Master How You Think In Sync
A Deep-Dive Into 4 Levels Of Productive Thought 🧠
FROM THE DESK OF GRAHAM BARTON
DECEMBER 15, 2022
The biggest problem I see with producers and composers trying to kill it in sync today? They don’t know what value sounds like.
They can’t describe how a high-value track actually behaves or performs. They may be able to watch an ad, hear the track in it, and wish it were theirs – That’s a start, but this is Level 1 thinking. Level 2 thinking steps back to say, "OK. I see that somebody needed the track in that ad, now how do I make it?" This is where the gears begin to turn.
Level 3 thinking asks, "How could I make better tracks than what I hear on TV? How can my tracks beat the ones I hear on TV? How can I produce my tracks to be more bold and attractive than what I hear on TV?" This is where we enter some serious positioning at the edge of Level 4 thinking, which asks, “How can I do it again?”
4 LEVELS OF PRODUCTIVE THOUGHT
Level 4 thinking presumes that you’ve scaled through the other levels of thought in sync:
Level 1: You notice that a track in the wild is valuable to someone.
Level 2: You think about how to make it yourself.
Level 3: You think about how to make it better (or different) than what first inspired you.
Level 4: You achieve it, and now your problem is figuring out how to repeat that success.
This simple line of thought is effective on both micro and macro levels. Micro: You can think through all 4 Levels of productive thought to churn, refine, and galvanize your inspiration. Macro: You can experience this line of thought as your career matures. It’s exactly what happened to me. For the first few years, I could only express Level 1 thought: "Wow, that track is cool." "I wish I made that." "Whatever – I can do other things well – I don't need their talent". Ego trip with a chip on my shoulder.
My mind wasn't refined enough to dig deeper and use the inspiration to my advantage. Over time, I learned to see through WHAT was in ads (Level 1) and focus deeper on WHY a brand wants to license it (Level 2). That’s when I began to dive into deeper levels of productive thought. Not only is it a method for churning out valuable tracks from a small spark of inspiration – It’s also a natural journey that we all take as our career develops and as our creativity matures.
Level 1: 2012–2014
From 2012–2014 I was deep in unproductive Level 1 thought. I would see an ad and resent / curse / vent all about why I should be in "their" shoes (whoever “they” are). All this piss and vinegar helped me put my feelings into words so that I could descend to deeper in my mind to Level 2 thought. Which is exactly how I thought from 2014–2016. These years were special – I was too scrappy to be professional, but too dedicated to be amateur. I began to see more success in sync. My tracks were getting more traction and gaining momentum.
Level 2: 2014–2016
It felt like I got one license per day (the data shows I was damn close). I began to see the fruits of the constant grind that I put myself through, albeit blind ambition 90% of the time. Finally, I was thinking about how to make the music that I heard on TV ads in a much more vivid and detailed way. It seemed like a daily re-education, never able to grasp it all because of the newness around me. I had to burn all the textbook stuff I learned in college and my habits / comfort zones inside Logic. Because the fruits of Level 2 thought actually came from a deeper place.
Instead of wondering how others got such a good drum tone, I asked why a brand might want a certain drum style. More detailed question arose like, "Does the brand want the drums to sound like they're in a garage played by a teen? Do they want them to sound like it’s a super high-quality LA studio recording? Do they want the drums to sound like an M83 throwback thing? What do those characteristics give the brand? What does the brand actually buy?" This is when I started to understand that sync was a game that I had to play correctly if I was to win. Success in sync wasn’t luck like my Level 1 thought would have me believe. Which is exactly how I transitioned into Level 3 thought.
Level 3: 2016–2018
All the re-education snowballed over time, and the details compounded. Level 3 defined 2016–2018. My productions got better. I was in competition with myself with every track. I tried to do everything that the tracks in TV ads did, but better. I wanted my track to sit right beside one of those TV tracks in a library. I wanted my track to make the supervisor say, “I want Graham’s track instead of that other one.”
Whether that was the reality of how supervisors picked music or not, I didn’t know at the time and I didn’t care. It was that mental image of pleasing someone, making them excited to find my tracks, AND have fun licensing them that motivated me. This became my new fuel instead of trying to write something that "sounds like it could work for sync". Or trying to write something on par with what I heard licensing in TV ads.
I produced this way enough times to where I started to see a pattern in how I created and the fruit that came from it. That is, a pattern in both the process and results. My syncs soared, the average sync dollar amount grew, my bank account was inflating. And for the first time I came into money that I never even tried to get, or so it seemed. Because I focused so hard on the way that I thought about making the assets. If I focused on trying to make six figures in sync all day long, I likely never would have made it. It would have been the wrong goal to focus on.
Level 4: 2018–Present
Focusing on six figures would have been the extent of Level 1 thought (which provides nothing). Like with my music, I would have had to go deeper into HOW to get those six figures, Level 2. Then how to get to six figures better and easier than someone else could, Level 3. Then to figure out how to repeat those six figures, Level 4. These 4 Levels of productive thought permeate through all creative experiences in life.
When I finally ascended Level 4 thought, it became all that I did. I couldn't stop. I would wake up and immediately start thinking at Level 4: Repeating every success, big and small. I treated every track as an opportunity to learn and re-educate. I was on a quest to leverage every win to create something new that could earn me even more. Though I hit six figures years before I reached Level 4, the turning point in my career was when I began to see sync as a game of repeating successes. And I had a distinct advantage that everyone else did not: My depth of thought and passion for details. For whatever reason it worked, whether I could explain it or not. Repeating success became my default.
Free Goodwill
The New Year is approaching, and my guess is that you've got some feelings surrounding your goals. Some goals are scary, some are still forming. As you craft next year's targets, I challenge you to get a pen and piece of paper and practice Level 4 thinking.
I have a worksheet that guides you through it (the one I use every year, quarter, month, week) so you can streamline your process. I call it the Deep End Framework. We all want to swim in the deep end of the pool because the big kids do it. But we're too afraid of what might happen when we realize we're not ready and all alone.
News flash: We're always ready to swim out to the deep end. The only way to get there is to think about every stroke, kick, and breath along the way.
There are directions inside for you to learn how I set big goals (and hit them) through the 4 Levels of Productive Thought. It takes minutes to fill out, but you can take all the time you need. Use my Deep End Framework to set better goals that lead you into the New Year with confident momentum.
All my best,
Graham Barton
Composer · Mentor · Imperfectionist
@syncbeast.co
So good...like a breath of fresh air 🔥🔥🔥
Just sat down & started writing new BIG goals...and figuring out the path to get to them.