Ableton for Amateurs
How to: Master a Craft in Thirty Days
I’ve always loved school. I hid in a classroom, read books, completed assignments, and crammed for tests. I was a passive learner, able to explain and define, but often unable to apply what I’d learned in the real world (see Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience, 1969). I was all talk and no do.
I had the fortunate opportunity to participate in Seth Godin’s altMBA, a four-week online program. What a multifaceted learning experience! I learned through peer discussion, by applying frameworks to real-life situations, by giving feedback, and by shipping on a deadline.
Our first project: set an achievable goal and follow through. I had wanted to produce my own electronic music for years after falling in love with the dance floor. Though I had written and performed acoustically (yep, that’s me!), my insecurities around digital music hindered me from achieving success. I’ve outlined my experience getting over myself and learning Ableton to produce my first house track.
You can apply these methods to any craft you wish to learn.
WEEK 1
Day 1: Set a clear, concise goal. Identify the obstacles and the people and resources that will help you along the way. Outline a plan of action, and include a deadline.
“I will produce my first house track — and publicize it — within a month.”
Day 2: Promise others. I implore you to share your goals with others. It is yet another way to hold yourself accountable. I promised my altMBA cohort, and identified my partner as my cheerleader. He provided inspiration, advice, and resources. Having someone who believes in you more than you do can be a Deal Sealer on your road to success.
Day 3–6: Forgive yourself for thrashing around. It was not pretty. I complained, I whined, I focused on my fears. I hadn’t yet started, and I could only imagine myself failing. Finally, I did something productive and I wrote my fears down. Seth Godin calls this The pre-mortem. Acknowledge that you can’t be perfect, then shake off those fears and give yourself an “A”.
Day 7: Identify experts you wish to emulate. Listen to them on a daily basis, and never stop. My partner turned me on to Shur-i-kan In The Mix. Right there, a decade of inspired underground deep tech house. I listened to his music every day during my commute.
WEEK 2
Day 7–11: Practice selective reading. I started at the beginning of The Secrets of House Music Production. Two days in, I realized that finishing this would become a constraint to building my track. I skipped ahead and ingested the important part: the anatomy of a track. From this one page I had retained more applicable information than I had in the past few days.
Day 12–14: Give into fear. Again. Taking the leap from passive learning (reading, ingesting) to active learning (doing, creating) freaked me out. I had to take a day off. My partner had to take a day off from me.
WEEK 3
Day 15: Simply… start! I had not yet made the connection between what I had read and actually using the software. It terrified me, but I was already two weeks in. I downloaded the Ableton program and stared at it for a day.
Day 16–21: Watch and imitate. Sonic Academy has an amazing set of training videos for Ableton beginners. For six days, I watched DJ P-Lask set up simple beats, bass lines, and melodies, explaining along the way. I imitated everything he did. I was a slow learner. I would rewind, pause, try it out myself. It seemed to take forever, but by the last day, I had built something. Though it wasn’t my own creation you can bet your ass I felt proud of it.
WEEK 4
Day 22–23: Do the real thing. Remember the podcasts I’d been ingesting this whole month? Now it was time to steal like an artist. I flailed around a bit and powered through, rewatched the videos when I got stuck.
Day 25: Throw it away. Be proud of what you’ve made. Be OK with saying thank-you to your creation and moving on. I knew I could apply more of my own creativity and jumped into my final project.
Day 26–27: Do the real thing, part 2. After becoming more comfortable with the software, I made room for my creativity. This was scary. I was no longer following instructions, but designing something of my own. By going at it for a few hours every day, the creative juices finally started flowing.
Day 28–29: Write about your experience. Take notes throughout your journey with the intent of creating a blog post and to learn by teaching. I captured questions, thoughts, feelings. Going back and re-reading these reconnected me to the process. Here are some examples of my notes:
What is my brain doing? What am I learning about learning?
What does it mean to let go and get over myself? (Iris, get over yourself!)
The illusion of a time constraint is important. I wouldn’t be doing this otherwise.
Day 30: Publicize it, and tell the world. Remember, this will not be your best work! I had to be OK with what I’d made. There was no time to be a perfectionist. I followed through with my promise.
Without further ado, here is my track, Yes, I Will.
…and my new goal?
Produce and publish one track per week. Play and record one podcast per month.
Now it’s your turn… what craft can you learn in 30 days?
