Alternative Student

Getting into the habit of creating is essential.  According to psychologist Malcolm Gladwell, it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to be world-class in any field.  I’ve found that musicians are pretty good about practicing their instrument, but usually don’t practice songwriting.  Songwriting is seen as a means to an end; you write enough songs so you have something to play.  Once that’s satisfied, you “take a break.”  Only when you get tired of your songs or feel “inspired” do you write again.  I know this isn’t true for everybody, but this was certainly true for me.

Since then my mindset has changed.  I want to write as many songs as possible.  I’ve mentioned before the dangers of being too precious with your songs, and when you only write ten a year it’s easy to do that.   The more you write the easier you can let go and actually finish.  And finishing is the hardest part.  Those last, nit picky details that aren’t quite right.  I’m learning to chill about those.  I would rather call it quits on a song that’s 94.5% done and actually release it than toil another two weeks to only slightly improve it.   For some important releases it could still be worth the effort, but when I’m just trying to write a lot of songs I need to manage my time better.  As Sheryl Sandberg said, “Done is better than perfect.”

Both of my teachers have spoken about the importance of consistent creation.  It shows employers that you are a creative person that delivers.  Dr. Olson told us about his experience working with a publisher and being able to show them a catalog of  over 300 songs.  One of the reasons I started this blog was to have more practice creating consistently.

I also started a Facebook group called Music Challenge Monthly where I issue a writing prompt each month.  The goal is to motivate each other to finish more music.  We’ve had Lo-Fi July, Synthwave September, and for October we’re writing Halloween music.  If you’re interested in joining, find us on Facebook.  Here is my Synthwave  September track:

Thanks for following my journey!  Stay tuned for more songs, demos, and stories.

I was given an assignment in my industry class: identify my top five modern artists.  I then had to find their team (label, managers, producers, ect) and follow them on social media.  The reason?  Like a lot of us, they tend to post about their daily lives, and since they’re in the business they can be a valuable source of information.  Also, most labels have job postings on their websites, many of which are entry level.  It’s amazing what you can discover with a little research.
My list included Porter Robinson, Bon Iver, Daft Punk, Atmosphere, and Sufjan Stevens.  I wanted a mixture of artists from different genres whose songwriting I admire.  I wasn’t able to find all the people I needed, but more than I expected.  A lot of them could be found by just clicking the “About” section on the artist’s Facebook.

The concept of reading articles and paying attention is very useful.  The current goings on in the music industry have more impact on indie artists than I originally thought.  For instance, I learned that CD sales have dropped 40% between January and July.  That’s a significant difference in a short time.  It makes me reconsider printing my next release.  Change can come quickly and if you don’t pay attention you’ll miss it.

I’ve been messing around with music production since 2013, and most of what I’ve learned has been through YouTube.  It’s helped me get a lot better, but along the way I’ve picked up some bad advice.  In my songwriting class I discovered that I’ve been doing parallel compression wrong for years!*  I was taught to simply adjust the dry/wet knob of the compressor.  My teacher said this will not give you the same result as routing the signal to two buses.  I was also surprised to hear that you should almost never put a reverb plugin directly on the track, but should usually use sends.  I’ve now tried the correct techniques and I can say it’s a big improvement.  I feel a little silly not having known these already, but I guess that’s why I’m here.

For my next demo I returned to the studio and re-recorded my vocals with a clearer melody.  I added drums, a synth bass line, and used Melodyne to slightly tune my voice.

Dr. Olson said the chorus is nice and the recording quality of the vocals is good, but my instrumentation is bare and we need to work on my vocal sound.  He wants to talk about what artists inspire the sound I’m going for.  He says I need to get my identity to push through the song.

(*Parallel Compression: Mixing an unprocessed signal with a heavily compressed version of the same signal.  This can give you the phatness of compression while maintaining the dynamics.)

