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WARNING WALL OF TEXT
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Well I used to have really high thoughts about my music and slowly this has dribbled down the drain.
A bit of tangent but the side of my life concerning music has been eaten away so thought I'd share some knowledge for a mildly interesting read!
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Here's a silly tale about my journey through making music - there is some underlining points which are important though.
First 1-2 years : You get into making music, you try some ideas, you are hungry! The music is still intoxicating to you, its fresh, exciting and with that comes all these ideas and fictitious plans you want to make a reality. You get excited by everything you get sounding 'alright' and every track is a success (in terms of learning). You do get discouraged a lot though. Why doesn't my music sound like
THOSE guys? You imitate, admire, develop. After this time you will know if you actually want to do this as your full time hobby.
You probably invest half a pay cheque or two into some gear. OH look, I have a bedroom studio! *posts instragram/facebook photo* and the crowd goes wild! Bitchez love you.
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Years 3-5 : You've found your feet and you pretty much know your DAW inside out, hell you might even be developing 'your sound'. Your social life has suffered now. Its Friday, you get that call "Hey superstarproducer - fancy a couple of pints?", "Sorry man, I feel a bit blergh, catch you tomorrow or something?"! Thats it you're sucked in, you load up your DAW, make a hot non-alcoholic beverage sit down and make some bangers!. You know your way around a DAW and enough basic theory well enough to get a project going to a stage where it isn't a failure in 30 minutes - an hour. You spend less time learning and more time creating these days and it shows! "Jeez, my shitbooks HD is full, oh 400 projects in the last 12 months?"
This is your first major milestone, probably where you get your first release too. Lets be honest its on some shitty digital label what won't pay you mainly because it probably didn't sell and you'll get a bit discouraged but that is directly projected back into your music " I will get good enough for -good- labels to take notice". With that first release though comes fans, fans are good, they boost your confidence! "Hey look I get at least 5 emails from soundcloud a day! Someone followed me, I have a few likes and a few comments! WHATS THIS? 200 plays this week? OHMAGERD."
You still progressing. Technically, you start learning more theory and start becoming the person in your group of friends who start seeing you as 'going places'. They understand when you say you're making beats this weekend - I mean damn! You have a release bro, soon enough you'll be taking us out in a limo to the VIP!
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Years 6-8 : OH MUSIC FUCK YOU!
You know how to project what's in your head onto your DAW but WHY ISN'T ANY OF IT ANY GOOD.
You don't even save project files any more unless they're release worthy in an hours sessions. You look in the mirror and think "should I shave?" as you run a cold shower to just let the water beat down on you - hey you might as well let nature kick your arse physically as you have just mentally beat yourself up.
Ah - the first proper creative block! It isn't the "i'm familiar with everything, I spend all my time doing this, i'm a bit burned out" creative block.. Its "I NEED TO REINVENT THE WHEEL BUT HOW!" creative block.
You take a break and play through some old tracks for nostalgia, then your whole collection and realise you have make one or two REALLY strong tracks a month for the last couple of years then you have a brain wave Its not that you're bad at making music.. You just have honed your craft to a level where you take your time, details are important. Things are IMMENSE; whats this, more than one melody, 64 bar breakdowns what are not boring? OH DEAR GOD WHERE DID THAT GROOVE COME FROM? Ah, alas you realise you've finally come from hobbyist to a some-what musician!
Sure, you ain't getting booked as a session musician any time soon but DAMN I can play a mean D minor scale off the top of the dome!
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Year 9 : Captains log, August 14th, 2013.
I have successfully done every goal I set out to do.
I make music better than my friends now - despite how I got into all this was that we d/l'd FLstudios' demo one night and saw who could make the best track by the next night - mine was TERRIBLE, the worse, its actually worse than cars crashing into kittens. I got the last laugh!
I put out some GREAT EPs which show my progression through Dubstep as a audiobiography. I also released an album, well more of a compilation of tracks what I liked. I got a few nominations for the best album of the year - A lot of praise and the title tracks' lyrics have been used in various tumblr posts as 'inspiration!' (SCORE!)
I helped people as I learned through the DSF community and met some GREAT people at nights.
Basically, what I am trying to say is that you learn over time - those big guys are mostly what we consider "Veterans" people who've made music for 5+ years! They also generally have VERY good contacts who will show them IN PERSON how to improve, what a lot of us don't have. They have the time and money to do music full time-ish (most of the up and comers are well off or students, from what ive seen! not all, obviously!) too.
Don't strive to be the next "BLAHDEBLAH" just enjoy your journey!
Oh and to answer the threads question : I think my music is AMAZING to me because it shows this journey of my life for the last 9 years. I started making music when I was 14! I'm approaching my 24th birthday at the start of the next year. Shit, i'm closer to a 1/4 of a decade than not but I have this collection of memories. Memories of music I wrote passionately, put love into and shared with people. I shared MY music to various club nights and saw people dancing! I played GetDarker and people in the comments asked what track was at xx:xx and it was mine!! Its things like this I am happier about my music life.
Such, my mix downs could be tighter. I still can't create that pad on Goldie - Timeless/inner city life. Why can't I cut up Kool N The Gang - NT that well either? God knows! (I am still trying after all these years if you still lerk on here Macc!)
My advice to anyone who really is invested in creating music and getting better is to take yourself away from being a 'fan'. It ruined my love for it, first it started as "Well, I will just music I want to hear" to "FFS WHY ARE YOU LISTENING TO THAT INSTEAD OF THIS" in my head to literally calling people out due to frustration which made me lose friends, labels and ultimately any clout I built for being that guy who sure, wasn't a big name but most people who knew who I was thought "well - hes a really nice bloke". Now its like, I don't go out due to fist fights haha!
Sure, this isn't going to be everyones' story but I felt like venting and sharing.
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You WILL learn how to mix just by going "ahh, that don't sound right" and trial and error.
You WILL get better at patching synths - for the same as above.
You WILL get better samples and such over time due to investing money due to your passion.
Don't worry, it'll be okay.
years 3-5 reporting in
years 3-5 reporting in
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