Lately I’ve been making iMixes. I’ve come up with a good strategy for creating bad ass mixes that I thought I’d share with you
You can’t just pile a bunch of songs you like in to a playlist and call it good. There’s gotta be some method to the madness. Here’s my step by step method for creating a stellar iMix.
1. First I pick one song that I want to base the mix around. For “Recovering From A Fall” it was “Sit Still” by Brightwood. For “Walking Blocks” it was Tyler Fortier’s song of the same name. And “Jessica Is Legend” was based on “Heaven” by John Legend. This song will most likely determine the mood of the mix, unless things change as you go.
2. The next step is to pick a couple more songs you’re sure will fit that mood. We’re talking 2 or 3 songs here because there are some more things to consider as you add more songs. I usually shoot for about 10-12 songs in the mix. As the spots fill up, the more careful you need to be about adding songs to the mix.
(And as I create the list I usually have the songs already selected playing on repeat, this way if a song is just slightly off and doesn’t fit the mix you’ll have ample opportunity to spot it and take it out. But it also can give you ideas to help you select the rest of the songs.)
3. I like to think of the playlist sort of like a story line. I’m talking purely on emotion here, not the lyrics or anything. Let’s take a look at a story line…
I like to create peaks and valleys with the mood or tempo of the songs I pick. So it might start off strong with a good tempo song, then get a little faster or harder, but then back off and get mellow. The change usually shouldn’t be sudden… unless it just feels right.
A good example of switching abruptly is from “Screaming Infidelities” to “Wild Night” in my “Walking Blocks” mix. That’s an abrupt transition, but it felt right to me. Most of the time I try to gently go up and down. The movement provides variety and keeps things interesting.
So as I’m looking for songs, I’m not only trying to match the overall mood but I’m also looking to fill in these peaks and valleys by finding songs with the appropriate tempo/mood/rock-i-ness and so forth.
4. Use iTunes to help you find songs. When you highlight a song in iTunes, it will give you recommendations based off the purchasing habits of others who liked that song. This can be a great way to find songs you never would have thought of or haven’t heard of, but are likely to appreciate. You can do this all day and just jump from recommended song to recommended song. But you should be looking for songs you like that also fit the mood and tempo.
5. Pandora.com. This site is amazing. And they’re great at helping you find the last few songs in the list. They allow you to make a “radio station” based on specific songs.
So by entering the songs you already have on your list in to the same radio station, they’ll start playing songs for you that should naturally fit in to your list. They’re essentially doing the work for you. And since they’re database is so large, you’re likely to discover songs you never knew about. It’s great.
6. Choose an outlier. I think an outlier can do wonders for a list. I had Jimi Hendrix in the middle of “Recovering From A Fall.” He’s definitely not in the same genre as the rest of the list, but it worked great. In fact, in all 3 lists I’ve created so far there’s always one outlier to keep things fresh.
It also helps to introduce people to new music. If they are really in to the main genre of the mix, it might help the listener branch out in to other great forms of expression.
7. It should be easy for you to find 10-12 songs based on the advice above. Once you have them, you need to make sure they’re in the best order and not just haphazard. I already mentioned using peaks and valleys to keep it interesting. But there’s more…
To make sure they really flow together I listen to the last 15-20 seconds of a song and the first 15-20 seconds of the song that follows to make sure they flow well in to each other. I think this is extremely important or else your list will be bumpy and feel out of whack.
Also, I like to listen to playlists on repeat, so I try to make sure that the last song in the list flows well in to the first song of the list as well.
Cheers,
Stephen
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