 Our Activities in Music Industry teacher, Scott Legere, talked about multiple intelligences.  He says that neuroscientists have discovered that different parts of the brain lights up for a plethora of different skills.  There are a lot of ways to be talented. Because of this we shouldn’t be afraid to try new things.  

 In Quest Love’s book, Creative Quest, he talks about creative disinhibition: getting rid of the voices telling you not to do something. The greatest enemy of creativity is fear.  Dan Wilson of Seimisonic fame writes 350 songs a year. He’s gotten to the frame of mind where he can create without being impaired by self doubt.  I have a long way to go, but I want to be that prolific. I tend to be too precious with my songs and when that happens nothing gets finished.  Our role as students isn’t to write great songs; our role is to finish a lot of songs so we get better at songwriting.  

For my next demo I was excited to get into the studio.  They have a vocal isolation booth, expensive microphones, and pre-amps that are much better than mine at home.  I first tried the studio’s SM7B, but after some comparing I found I liked the sound of the Audio-Technica 4047/SV better.  I recorded in Logic since that’s on the studio computer, but emailed the WAV files to myself to mix in Ableton.  The sound of the electric keyboard is a preset I found in Massive.

My teacher likes the synth sound and says the soft percussive vibe nicely compliments my vocal delivery.  He says I need better transitions between sections, and that my melody for the verse isn’t very clear.  I knew that was coming because he talked a lot about clear melodies and how easy it is to write a song without really knowing what yours is, but at that point I had already recorded it.  I’ve found that playing the melody on piano or recording myself singing helps a lot.  Clear melodies separate professionals from amateurs.

I enrolled in Songwriting 1, and Activities in Music Industry. Initially, I wasn’t too excited about Songwriting 1. I’ve been writing songs for years, and had already taken a songwriting class at McNally.  What more could they offer? I was pleasantly surprised. In the first two weeks we’ve talked about copyright law, different songwriting techniques, and learned the signal chain of the school’s studio space.  We’ll have access to it for projects!

 Much of the class is devoted to a podcast called Song Exploders: a show where well known artists discuss their songwriting processes.  They share early recordings, rough drafts, and the story of how a song takes shape. We’ve heard Weezer, Chvches, Metallica, the Gorillaz, Courtney Barnett, and Kimbra.  All successful artists, but with very different approaches. Weezer steals chord progressions, Metallica focuses on riffs, the Gorillaz prioritize sound design over form, and Courtney Barnett is all about the story.  I highly recommend it. If you can’t afford an education just listen to the podcasts.

 Activities in Music Industry has been a lot of fun too.  I’ve never looked too much into the business side of music, but it’s been really interesting and useful.  Our teacher said that email is the number one driver of revenue for music. That blew my mind. I always thought of email as being outdated.  When I was in school in 2011, teachers pushed social media as the most useful tool of modern marketing. That’s no longer true. Not only is social media over-saturated with other voices, but the cards are stacked against us.  Facebook will allow only 10% of your fan base to organically see your post unless you pay for them to promote it. Email on the other hand, is a direct link to your fans.

 For Songwriting 1, we’ll each be releasing a three song EP by the end of the semester.  Before the final EP is completed, each song needs to have three demos submitted. The first demo is a basic sketch of the song recorded on a cellphone, the second needs to have the basic song idea finished and recorded, and the third needs to have all the other elements added (drums, bass, synth, ect).  At each stage we’ll be receiving notes. For my first song I’m going for a laid-back, Chet Faker vibe.  

  My teacher likes the piano and the chords, but thinks the melody needs to be cleaner.  He’d also like to hear more contrast on the verse to chorus transition.  Stay tuned for updated demos!  

  (I was originally going to attend MSU part-time, but due to them losing my transcript I am now enrolled as a visiting student.  I’ll still be able to take classes, but since I’m not officially accepted into the college I’m not eligible for financial aid. That’s a huge downside, but I decided to take two classes and just pay out of pocket.  I didn’t want to wait.)