the time, everything I’ve said above goes out the window. You should be smiling in the studio as much as possible.

I hope this helped! If you’re looking for more information on how to speed up your music making process, I’ll be writing an article on what I think is the best way to go about it. Keep an eye out for it!

In the meantime, you can check out These Music Production Habits Fucked Me Over, Bigtime if you want to know what not to do when you’re trying to make progress quickly.

Until next time!

Cheers 🙂