These past few weeks Intro to Music Assignment has been an interesting learning experience for me as a producer. I think one of the most important things we must do as musicians is discussing art made my predecessors and I have enjoying doing so in the past. However, this class has taught me that I am not nearly as open-minded as I would have thought I was.

Initially it was hard for me to engage with my course-mates on most topics with everyone being from such diverse branches of music. I soon learned that I had limited myself to discussing music with musicians very specifically in my lane. I often found myself subconsciously discarding other artist’s opinions based on their music taste.

Since then, I have made a conscious effort to be more open-minded and the results have been fruitful. As a producer I feel much more comfortable in exploring other genres of music and I often find myself listening to music of genres I typically would not explore for inspiration. I found that my own input on the topics being discussed in class are a lot more insightful and welcome by other course-mates. Even when I listen to music, I find myself looking for different elements of the instrumentals than I usually would to pick up inspiration from. I specifically find myself a lot more attentive to song structure and how melodic undertones can affect it.

Besides general discussion, I find myself inspired to expand my horizons as a producer. I was specifically inspired by the Brian Eno Imaginary Landscapes documentary we watched during one of the classes. I was moved by the emotional intensity of Eno’s music and I working on learning how to make ambient music myself even if it is far off from my forte (Soul-Sampled and Experimental Hip-Hop).

To conclude this blog post, this module was initially hard, specifically with keeping an open-mind and engaging with my course mates, but even though I still think I have a long way to go, I think I have begun to open my mind and explore new possibilities.