What Do You Want To Do With Your Music?

[john]

 

Hey

 

It's the million dollar question.

 

"What do you want to do with your music?"

 

I mean we all make music. We pour a lot of time, effort, money, emotion into making our music, but what ambition do you have for your songs once the recording and production is done? Is it a case of "put it out there", and then on to the next track?

 

I get that life happens. We get jobs, houses, families... and life teaches many of us that we don't get anywhere with music, other than the fun of doing it at the time.

 

But what if the reason music goes nowhere (relatively) because of how we do it? If this was making music you would learn new styles, buy new gear etc. yet when it comes to ambition for our music we might well complain that "you can't make money on music", that anything more ambitious than just puting it out there is just deluding ourselves and yet...

 

One definition of insanity is to keep repeating the same mistakes, no adaption or change. Like zombies walking forward off a cliff, it feels inevitable.

 

So, why not change what you do? It doesn't need to be expensive (though like anything in the world, available budget helps). In fact it's not about the adoption of any specific idea (although I think some concepts and strategies are more fundamental than others), it's about using the same mindset you use with your music (a willingness to try new things, the use of creativity and the building up of knowledge and understanding etc.) and applying that to what you do WITH your music.

 

Rather than type a book (although I have pretty well written one behind the scenes) I want to hear what you think. So on top of chewing over what I just said, perhaps you could answer these questions in your initial reply:

 

1. What do you want to do with your music, ideally?
2. Where would you like to go with it?
3. Do you think your music is "good enough"? If not, when do you think it will be? Is it always now plus 6 months etc?
4. Have your goals and ambition been cut back because earlier goas and ambition came to feel unrealistic, unachievable?

 

If you consider how well prepared you are to achieve your goals, can you rate, out of 10 where 1 is totally disagree, and 10 is absolutely agree, these statements:

 

• I know all the important things about puting out my music.
• I have a written plan.
• I have all the knowledge I need to take my music where I want it to go.
• Where I lack knowledge I know exactly what to look for and where to look.
• I know all the tools I should use to help me get there.
• Where I don't know the tools, I know what I need and where/how I can get them.
• My network of connections match my ambition for my music.
• I am prepared to try new things
• I am prepared to learn new things

 

 

Lastly, what is the BIGGEST thing blocking you from achieving your ambitions for your music?

 

I look forward to this...

 

Cheers

 

John

 

[john]

Oh go on, reply... you know you want to.

[lemonstar]

I may well have said it before on here but I don't place a particularly high value on making a decent quality multi-track recording - I know it may sound subtle but the 2 most important things for me have been 1) learning how to enjoy the process of being creative (music is only 1 of several things I like to do) - part of that definitely is to be satisfied with what I produce but I accept "I am where I am" and not everything (by a long stretch) is as good as I would like it - it's really easy to see flaws in your own (and others) work but rarely so simple to know how to resolve them. 2) performing live - if I couldn't sing and perform my songs live then I'd think "what is the point?" I've had some terrible experiences performing but - you know what - the small number of great occasions I've had more than make up for all of the times I'd prefer to forget.

 

I'm on a journey to improve my song writing and I look forward to playing my songs either on my own, with another musician or in a band context. Sure - I could make more effort (and perhaps I might actually enjoy the process (I haven't in the past) and the end product) to record and arrange my songs - I may do - I'm leaning in that direction more than I have done but in terms of priority it rank pretty low on the scale of what's important to me. It probably reflects in any feedback/reviews/criticism I give here - I'm unimpressed by the quality of recordings and arrangements - I'm only really interested in the underlying song first and the performance second.

[john]

37 minutes ago, lemonstar said:

I may well have said it before on here but I don't place a particularly high value on making a decent quality multi-track recording - I know it may sound subtle but the 2 most important things for me have been 1) learning how to enjoy the process of being creative (music is only 1 of several things I like to do) - part of that definitely is to be satisfied with what I produce but I accept "I am where I am" and not everything (by a long stretch) is as good as I would like it - it's really easy to see flaws in your own (and others) work but rarely so simple to know how to resolve them. 2) performing live - if I couldn't sing and perform my songs live then I'd think "what is the point?" I've had some terrible experiences performing but - you know what - the small number of great occasions I've had more than make up for all of the times I'd prefer to forget.

