I didn't set the bar too high but so far in 2018 I've produced 34 pieces of varying complexity, length and quality.
I have added more to them, with drum/rhythm tracks and other "found sounds" and on the whole I'm quite pleased with most of what I've done.
If I get 10 views on YouTube I consider it a success, though the last one has only managed 7 so maybe my 15 minutes of fame has come to an end
Recent experiments with my two Count To 5s has led to some rearranging of my set up and a lot more use of pedal controls as I record, which I'm enjoying.
Setbacks from losing more members from one band but the other one is hopefully getting stuff together and we should still be able to do some recording and maybe shows this year.
Solo recording is going pretty well so I'm happy with that.
I realised I didn't post any goals initially. I feel that I'm playing guitar better than ever, which is really cool. Happy with my pedal board and sounds. Writing quite a lot of music for Gigafauna (my IRL band), which is turning out well.
I have complete fucking writer's block when it comes to lyrics and melodies. Have an almost complete album with Gigafauna, but no vox at all. Every time I sit down to work on vox or lyrics I just hate it and end up playing the guitar. I think maybe I'm setting the bar too high - it doesn't have to be Hemmingway, it's just metal ya know. I don't want to create political music and I guess a lot of the thoughts I have are political. Gonna save them for my one-man grind project.
Goal 1. Write lyrics and melodies for Gigafauna. Goal 2. Get off my ass with internet band and do the same. And steal drum lines from Proscriptor McGovern. Goal 3. Write tunes for my grind project. It's either going to be based on Jurassic Park, or just be fucking angry politics. Mixing those two ideas, while funny, is probably not ideal.
I guess I should have a goal of improving my music production skills, especially if goal 3 will eventuate. But I'll focus on making demos and pre-production better first.
Goal 4. Book a summer 2019 tour for Gigafauna. SHit yeah, I gotta do this.
ALLisNOISE wrote:you can dial in some wonderfully smeared 12bit cascades of cicadas leveling a hail of rockets against an army of rusty box fans!
friendship wrote:Watching Netflix and drinking beer is just so much easier, and no one cares whether or not I make music, so it's been getting easier and easier to say "fuck it." But ultimately that's frustrating, because working on music gives my life purpose and meaning.
So I'm just hoping that if I bombard myself with new ideas I will eventually want to try those ideas and maybe that will get something going.
I hear you on the music/life/meaning thing. Over the summer I've managed to make sitting down with the guitar after the small raptors are asleep a habit, and now it's starting to really stick. That's contributed a lot to me enjoying the guitar. So maybe just crack open a beer, force yourself to do anything at all with the guitar for like 15 minutes and then Netflix it up. Do it every day and maybe after a couple of weeks or months things will start to fall in to place?
ALLisNOISE wrote:you can dial in some wonderfully smeared 12bit cascades of cicadas leveling a hail of rockets against an army of rusty box fans!
goroth wrote:I realised I didn't post any goals initially. I feel that I'm playing guitar better than ever, which is really cool. Happy with my pedal board and sounds. Writing quite a lot of music for Gigafauna (my IRL band), which is turning out well.
I have complete fucking writer's block when it comes to lyrics and melodies. Have an almost complete album with Gigafauna, but no vox at all. Every time I sit down to work on vox or lyrics I just hate it and end up playing the guitar. I think maybe I'm setting the bar too high - it doesn't have to be Hemmingway, it's just metal ya know. I don't want to create political music and I guess a lot of the thoughts I have are political. Gonna save them for my one-man grind project.
Goal 1. Write lyrics and melodies for Gigafauna. Goal 2. Get off my ass with internet band and do the same. And steal drum lines from Proscriptor McGovern. Goal 3. Write tunes for my grind project. It's either going to be based on Jurassic Park, or just be fucking angry politics. Mixing those two ideas, while funny, is probably not ideal.
I guess I should have a goal of improving my music production skills, especially if goal 3 will eventuate. But I'll focus on making demos and pre-production better first.
Goal 4. Book a summer 2019 tour for Gigafauna. SHit yeah, I gotta do this.
Yes goal 2.
If they are just screamed rants about the lines in the grocery store or how they were out of your favourite single origin artisanal coffee this is ok.
friendship wrote:Watching Netflix and drinking beer is just so much easier, and no one cares whether or not I make music, so it's been getting easier and easier to say "fuck it." But ultimately that's frustrating, because working on music gives my life purpose and meaning.
So I'm just hoping that if I bombard myself with new ideas I will eventually want to try those ideas and maybe that will get something going.
