Category Archives: accountability - Page 2

Slow Going

Posted by on September 2, 2011 No comments

I’ve written about a dozen songs over the past month. I’m working hard to get lyrics written for enough of them so that I can send them out for singing. I don’t sing. There are people who should and people who shouldn’t. Me? Squarely in the latter category. It used to bother me but I let it go to focus on the areas where I really want to excel. The point is that I am extremely fortunate in that I know at least two really great singers who don’t mind working with me (most of the time).

Right now it’s all about arranging; the nuts and bolts of songwriting. I’m trying to become a better student of song structure and as a result, I’m listening to a lot of stuff that I don’t necessarily like, but have come to respect for technical reasons. There are plenty of books that I’ve read because they are “important” but I’ve skipped out on the musical analog because, well, music is different. If I don’t absolutely love it, it’s hard for me to force myself to sit through it. I realize that makes me a poor student and perhaps someday I’ll be better about it. Let’s not have anyone hold any breath over the matter.

In any case, I’m listening to things that friends have recommended over the years that I either acquired and didn’t take to right away or that I’ve put off getting my head around. The upside to this is that I now have lots to do on my two hours of commute time every day. The downside is that shuffle on my iPod has become even more disastrous than it was (if that is even possible).

Lots of listening. Lots of writing. Lots of recording. Still nothing to show for it. It’s strange to be doing so much and sharing so little. Time for an exercise.

Adventures

Posted by on August 9, 2011 No comments

I have three projects in the works right now and nothing to show for them at the moment. Rest assured that I am doing a lot more than just thinking about The Work. It’s times like this that I’m glad to know really talented and busy people like my buddy Jeff. He has just taken on a really cool project with his photography and he wants us to come along for the ride. Follow his blog Highway 30. You won’t regret it!

He Gets It

Posted by on July 15, 2011 No comments

My good buddy El Jeffe sent me this really great link.. Simply put, David duChemin really gets that you have to do The Work. That’s it. That’s the secret. And all of the thinking around success and failure and enough time or enough resources falls apart if you don’t do The Work.

Inspirational stuff. Check out the dude’s site.

Summer

Posted by on June 28, 2011 No comments

It’s summer in Texas. That means temperatures in the triple digits. Pain and suffering for those of raised at a moe comfortable latitude. Getting into the studio isn’t easy. Add to the baby and life in general the exhaustion that comes from the day to day moving in this heat and there isn’t much energy left for anything.

That said, I have been stealing time. I looked in my week for more time to devote to my projects – those things that make me who I am. The weekends are full, but not the early mornings. So I’m getting up before the sun to sneak in an extra hour or even 90 minutes before my son comes asking for pancakes. It has been pretty great.

HOT!

In the early morning my house is still. I can play around with instruments or work on my written projects. It’s the time equivalent if finding s twenty in a jacket you haven’t worn in a long time. I’ve made some progress on something that I meant to start a long time ago and even stuck a few new bits and pieces into my manifesto project. All told, it’s a win. Can’t recommend it enough. In fact, getting up early on the weekends might surpass my beloved iPad by the end of the year in terms of improving production in my creative work.

Maybe.

I have been on a writing tear, so I have lots of raw material and nothing to share. That sucks because I would like to post something every other week, but I can’t commit to that. Hopefully the last two tunes I posted count for something. As the summer wears on I will have more. Probably more of my weird sound art. You know, the stuff people for the most part don’t enjoy.

This is a long way of saying I have nothing to share but I did post to the blog this week.

Dreaming Big, Living Small

Posted by on June 20, 2011 No comments

I’m still hacking away on my manifesto. The more I dig in, the more there is to say. Here’s a little more from my working copy. The more I post of it, the more likely I am to finish it.

…

The image that sprung to mind when I first started thinking about what it means to try and live parallel lives was of running a marathon while dragging a grand piano. It stuck with me and for whatever reason has become iconic for me. After all, who would do that? No one. Maybe. But even as we start off on the race with our many-toothed beast in tow, our idea of success clings to us and is just as unreasonable as the race we’ve undertaken. Our dreams are stubborn and do not readily accept change.

When we are starting on the path in whatever endeavor found us, it is hard to imagine what real success looks like. There are too many bloated and false ideas of what it means to do something great. We imagine crowded galleries, large checks, and much ink spilled over our greatness. And then, if we are lucky, we have our first real success and see what it really means.

The first time I nailed the difficult arpeggios in Villa-Lobos’ Etude No. 11 I was in a practice room all alone. I played it perfectly twice. Once in that practice room and once in my quarterly jury. A seed was planted there. An idea started to form. A definition of success was trying to make its way into my consciousness.

I’ve known painters who, upon the completion of a canvass, will step back and revel in the beauty of what they have done only to be seized with the sudden urge to hide it forever. That moment of perfection is so personal. The thought of miscommunication or criticism was just too much. That doesn’t mean that the work wasn’t shared, it means that what drove them to create was very private. Success is private.

This is the age of The Almighty Internet and as such we are hounded by the idea that everyone should see what we do. What if we turn that on its side and say that we have the ability to reach people who might care. That’s a very worthy goal. We should try to reach everyone who cares, but no more. Trying to make someone who doesn’t necessarily want or need our work take it is the evil side of sales. If we have relieved our work of the burden of keeping us fed then why add the pressure of being loved by everyone?

My dream is still to have 200 people who are interested in my work and follow it but my ultimate goal is to write something that someone would call their favorite. Just one person. One connection. That seems like a low bar until we try to clear it.