The music journey – Making an album (week 9)

Finally back making sounds, instead of just reading manual & books. Making sounds and noise is the fun bit really. Got a few short modular recordings in this week. Still very slow progress and my project is going to take much longer than I originally anticipated. Which I won’t let in the way of having fun. It’s about the journey after all.

In order to keep the structure and momentum going I am planning a few smaller projects along the way. Just making sure I release music while working on the bigger album project. Although I am still a bit reluctant putting stuff out there.

Every time I listen too someone else’s music I am thinking, that’s far better than my stuff. So I really need to get over this hurdle and start putting stuff out. Only things I am happy with off course , and I am not there yet. But I will.

Really missed the actual music making and really hoping I can get back into my rhythm and keep at it. Practice makes perfect after all.

As well as being back at making music, I also listened to some music. Amongst others the DJ Kicks mix by Andrea Parker, a very good mix in the outstanding series that DJ Kicks is. Released in 1998 and massively important for me in discovering unknown artists & music at the time. And the mix still holds up and sounds futuristic nowadays. Recommend listening.

In my planning I added a moment in my week for listening too an album, mix or a few EP’s for inspiration and enjoyment.

Onto a new week!

Small improvements , massive result

Striving to run a marathon in under 3 hours I discovered something new, well for me at least. I had read about it but never really given it any further attention. The large benefits of the small improvements you make if you do something long and consistent enough.

In sports it has been a thing for a few years now, make small improvements in a lot of areas and the sum will surpass anything. Which is off course true , mathematical speaking, take a spreadsheet and set a few numbers and keep adding 1% , compounding in action.

During my training it’s been evident that regularity in workouts is hugely important in getting the most small improvements. But here comes the kicker, for a long time you will not notice any improvements at all. It’s like being stuck, and all of a sudden there is this breakthrough moment. My times improved , tartrate dropped and recovery was shorter.

I am am nowhere near as data driven as a top athlete , but I just noticed the effect and it was significant.
Like it came out of nowhere. Which when you look at it, isn’t true. The consistency and persistence combined with a slow and gradual increase of volume in training has made this possible. But at first there is a whole lot of time were you notice nothing of great significance, it’s just maintaining your condition it seems and not moving forward at all. This is a dangerous point, you get demotivated and you start focussing on something else. Or you quit.

During my revalidation it was always hammered down that you should celebrate small victories, I was mostly frustrated because I was not achieving my bigger goals. I tried and compensate it by working harder and having draw backs. Finally I kept my schedule and things improved. Still not too my liking and my real breakthrough moment never really came.

In hindsight it was just the amount of time that was simply too short, you can’t do that much in a year and I have to get back to the drawing board and see how I can get at these small improvements by means of regularity and slowly increasing my load. I am stuck in a vacuum of no progress for some time now. At one hand that could be it, I am at my maximum in recovery, but I believe in something better.

The running is the proof for me. And while thinking about this subject it really applies too all things that are hard in the beginning. Or stay hard for a long . long time. Take learning how too read for example, or paying off a huge debt. In the beginning nothing real seems too happen. All the effort looks worthless. But then there is a moment it all takes off. The ball starts rolling , and then it goes really fast.

What I have learned , it’s more important too regularly work on a goal and grab the small improvements. Than try and sprinting towards it. Persistence is key , it should become a habit and not a burden.

Let’s get more small improvements!