I hear you on the music/life/meaning thing. Over the summer I've managed to make sitting down with the guitar after the small raptors are asleep a habit, and now it's starting to really stick. That's contributed a lot to me enjoying the guitar. So maybe just crack open a beer, force yourself to do anything at all with the guitar for like 15 minutes and then Netflix it up. Do it every day and maybe after a couple of weeks or months things will start to fall in to place?
Definitely, I tend to do this at least half of the days of the week. It's not very focused practice, so I might need to find some specific exercises/lessons to work on, which will at least give those 15 minute daily sessions more purpose. I think I also need to be more patient with myself; I put out three records in 2017 and this maaaay have overextended myself.
Personally I am all for mixing Jurassic Park with your political thought. Is there a way you can use dinosaurs terrorizing humanity as a political allegory? For inspiration, see also: Dino-Riders.
Goals for the next year? Move forward with recording my bands 2nd album, attempt to create some interesting videos, write more weird oldtimy music and figure out how to record it and stuff.
friendship wrote:Pursuant to this topic, do we have a thread about getting better at guitar/instruction/learning shit? I need to learn new shit.
There was one a few years ago.. Do a new one... I have however nothing to add to that, I have had 3 official lessons in my life... However both my parents have been professional musicians and all there friends so I grew in in a constant music lesson
goroth wrote:force yourself to do anything at all with the guitar for like 15 minutes
This is good advice. I find that if I adhere to a light, non-onerous schedule, eventually picking up the guitar starts to become a second-nature habit/reflex again.
I also find that I need to limit the physical layers between me and the guitar. Even unzipping a gig bag is sometimes enough to make me question how much I really want to play. So unlatching a hard case can feel like trying to break your old high school principal out of the county jail (do I really want to bother? what's the point?). So leaving a guitar out, or having a guitar stand or one of those wall hanging things helps.
As for my 2018 music goals, I've made a bit of progress making some visuals. And my annual hope/idea is to set up some screening/performances where I show some of my abstract animations and improvise live music for the soundtrack. I've looked into a few things. But nothing has crystallized into palpable specifics so far. I've got a relatively good amount of visual material to project... now I just need to set up venues/occasions and make it happen somehow.
I edited in some overlapping layers of the visuals from one of my animations into this clip.
It's been years since I've written anything, but I think I'm getting to a place in life where I can do it again. Got a nice simplified setup - one guitar, minilogue, maschine mikro, and a focused pedalboard set up for direct-in stereo recording. We're looking to move into a small home in the next ~4 months, once we get settled there I should be good to go. Gonna make something.
Seance wrote:I also find that I need to limit the physical layers between me and the guitar. Even unzipping a gig bag is sometimes enough to make me question how much I really want to play. So unlatching a hard case can feel like trying to break your old high school principal out of the county jail (do I really want to bother? what's the point?). So leaving a guitar out, or having a guitar stand or one of those wall hanging things helps.
This is huge for me. Having guitars out all the time, and even better having a simple recording setup always plugged in and 2 metres away from the guitars means I play and record a lot more. Reducing barriers to playing is the best thing I've done for my productivity.
Seance wrote:I also find that I need to limit the physical layers between me and the guitar. Even unzipping a gig bag is sometimes enough to make me question how much I really want to play. So unlatching a hard case can feel like trying to break your old high school principal out of the county jail (do I really want to bother? what's the point?). So leaving a guitar out, or having a guitar stand or one of those wall hanging things helps.
This is huge for me. Having guitars out all the time, and even better having a simple recording setup always plugged in and 2 metres away from the guitars means I play and record a lot more. Reducing barriers to playing is the best thing I've done for my productivity.
If I had space to have my recording setup accessible and plug-and-play ready, I would. Great idea.
After some initial floundering, I've been brushing up on music theory and have been getting back to basics for guitar playing. I'm learning a lot and new concepts (to me) are finally coming together for me. I haven't applied anything to new writing, but I'm coming to trust that that will come in time.
I've also been planning a more coherent home recording setup so I can set down ideas quickly. I think I may have it put together before the end of the year!
Variable quality as always, but there are enough there that I'm genuinely pleased with to make me feel that 2018 has been a good year for me.
I've reached a point with the pedals where I could downsize without sacrificing variety, and I may well start 2019 with fewer pedals than I have now, but I'm still having lots of fun so onwards to 100!
but so far in 2018 I've produced 34 pieces of varying complexity, length and quality. 
