Learning about the arts is worthwhile in it’s own right. Understanding the culture around you and how it has been influenced by events in the past is useful by itself.
It doesn’t need a qualifier.
The same applies for music.
Learning about music is worthwhile in it’s own right.
ISJ
…
Learning music to me is a lot like experimenting.
You won’t be good when you start. You won’t know what notes to play or how to play something comfortably and relaxed. You won’t know what sounds you like.
You have to experiment.
You have to try something and learn that you don’t like it to be able to figure out what you do like.
I told some of my jazz ensemble students last weekend, “in order to play a good solo you have to play a bunch of bad ones.”
That got a laugh from them, but it’s true. In order to learn you have to try, and part of trying is failing.
Experiment. No matter the results it’ll be useful.
ISJ
…
Improvising a solo can be intimidating. But there are a few things that you can do to make it easier. One thing is to use guide tones.
Guide tones are the notes that control the chord quality of a chord. They’re the 3rd and 7th of a chord.
Let’s take a look at a few 7th chords.
CMaj7
C E G B
1 3 5 7
C7
C E G Bb
1 3 5 b7
Cmin7
C Eb G Bb
1 b3 5 b7
With these three chords the chord tones that change the chord quality are the 3rd and the 7th.
One way to start improvising is to use guide tones to create a solo. Figure out what the guide tones are for each chord and make up lines using those guide tones.
Start with just half notes.
From there you can add a rhythm to create a more interesting solo than just playing half notes. Then you could have something like the example below.
Once you’ve got that down you can add in other chord tones to give it more color and character.
Now we’ve got a pretty workable line that’s starting to sound more like a solo while still outlining the chords.
After you’ve got that down there’s a ton of other stuff that you can do, but that’s one thing to get you started improvising.
ISJ
…
I’ve been listening to Seth Godin’s podcast Akimbo recently and that’s one question he asked in an episode.
“Who are you doing it for?”
If you’re making music that question still applies. Who is the music for? Who is the audience for the music? Are you making the music just for yourself? Or is it for a gig? Are you writing music to be played in a film or a game or is it to be played on its own? Is it to be performed in a concert hall?
Who are you doing it for?
This to me changes depending on the project. And sometimes you might just want to make music for different audiences. Some pieces of music might be for people who love ambient music. Other pieces of music might be for people who love string quartets.
It’s a useful question to ask to clarify what type of music to write and how to go about writing it.
ISJ
…
Recently during a meeting of teachers at one of the places I teach we talked about this distinction. We were a group of music teachers that all taught various things. I direct some of the ensembles, but some of the other teachers taught violin, music theory, piano, guitar, ukulele, composition, choirs, or other ensembles.
Play is different than practice.
Play is the fun part. It’s enjoyable. Whatever that means for you. Whatever you find fun about playing your instrument or making music is the what I mean by play here. It’s where you get to mess around. You get to improvise and express yourself. For me that often means playing through a song from start to finish or improvising solos or jamming with friends. Play is the fun part.
Practice is different. It’s focused, often on improvement. Practice is a little more serious of an endeavor than play. It’s when you sit down and focus on getting better at doing something specific. That could be ear training, technique, scales, arpeggios, or a specific passage from a specific song. But practice is different than play. Now this isn’t to say that practice isn’t fun, but I think of practice as being more focused than play.
Having this distinction in your head can change a lot about your relationship to your instrument. Not everything needs to be practice. And not everything needs to be play. Sometimes you want to focus on improving your technique or your ear training skills. Sometimes you just want to sit at your instrument and have a good time and enjoy knowing how to make music on that instrument.
The way I use this is by choosing which one I’m doing.
Sometimes I just want to play. Other times I want to focus and practice. But I don’t always want to do both.
The main way I use this is to get myself to pick up my instrument more. Ideally I’d practice for an hour every single day and really focus on improving my technique and abilities on that instrument, but I can’t always do that. Sometimes it might be better to play because I’m reminding myself what I started learning about music in the first place.
I started learning guitar, piano, melodica, ukulele, flute, trumpet, and violin to play. I didn’t start learning them to practice. Practice is still useful and I still do it, but that’s not my goal. My goal is to play and to eventually play at a higher level than I did before.
You don’t always need to practice, but I think you do always need to play.
ISJ
…
I’ve been making about a video a week on my YouTube channel and not many people watch them.
But I still want them to be good.
So I put in the time to edit them as best as I can and produce them as best as I can.
I want them to be good for me.
Because why would I create something if I want proud of it?
It’s always a little intimidating to create things, especially when you know somebody might see it.
But that’s why you put in the time to make it good. If that means releasing it later then so be it, but don’t release it until you’re proud of it. That’s what matters the most; that you, as the creator, is proud of it.
ISJ
…
I’ve been trying to focus on using small steps to build momentum. I have been very bad at using incremental changes and improvements to make large improvements. Making small goals isn’t something I’m good at.
So I’m changing that.
I’m using small goals to reach larger goals.
Every single day I’ve been using SubmitHub to send my music to curators multiple times a day.
When I have a chance to write music I try to put on a timer and get whatever I can get done in about 25 minutes. If that’s 8 measures, then I just finished 8 measures. If I finish 8 measures everyday for a week I’ll have 56 measures done. If I only write 4 measures, then I still have 4 measures written.
Even if I write for 10 minutes and write 1 measure of music that keeps the momentum going. Writing music the next day will be easier because I wrote music the day before.
Once you build momentum it’s easier to keep going.
ISJ
…
People will have different tastes.
Who cares?
You don’t have to have the same taste in music as someone else. It won’t change anything about the music.
Two people saying, “This song is great!” and “This song sucks” don’t say anything about the music and don’t change anything about the song.
The song is the same.
The musical ideas and devices used in that song are exactly the same. The rhythms, melodies, harmonies, instruments all stay the same.
Disliking or liking a song doesn’t change anything about the song.
ISJ
…
Productivity is overrated.
Enjoy what you’re doing.
That’s more important than being “productive.”
That’s all I’ve got to say for right now.
ISJ
…