As a musician one of your goals is to ensure that you make music that is versatile and doesn’t always sound the same.
Music listeners are always listening to music and can easily tell when an artist starts to sound monotonous. This can negatively affect your sales, streams and reception.
As a producer that works with musicians all the time, I always advise them to keep doing their best to deliver the best possible music their listeners and having enough spontaneity to keep them coming back for more.
Below are some of the best strategies that I’ve found to work best for somebody that doesn’t want to have all of their music sounding the same.
These tips having refined for over decade that I’ve been producing music.
Listen to Your Music
If you want to avoid making the same music, the first step is listening to enough of your music to have a clear idea of what not to do.
Once you do this, you can then try and beat yourself by creating something different and better than your catalog.
This is a great way to compete with yourself and experiment to see if you can actually make better music.
Hire writers
Most of the times, musicians tend to unconsciously get on certain path with their writing which makes them begin to make music that sounds the same.
This is common especially for musicians that writing consistently.
The best way to bring some variety into your music is to hire a writer. You can give the writer direction and have them fill in the blanks from time to time, in accordance with their musical abilities.
Use different producers
This is another way to avoid making music that sounds the same.
Sticking with one music producer will give you a signature sound that can work well for you and not well for others because it would make their songs all sound the same.
I’d advise you to work with different producers to add some variety to your catalogue.
Don’t try and remake a well received song
One of the common pitfalls in music is trying to create something that resembles a hit/popular song that you have already released.
This is one of the ways people end up sounding monotonous. If you want to make great music that can stand on it’s own without being compared to the rest of your catalogue, make music that is unique and has it’s own identity independent of your catalogue.
Incorporate other music
Use samples in your music to introduce variety into your song, you can also sample lyrics and melody separately if you can get the clearance to use them.
Try a new genre
One of the ways you can change the way your music sounds is by trying to make music of a different genre.
I advise that you jump to a genre that is close to what you are already comfortable with, that way, the transition will be smoother.
This will greatly make a difference in the way you make music which can ensure that your music not sound the same.
Most people stick to their genre and never step of their comfort zone, but this is really bad trade craft because as a musician you need to be able to give yourself room to grow.
Growth is not always in a singular genre, sometimes bridging the gap into another genre can be the way that you achieve and do something monumental.
Feature somebody
If you want to spice things up and make your song a lot different from other songs that you’ve made, feature somebody else.
I’d advise you to share a studio session with them so you can basically work together.
This will help you tap into new territory and get out of your comfort zone to try something new.
Just be sure to let yourself step out of what you’re used to making. Featuring somebody else is a great way to do this.
Find Genuine inspiration
A great way to make music is when you’re genuinely inspired to make music.
Therefore to avoid making music that sounds the same, look for ways to be inspired in different ways.
I’d advise you to listen to music that is our of your comfort zone. This will help you get exposed to variety and you just might find something that sparks interest within you to make music.
One of the reasons why artists start to sound monotonous is because they make music just for the sake of making music.
Remember that music is an art form and all art is driven by inspiration.
Avoid making music consecutively
The brain is a sucker for pattern. When you condition it to doing certain tasks, it starts to adapt and will in turn work against you in music.
Writing and recording music consecutively can make you start sounding monotonous and this is true for most musicians.
I noticed this with a singer friend of mine that I once recorded an EP with. We decided we would collaborate on an EP and we wanted to be done with it in 7 days or less, seeing that it was only supposed to have 5 songs.
We started working on the EP, and over those 7 days,
we repeatedly worked and took very few breaks.
When I look back on that project now, I can easily see the correlation between some songs.
I now understand the importance of taking a break after recording a song.
