On a Scale of 10, Rate the Internal Reward of Your Music

[marino]

About productivity, I'm not writing much these days, maybe for the first time in my life. Fact is, I have 10-12 albums ready to be recorded, and probably, the majority of them will never see the light. So it feels a bit silly to write more music.

 

And after a few years, I realized I didn't finish anything.

 

I got determined. Some self talk:

 

nobody notices if you just show up to a race

its about how you finish

 

Finishing separates the men from the boys

 

Either you are serious about showing off your work or you

just want to noodle around, its up to you

 

Kick your ass into focusing and finishing the song or track

 

To clarify, those 10 or so projects are *finished*: All the songs and arrangements, the song list, the general musical direction, etc. I'm saying that they will never come to fruition, just because records aren't being made anymore - or better said, nobody offers me a decent deal like it happened (sometimes) in the past. I could pay to record and publish them (like I did in part with my latest work), but I simply can't afford to do that.

[EscapeRocks]

My internal reward is "this one goes to 11"

 

Music is my therapy, and my joy. Anytime and anywhere I get to play music is always a 10.

 

Pretty much this as well. For me one of the few highlights of 2020 will be finishing a full album. It may never happen again - until the next pandemic

 

 

My highlights for 2020 music related: with just 3 band gigs since January, I have had the time to really involve myself in learning how to program my keys/synths. I have been a voracious reader and viwerof the Yamaha Synth educational series about deep diving the MODX/Montage, and FM Synthesis programming basics.

 

The huge amount of time off between and shows we may have has given me the ability to completely deconstruct my live rig, and get into the fine details I've always wanted without having to worry about "I have a gig tomorrow must reinstall everything now" syndrome.

[Song80s]

Abou

 

To clarify, those 10 or so projects are *finished*: All the songs and arrangements, the song list, the general musical direction, etc. I'm saying that they will never come to fruition, just because records aren't being made anymore - or better said, nobody offers me a decent deal like it happened (sometimes) in the past. I could pay to record and publish them (like I did in part with my latest work), but I simply can't afford to do that.

 

 

In this digital music era, a musician can 'finish ' his originals , etc etc etc by publishing/uploading on SoundCloud etc.

 

Or you can publish your finished 12 track record on Apple Music, all the similar sites.

 

Both or either is inexpensive.

 

I don't get discouraged by obstacles - I don't expect a label to suddenly throw money at me.

 

I understand what it takes for that to happen.

 

That business process does not depress or impede or stop me from continuing to create, record tracks and publish.

 

I accept the challenge.

[Song80s]

SoundCloud Stats Last 12 months:

 

130,210 Plays

2,021 Likes

1,733 Reposts

1,753. Comments

 

I made comments about building a listener base on SoundCloud

for my original songs.

 

I have composed/uploaded 80 songs

on my SoundCloud and the above #'s show listener interest.

 

I pay extra , per year , to have listener statistical reporting.

 

I can view daily stats, weekly, monthly and last 12 months.

 

I also find out what countries, territories, cities of my listeners.

 

Not bragging or anything, I thought a brief picture would add

more context why I find my music production rewarding.

[Song80s]

And you have a dependency:

"off the scale of 10, depending on the music and the players I'm playing with. If they're really good and the music takes off into that transcendent place, there is no higher high. The rating goes to 11."

 

I control my music production destiny. Every day. No if's. Its on me. I am not dependent on other musicians to jam with.

Preface: I'm only teasing. I think of these threads as sitting in the pub, hoisting a beverage, and blathering away.

 

But you have a dependency too. In the studio you are dependent on quality and expensive gear, software, and on other musicians if you don't do all the playing yourself. If you do all the playing yourself, you are limited by your abilities on all instruments. If you can't play horns and instead use synthetic horns to play a part, your music production suffers. Spoken as a sax player.

 

well, yeah, this is over beers and good bottle of wine discussion.

 

I would much prefer that. It can happen, heck, I am only 90 miles from Pacifica

 

Don't be so sure I can't handle horns and sax and flute and drums and guitars and strings and violin on my original material.

Of course I use sampled instruments.

 

I don't kill it,,, but I can handle the basics.

 

My listeners have no problem with my multiple instrument tracks.

I have listeners visit, and they enjoy the instrument realism.

 

Limited. ? suffer ? Hah. But you can hold onto your approach.

 

some sax here:

 

 

 

horn section work on my " Age of Narcissism :

 

https://soundcloud.com/user-898236994/age-of-narcissismwav

 

can anybody guess the theme of my song ?

[Music Bird]

For me it"s a 9.5 to a 10 out of 10,

If talking about skills on weighted keys stuff, probably 5 out of 10 since I prefer not to use piano in that way.