A few nights back, an idea came to me for a “game” framework to help structure music production sessions. The idea was inspired by something I heard or read (but can’t find reference for) about methodology employed by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois’ while mixing records. One person would get 30 minutes to start a mix of the record they were working on. At the end of thirty minutes, the other person would have 30 minutes to work with the option to either work from the current state, or start entirely from scratch. The game I conceptualized is an expansion of this methodology, specifically tailored for production sessions and for collaboration groups larger than two people.

Wild Vibes

There are a number of frequently occurring problems I experience in collaborative music production/writing sessions. Working with diverse groups of musicians (age, experience, skillset, etc.), often times I find a surplus of creativity and a lack of alignment on direction. The creativity surplus is intuitive– musicians around instruments, toys, and recording equipment exist naturally in a state of rapid ideation. The pace at which ideas are generated often outpaces the cognitive/emotional velocity of the room to internalize, understand, and align. Ideation is effortless, the effort is required to:

1. validate whether you think your idea is good
2. effectively express & communicate your idea
3. validate others’ understanding of your idea
4. validate whether others think your idea is good
5. achieve alignment on pursuing your idea

In a volatile creative environment, stepping through this checklist takes time, intention, and focus (often at-odds with the brain-waves of impulsive creativity). At any given moment, each person in the room may be simultaneously working these steps over their own idea(s). This often leads to difficulties in communication, frustration, forgetting ideas, etc. On top of this, social power dynamics often inhibit efficient + respectful creative collaboration.

As sessions progress, tens-to-hundreds of ideas are generated, all coalescing into each individual’s perception of what direction a song should head. The potential for creating great music increases as directional alignment increases among everyone in the room. At certain points you may generate a new idea, or feel the direction drifting off-course from your path. This causes uncertainty, not knowing whether or not:

• you should attempt to re-direct the session
• doing so would be perceived as pushy/controlling
• re-directing would upset someone else’s flow
• your idea is worth pursuing redirection

Making good decisions in these circumstances is critical but often daunting because of the high degree of social/time pressure in session environments. Maintaining the energy of a session requires intangible social/emotional intelligence to balance politeness, self-awareness, aggression, velocity, and taste. With time and experience (years to decades) producers and artists develop the skills required to benevolently steer sessions toward productivity, efficiency, and optimize energy. Despite potential deficiencies in areas mentioned above, younger, inexperienced producers/artists often have better ideas than people who “know what they’re doing”. Everyone brings something useful to a session, the secret is harnessing everyone’s strengths, and acknowledging/avoiding weaknesses without hurting feelings.

Assuming your collaborators are polite, motivated, and at least marginally self-aware– a lot of these issues boil down to a room having no clear leader. In these cases, all involved parties try hard to create a focused environment without throwing off the almighty vibe. Everyone tries to lead and no one succeeds.

The game described below attempts to provide a framework designed to address + mitigate these difficulties.

Goals

Implement structure without being oppressive Too many rules can throw off the vibe. Re-framing structure as a challenge in the form of a game allows for implementing focus without the oppressiveness of “studio rules”.

Democratize the pursuit of ideas Inexperienced artists/producers should have a chance to express their ideas without having to feel pushy or aggressive. Shy or quiet people should be given a chance to contribute. The game addresses this by giving all players a turn to steer the ship and choose which ideas to pursue.

Reduce disruptions to session flow Allow new ideas to be presented in such a way as to minimize disruptions to session flow. If a non-Producer player comes up with an idea they should quickly commit it to memory, paper, or voice memos and wait until it’s their turn as Producer to execute it.

Limit divergence from the “first idea” Try not to lose sight of the original source of inspiration. Carefully snapshotting the session at the end of each turn allows recovery if the session begins to drift off-course. This applies mostly to new songs.

Prevent vibe death from execution of long/tedious tangential ideas Timed turns ensure no one spends too much time attempting to execute a long-winded idea. Studio tangents often lead to loss of focus, momentum, etc. Beyond the hard time limit, the game forces Producers to be considerate of how much time a given task requires.

Anyways, here’s the rules:

wild 20s

Can be played with 2-8 people, optimally 4-6.

Equipment

• Timer
• Die

Roles

Artist - the player who’s song/record is being worked on

i.e. the “dealer” who facilitates gameplay. If the song being worked on is not destined for a specific artist, or there are multiple artists involved, solicit a volunteer or choose someone at random

Producer - the current session leader

Hands - assistants to the Producer

Gameplay

Setup

1. Decide turns by assigning players a number 1-6.

   If playing with less than six, the Artist assigns an additional number to player(s) until all numbers are used.

2. Once all numbers 1-6 have been assigned, the Artist rolls a die.

   If playing with more than six, use a D8 to roll.

3. The player matching the number rolled becomes The Producer.

4. Subsequent turn order follows in numerical order of assigned numbers.

   If playing with less than 6, players that were assigned two numbers only get added to the turn order once.

5. For pre-existing sessions, ensure a snapshot of the DAW session exists and a 2-track bounce has been exported.

6. Agree on turn length

   I recommend starting with 20 minutes and increasing turn length as necessary. Require majority consensus to modify turn length mid-game.

7. Agree on end time

Example

Turns

1. First turn

   • Start the timer, giving the Producer 20 minutes as the creative leader of the session
   • The Hands are directed by and defer to the Producer until the turn is over.
   • Any ideas generated by Hands should be remembered/saved/recorded in an unobtrusive way and saved until they get their turn as Producer.

2. After 20 minutes–

   • a snapshot of all progress in the DAW is saved as a new copy/alternative
   • a 2-track is bounced out labelled with the current Producer’s name never save DAW sessions destructively

3. Retrospective period begins (~5 minutes)

   While progress is being saved and the bounce is printing, players take a creative break and discuss. The retrospective period should not exceed five minutes.

4. Vote on Producer switch (Optional, 1 minute)

   • Decide whether to keep current Producer for another turn or pass the turn to the next Producer
   • In the event of a tie, the artist serves as the tie-breaker.

5. New turn

   • To start each new turn, the Producer chooses whether to continue on from the current state, or revert to previous snapshot of the session
   • Start the timer

6. Break

   After all players have had a turn as Producer or six turns have passed pause for a 20-minute break.

7. When the session is over, all revisions of 2-track bounces are distributed to each player

Notes

I’m hoping to get a session together soon and try this out and iterate on some of the rules. I think it will take some time to get everything just right, but I hope in the experimentation phase that it’s no worse than a distracted/unproductive session.

If you end up playing, let me know how it goes.