An Indie Musician's Diary VOL. 1

Dec 19: Vision for 2018

This is almost the last page of this book for this year.  

Merry Christmas!

2017: I do an assessment every year, at the end of each year, in order to reflect over what went right and project into the coming year so I can get better at making music for the masses. Really I am not making music for the mainstream masses. All I want to do is change one mind at a time for the better through my music and books. 

As 2017 comes to a close, I have to say that I am amazed at what was accomplished this year and, also, a bit frustrated about the fact that the album still isn't done (although I understand why). I have learned tons if stuff this year but I could have done better, could have worked harder and could have prioritised more effectively...but isn't that true for all of us? Most of what I learn well is based on the mistakes I make (trial and error). 

There is no sense in crying over spilled milk. I choose to take what worked well last year and increase that next year as well as add piano (finally!) That way I can minimise what didn't work. 

Pareto's rule. There's an unwritten rule that 20% of the work creates 80% of the outcome and I see that popping up as I analyse 2017. (The video above shows how the rule affects music making - from Graham Cochrane). 

Here's the link https://youtu.be/oEFMs4DsauY

My 20% that gave me 80% of my positive results was the time I spent learning by watching professionals do mixing, taking notes and then applying it to my tracks. I have grown tremendously in that area and that is what is going to enable me to release songs faster in the future.

I think we all have an inherent fear of making mistakes and of not being accepted. This plays a role in me not releasing the music because I hold it back in order to tweak it indefinitely out of fear that it is not good enough.  At some point or another, I am going to have to release it without it being perfect. I haven't met a musician yet that is satisfied with their first album to 100%. You are always learning as a musician, always growing and that makes you look back at the first stuff you've recorded and shake your head in dismay. 

I guess I am starting to see that I need to think like this

1. Set time limits

2. Make a plan before I start mixing

3. Stick to the plan

4. Hold the time limit

5. Publish

6. Never look back.

7. Do the next song

8. Repeat

Setting realistic time limits when you don't know what you are doing or how long it will take is really difficult. I think that is getting clearer by the day for me. 

The positives in 2017

Mixing/mastering I've gotten much better at mixing and am starting to be good at understanding mastering while listening to proffs and going the prosoundformula.com course in mastering. 

A year ago, I was just starting to go through my newly purchased ProSoundformula.com courses and taking notes on mixing. I went through all the free courses and did all the mixing, EQ and Compression courses and now I'm doing it. Yay! I know what compression, EQ and many other plugins are and do now and I am getting better all the time as I proceed!

Editing: During 2017 I became good at comping, editing, quantisation, Logic Pro X, and am much faster in general. There is no comparison to how it was a year ago. Hard work and studying pay off.