It’s been a minute since my last post on here. I have been working on some new ideas and projects which are smaller in scope and easier to work on for me. My last few projects were way too big in scope and very complicated to get out to the world, for me personally at least.
Going into the new year I am putting no pressure on timelines and the focus is going to be on the process. With the goals as guidance. Whatever gets finished, gets finished. I don’t know how my energy will be and this way I will loose the frustration if I don’t reach my goals. I am pretty good in shaking these feelings of frustration but if I can avoid them I will.
My ideas so far are focussed on learning my tools. The output is less important, up until now I was focussed on the end result and I wanted to get there as fast as possible. The problem is that I didn’t get to know my tools, and time was lost in searching for ways to get my ideas out. I am turning this around, I will let my learning process dictate the ideas I can work on and finish.
So how I am going about getting my learning process in the right shape for me. Let’s see.
Consistency
The most important thing in getting better at anything, which I lack in making music, working on it consistently. All other things I ever got any good at, I worked on in a continuous way. With music, somehow that has always been an issue. I think because I have always done music as a hobby, as an outlet. And never had any intention of releasing anything. This has somewhat changed and I have had periods of consistency in working on music. I have already talked about not viewing it as a hobby anymore, but more as a project. Which has been somewhat successful in getting more consistency in me working on music.
But this has not been enough to get anything going in a way I can easily get my ideas translated into music. Which is always an approximation because you can never get it to sound exactly as it sounds in your head, well at least I can’t.
So more consistent in learning my tools and fixed amount of hours, and getting the work in is the most important for this year.
Minimizing the set of tools
I don’t have a big set of gear, but nevertheless it’s too much. It’s too much to learn in a year. I have always been looking for new gear and interesting ways to use it. The problem is I tend to switch way too much between the tools. One day I make music with these 3 devices, the next day it’s a totally different set of tools.
I have to make a few decisions on what I am going to use and not change it anymore. I have been contemplating selling everything else, but that’s not how I want to gather the discipline.
Small goals
The last few years I have been working on one big project, which is cool as thinking about concepts and sketching is a very nice way to gather my thoughts and make sure I can work on music when I can’t stand sound. Which is pretty often unfortunately, but it also holds me back. Simply because of the size and scope.
I now have to define smaller projects, things I can actually finish and be in line towards the bigger goals. defining a growth path for myself with smaller, manageable milestones.
I am hoping this will make it easier to maintain the workflow, consistency and eventually leads to results.
Moving forward
I have always been doubtful on my musical skillset, the amount of deleted or abandoned projects in my folders is pretty large. I intend to work on releasing more music, whether it’s finished or not. Just to see if I can let it go and call something a demo, work in progress, or finished product and share it.
How I don’t know yet, as the landscape for releasing your creative output is constantly shifting. But this will be something to think about in the future. I am also working on a new format to talk about my music on here. Writing more about the process and progress and the tools I use and am learning how to use. I have not yet found a way to do this and keep it fun to read.
But I will, until next time.
