Exploring creativity, getting clarity
Today I have , after months of procrastination, composed my first looping track. It has been a while in the making. After berating myself for a few days about the fact that despite having bought the very expensive equipment equivalent to 1 month's rent a few weeks ago I hadnt really used it properly since the first few enthusiastic and exhausting days of setting up , and so I finally set down to work.
This was precipitated mainly by two factors: 1) my drumkit teacher telling me I was making very good progress and me feeling elated as a consequence of having my own judgement in this matter confirmed 2) reading a book called " The artist's way" which told me to get over the fear / the block of the critical self and just do it. I therefore planned to get stoned first (just a little) and have a little drop of limoncello too, and then get on with it. Of course this was after spending a couple hours technically setting up the system to handle a highly creative though technically not too prone mind to be.
Well, needless to say, I realized early on that the process wouldnt be completely easy. Actually recording a drum loop in real time is not as straightforward as it sounds. You basically have to have perfect coordination and just get it right first time. So in essence you have to be a pretty good player of all the instruments you intend to have included in the track: in my case the drum kit, the bass, the keyboard, the guitar and the voice. Despite many fruitless and frustrating attempts I decided not to loose patience and instead take the difficulty as a challenge that would push me to be a better performer in general.
It took at least an hour to get the drumbeat down. Then I had quite a lot of problems getting the sound right so that all instruments would be recorded in an intelligible way and I would be able to expand on it later. Better to have something to work on that is not at an excellent level than to wait till you reach that point and in the meantime forget what the hooks melodies and rhythms you had come up with. The result was me getting very hungry after a couple hours practice and going down to the kitchen and victim to the munchies eating more of that delicious yogurth wih chocolate chips that was left in the fridge from last night.
Now I am pretty tired though it s only 22:13 but at least I have the sketch of something audible down. To prove the therapeutic effect of art while doing all this I also found myself thinking about the prospect of going to uni next year to study modern composition. While I was at first quite interested in asking the course teachers about the exact curriculum and activities I would be doing as soon as i found out that in order to even hope to be asked for an interview I need to have passed grade 5 music in 3 month's time I felt deflated. In fact although I do know music (albeit who knows ip to what grade : 2 ? ) I really dont know if I could get to that level in such a short time. In any case I decided I should ask for more information before giving up or deciding it isnt for me.
So, to summarize the important things that I ve learnt tonight are :
1) I should not make important decisions based on fear (in this case of not being good enough )
2) I do want to learn to write down my compositions so that better players than me could play them and I could sing if need be and play the instruments I can up to standard.
3) Alternatively I have to become reasonably good at drumming, playing guitar and recording.
I am not too bad now but certainly I am not yet at the level of being able to do an electronic live shows on my own... in time however... who knows ? So anyway, I thought I d make sure this moment is recorded for me to remember that quite apart from anything else the joy of making music comes from playing and having fun and what I discover while I am busy doing that might just help me understand myself and my life better and get some clarity to make the right decisions for myself.
This was precipitated mainly by two factors: 1) my drumkit teacher telling me I was making very good progress and me feeling elated as a consequence of having my own judgement in this matter confirmed 2) reading a book called " The artist's way" which told me to get over the fear / the block of the critical self and just do it. I therefore planned to get stoned first (just a little) and have a little drop of limoncello too, and then get on with it. Of course this was after spending a couple hours technically setting up the system to handle a highly creative though technically not too prone mind to be.
Well, needless to say, I realized early on that the process wouldnt be completely easy. Actually recording a drum loop in real time is not as straightforward as it sounds. You basically have to have perfect coordination and just get it right first time. So in essence you have to be a pretty good player of all the instruments you intend to have included in the track: in my case the drum kit, the bass, the keyboard, the guitar and the voice. Despite many fruitless and frustrating attempts I decided not to loose patience and instead take the difficulty as a challenge that would push me to be a better performer in general.
It took at least an hour to get the drumbeat down. Then I had quite a lot of problems getting the sound right so that all instruments would be recorded in an intelligible way and I would be able to expand on it later. Better to have something to work on that is not at an excellent level than to wait till you reach that point and in the meantime forget what the hooks melodies and rhythms you had come up with. The result was me getting very hungry after a couple hours practice and going down to the kitchen and victim to the munchies eating more of that delicious yogurth wih chocolate chips that was left in the fridge from last night.
Now I am pretty tired though it s only 22:13 but at least I have the sketch of something audible down. To prove the therapeutic effect of art while doing all this I also found myself thinking about the prospect of going to uni next year to study modern composition. While I was at first quite interested in asking the course teachers about the exact curriculum and activities I would be doing as soon as i found out that in order to even hope to be asked for an interview I need to have passed grade 5 music in 3 month's time I felt deflated. In fact although I do know music (albeit who knows ip to what grade : 2 ? ) I really dont know if I could get to that level in such a short time. In any case I decided I should ask for more information before giving up or deciding it isnt for me.
So, to summarize the important things that I ve learnt tonight are :
1) I should not make important decisions based on fear (in this case of not being good enough )
2) I do want to learn to write down my compositions so that better players than me could play them and I could sing if need be and play the instruments I can up to standard.
3) Alternatively I have to become reasonably good at drumming, playing guitar and recording.
I am not too bad now but certainly I am not yet at the level of being able to do an electronic live shows on my own... in time however... who knows ? So anyway, I thought I d make sure this moment is recorded for me to remember that quite apart from anything else the joy of making music comes from playing and having fun and what I discover while I am busy doing that might just help me understand myself and my life better and get some clarity to make the right decisions for myself.
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