 

I'm on a journey to improve my song writing and I look forward to playing my songs either on my own, with another musician or in a band context. Sure - I could make more effort (and perhaps I might actually enjoy the process (I haven't in the past) and the end product) to record and arrange my songs - I may do - I'm leaning in that direction more than I have done but in terms of priority it rank pretty low on the scale of what's important to me. It probably reflects in any feedback/reviews/criticism I give here - I'm unimpressed by the quality of recordings and arrangements - I'm only really interested in the underlying song first and the performance second.

 

Interesting, and not the only person who prioritises that way.

 

So assuming that you didn't get round to producing polished versions of your songs, at least in terms of the recording and production, what would you do with your songs? I mean, if you feel your recordings are passable and not detracting from the song itself... what would you do with them? Not all released material needs to be a paragon of recording and production. Is your aim a busy Soundcloud channel? Full gigs? Radio play etc. What you describes certainly covers your perspective of what is important musically, but you don't really touch on ambition, or lack of ambition for your tracks. there is no right or wrong, just what our aims are, what makes us happy.

[lemonstar]

It's as simple as it's been for a decade now I guess - 1) keep writing, 2) keep enjoy the process (I bang on about this - I learned this from reading books on creative writing and definitely - it rules over the way I work - I have a few friends that - talented as they are - they are generally frustrated, unhappy and disappointed with the rate at which they work and with the difficulties of actually doing a creative thing 3 )keep trying to improve - something along the lines of what McCartney said - "the Beatles wrote a 100 songs before they wrote a good one" - I don't think that's an accurate number TBH but I take his point.

 

I've no interest in sticking everything on youtube or soundcloud - I have some things up but can't see the point - my recordings are all over the place - not in any one place - on old hard discs, etc - the important things are the words and chords written down and the rough demos. If there is one thing that's forcing me to think about recording them - it's the feeling that my voice will deteriorate with age and while I can still sing everything I wrote I don't think that will always be the case. My friend who has made many good recordings over the last decade would re-record them all if he had the time and the motivation to go through it all again. I think there is some benefit from living with your songs and playing them over an extended period of time - I still feel free to change things in old songs - the melodies settle down - you get to know them better in a musical sense.

 

My ambitions aren't really for the songs then i suppose - they are for me, to improve and work with others on the writing and performing.

[Zul Zydee]

I think all of these need deep interest. For success there are many things that need to be taken into account and the most important thing is how to market the song of our creation. Everyone can create great songs but how to market widely?

 

There are many free and paid methods but we still fail. The most important factor after song completion is Marketing. This is the main cause that will make us happy and sad. Do we invest in the right people / companies? A good song or a normal level is just our satisfaction but it all comes down to how we market our products?

 

It's my main weakness and still trying to find someone who can be my mentor in digital marketing? Many in FB offer streaming spotify, deezer etc. But are they really helping to get royalties / sales? If Yes please guide me who is the right person?

 

With today's technology, I think there is no problem creating a song that "On Par" sounds like a famous artist but how to share it with the world. So many Studio or Home Studio can make it come true but back to Marketing, I always failed ...

 

ZULZ

 

 

 

[James Anderson]

ive spent the last  42 years composing  music writing  lyrics          ive never had to learn scales     chords in certain  keys   i am a left handed person got a chord directory in my head  better than any in books  example in my chord directors  take a  C  CHORD    the three inversions of the chord   i recognize as sepperate  chords    i need to work with other musicians  to  help reach my full potential  why dont you john  record and play and  get some one to sing one of my songs  and we will put it on the collab  page  the song is  called  jimi   hendrix  is not  my name 

james☺️