 There's a thought in many record producer circles that many people are capable of writing a great song. Well, that's about 80 to 90% as good as your favorite songs that go down as classics in your life. But that last 10 to 20% is where nearly everyone fails. And only the best artists and producers are capable of seeing what a song is missing to go there. Since I've been lucky enough to be in the studio with some of the biggest musicians of the last decades, I want to talk about the concept of people who know how to make amazing songs employed. So in this video, we're going to talk about how superfluous parts ruin music. Hi, I'm Jesse Cannon, a record producer, mixing and mastering engineer, and this is Muse Formation. So let's first define the word superfluous, since it's not the most common term. Superfluous, adjective, one, unnecessary, especially through being more than enough, two, synonyms, surplus, two requirements, not essential, redundant, unneeded, excess, extra, to spare, remaining unused, leftover, in excess, waste more. Cool. So, like, what does this have to do with music? I thought we were talking about what amazing producers and musicians know that other people don't do. Yes, we are. And what this has to do with music is this. The best musicians are always chasing the sound of a certain emotion they feel and try to find the chords, melodies and tones of music that make them feel that emotion. So people don't understand that the great songwriters are always tinkering with music until something stirs a powerful emotion in them, and then they pursue it. While many songwriters are able to marry that powerful emotion with lyrics, as they don't know how to continue the emotional iteration to keep on making the song feel more and more like the emotion they're trying to convey. But most often times, it goes even worse. Artists add random sounds and soundscapes without considering how they affect the emotion and just make sounds or play random notes making the song's emotion deteriorate into an unlistenable garbage. So let's bring it back to the word superfluous and how that concept affects music. Any detail to a production that's not adding to the emotion of a song is superfluous. Understanding superfluous, this is important since it's one of the most common creative pitfalls. Superfluous contributions are commonly justified since they'll add more thought to the production. Whether this thought helps further the emotion of a song or not isn't considered since it's falsely assumed that more thought will strengthen the song. Musicians commonly add more parts for the sake of adding more parts. They ride the fader on every track since surely this helps make a better song. They add harmonies to a vocal since that's what you do. Superfluousness adds to a song by doing more for more sake instead of emotionally reacting to a deficiency in a song and choosing to act upon it. When you begin to see music through the lens of creating music with the intent to evoke an emotion, you start to notice the flaws in other works as well as understand what you don't enjoy in certain songs. You hear superfluous parts added that don't help a song's intent. You notice tones that detract from the intent. You begin to understand why a part doesn't work in a song. Adding parts to a song without thought as to how they further the emotional intent of the song doesn't add to it. It detracts by taking away attention to other more emotionally resonant moments. If an addition doesn't help further add to the emotion you're trying to convey, it's superfluous. If you can't hear the difference an idea makes or it adds no emotional content, it's superfluous, unnecessary and more than enough. Am I missing anything? Is there any other way you would have done this? I need to know your questions and what no one else is telling you since I want to answer them so leave them in the comments since I answer every comment in every post. I hope you liked this video and if you did please like, subscribe and get notified and I'm going to be breaking down the concepts in this video along with how to promote your music and how to make songs you're happy with in the future. I have a Facebook group linked below that is only helpful information. No playlist or con artists, only artists having helpful discussions allowed. If you want to learn more about me, work on a record with me or check out any of my books, podcasts or anything else I do, go to jessecanon.com or at jessecanon.com on all the socials. One last thing, there's two playlists here. One is on how to grow your fan base from zero to 10,000 fans and the other is on how you make songs you're more happy with. Or you can hit the subscribe button below and stay tuned as I have tons of tips for musicians.