Hello readers!
If you’ve been following my previous articles, you may have wondered why the vague reference to music. You may also have thought that this person simply likes listening to music. Although not entirely false, it does not accurately represent the truth.
For way too many years now I’ve been a very rocky journey into music production. I won’t go into full details right now, but the short version is summarized on my about me page. Coupled with that story, there have been many ‘demotivating’ factors which include, but may not be limited to the following:
- Guardian advise (mainly my dad)
In this case, I’ll give Jack his jacket. The guy is a good keyboard player, and on some few occasions, played for the church. He started off playing the guitar before moving to the keyboard. Two of his brothers (my uncles) play the keyboard as well. My cousins…okay I’m just realizing how lengthy this is getting. A large part of the family is somewhat skilled when it comes to music.
From him, I constantly have to hear how similar his venture was, spending countless hours with his guitar and then the keyboard and got no tangible value from it later in life. That time spent in music could have been put elsewhere and could have been more successful in a day job. His concern is that I may end up the same way.
As much as I understand and appreciate the concern, the fundamental factor in this is that, his lack of success doesn’t necessarily need to be mine. But in acceptance of the advice, I’ve stretched myself thin, unable to commit to one thing. As much as I want to grow musically, I don’t want to commit to it fully to arrive at a dead end, and at the same time, not wanting to have to focus so much on a degree that I neglect my music. I want to do both, just in case the music fails.
There is this one story I tell to those closest to me, and although it’s already internally forgiven with no hard feelings residing, I’ll mention anyway. When I told him that I was doing an online certification in music, the first words he said were “was that the right decision”…or something along those lines. Basically, there was no question about my future and intention before presenting his doubt. I played this scenario over and over in my head, and I would have wished for a more positive outlook. But it is what it is.
- Friends (they can be destructive supporters)
Since the release of my previous instrumental album, I’ve stopped relying on the opinions of friends. Sad but true. Friends will always try to support you, but at the same time, blind support can hurt. They’re always giving you this “I like it”, “it is good” or “you did that!” type of comments. Yes these are really motivating to hear, but sometimes we need the truth in order to grow. If what you’re hearing isn’t pleasing, express that with reason, and for the lack of reason, say you’re unsure why that is. I know you’re not knowledgeable about a compressor or reverb, so am not looking for a technical review. Does what you’re listening to sound good? Is it something you’d listen to? If not, do you know what’s missing? It’s also fine if you’re unsure what’s missing. So, be honest.
In light of this, I try instead to get views of people I don’t know, or people who don’t know me and care less about hurting feelings. They dish out the truth with no remorse. With my producer page, I invited most of my friends to like the page, got it up to an acceptable amount of likes and the engagement was far lower than its potential. My new page I intend to have an all organic engagement to see whether there’s a difference. It has not been up long, but there has been none as yet.
So why am I here?
I have a talent I wish to expand on. The end result is unclear at the moment, but I wish to get to a place here I can shake hands with the person handing me a Grammy for mix engineer of the year! Just dreaming big, but you get the idea. I would like to be recognized and known for my talent eventually.
I started with WordPress as a way to get clouding thoughts out of my head before spear heading into full blown music related topics. After my first entry, I went to select a theme and stumbled on static pages, a feature I was not aware of at all. I played around with it and realized it could appear to be a website or a blog. Digging deeper I found that you could have the best of both. With the content I had scattered around the internet, I consolidated here and turned into a website. Going deeper into the options, I noticed you could purchase a domain for the WordPress site and I was stunned, instability taken back in fact, because for a TINY fraction of the cost of web hosting and domain registration, you can have your own website and domain. I made my purchase. I’m now the proud owner of www.honeypeadigital.com. I always believe one link is easier to share than one for Facebook, YouTube, twitter, SoundCloud etc each.
I intend to go deeper into music related topics, both technical and not. This could range from the behind the scenes of songs to how a song makes one feel. I would also like to connect with likeminded people in the field as well; other producers, engineers, artists and of course fans!
My current goal is to extend my skill in mixing, mastering and production (in order of preference) to the public in order to fund the growth I so desire, to bring forth a new, or different, content and perspective in music.
JasonM
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this article. Why not leave a comment.
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