What is Workflow?
Work•flow /ˈwərkflō/
“The sequence of industrial, administrative, or other processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion.” – lexico.com
What is a quality workflow? How do we develop it? Below are elements of the production cycle that most creative people move through as they create something. First, we must identify the stages of project production. What is each stage and what are the quality checks for each stage. Read on and find out.
Stages of Creation Development
Inspiration
How do we find ideas to develop? Let other peoples music inspire you. Always take things one step at a time or else you are likely to get overwhelmed. You shouldn’t worry about how good something is until its out of your head while you’re making music. You can always go back and fix things and fine tune them later. Let people listen and give feedback. That way, you know how you can improve. Practice can only improve what you apply it to.
Intention
How do we clarify our specific goal(s) for a project? Setting goals is always very beneficial to keeping you on track. If I were making an album and I didn’t have any goals then it would be hard to stay focused and I would jump from thing to thing and never get anything done. Set reasonable achievable goals so you can make your best music. For example set a goal of working on a project for 20 minutes a day or complete one project a month. To stay on top of the goal make a to-do list.
Pre-production
How can we brainwrite, brainstorm, storyboard, and plan our ideas at this phase? The hard part for me is finding a topic. One must have think about what is relatable to others. For example, there is a lot of music about depression, love, and having fun. These are some relatable topics you could write about. I always start with the instrumental track before I write my lyrics. Lastly, share your ideas with others so they can add their input and own ideas if you’re collaborating. Not all ideas are your best ideas, and that’s okay. That’s what your friends and colleagues are there for.
Production
How do we communicate with each other and execute our plan for this phase? This is where we actually make the project. This is were we utilize our resources we have and begin our project. Now is the most important time to go step by step. If we use this process everything will come together. Make sure your goals are specific and reasonable and you can move forward with them in a timely manner.
Post-production
How do we communicate with each other and execute our final stages of the project for this phase? This is where we publish the project. This is an important time. It is always good to review our work so we can catch errors. Ask people to give you feedback and make adjustments where necessary. This way we can publish our project knowing that it is 100% ready for the public eye.
Presentation/Performance
It is important to organize your presentation. The step by step process is important as ever. Practice and rehearsing is the best way to insure that things are going to go well.
Feedback
How do we conduct a feedback session at the end of the project development cycle?
Finally, this is the time for us to sit back and listen to what people have to say and incorporate their comments and observations into our future projects. To get feedback from a focus group of my peers I might send them a sample of my new song. I my also send my mentor my song to critique.