learning – Alternative Student

Synth Summer

In the Spring I took Electronic Orchestration, a class focusing on synthesis and sound design. We would learn the fundamentals of sound, and after learning the basics, make our own patches. Up until then, we had to rely solely on preset banks, mindlessly browsing for sounds that fit. Presets are great, but if you want something specific, the search can be frustrating. Knowing the basics and tweaking can help a lot, but I wanted to be able to build sounds from the ground up.

Of all the cool classes I’ve gotten to take, I was most excited for Electronic Orchestration. Unfortunately, due to covid-19, we weren’t able to continue as planned. Our next step was supposed to be a deep dive into Native Instrument’s Massive, a virtual synthesizer, but since we weren’t in class, we didn’t have access to the school’s computers that had Massive installed. The class continued with a focus on mixing and mastering.

When the semester ended, I declared Summer 2020 Synth Summer! I would spend time each day learning about synthesis and practicing sound design. (This didn’t start until June because I was finishing up my Songs From Home EP which came out on May 30th). Once that project was done, I was eager get back into learning.

I began Synth Summer by browsing classes on Linkedin Learning (formerly Lynda.com). I took Learning Synth Programming by Scott Hirsch, and then Massive Digital Synthesis by Evan Sutton. The first class refreshed the basics for me, and the second was the deep dive I’d been waiting for. I’ve had Massive for a couple years now, but my understanding of it was pretty basic. Most tutorials on YouTube are way too general, don’t explain what’s actually happening to the sound, and skip over settings and parameters entirely. There’s a ton of tutorials on making specific sounds, but they’re more on the side of telling you what to do, rather than explaining why these decisions are made. Massive Digital Synthesis is the perfect Massive class in my opinion, not only is everything explained, but you’ve given a lot of ideas to experiment with on your own.

I’m currently reading through Massive’s manual, and trying to take it all in. I’m far from an expert, but I’m improving and that’s exciting for me. If you want to hear sounds I’ve made, I have examples in this video, or you can listen to this remix (all the main synth sounds are mine). I’m excited to keep learning and making music!

The Importance of Making Demos

When I thought about demos, I used to imagine a shittier version of the final song: badly recorded, unedited, and with a sub-par performance. I used to label tracks “demo” when they weren’t up to snuff. It was never planned; f I was embarrassed to share something I made, I used “demo” as a qualifier, thereby excusing all mistakes.

Nowadays I have a better grasp of what a demo is. It’s a rough take of the finished song, not intended as a final product, but a necessary step in the creative process. All the essential elements are there, and the arrangement is done (to the best of your ability). When you listen to the demo, you’ll hear how all the parts work (or don’t work). You’ll discover what sections feel too long or too short, if the drums are meshing with your guitar, if there’s enough contrast from verse to chorus, if the bass guitar is boring, or any number of issues.

There are some things you simply won’t know until you hear them in context. These are changes you want to identify before final tracking. When making a demo, you’re not concerned with guitar tones, what the best mic is, getting great takes to edit, or editing at all. Your goal is to get the idea down, have it sound good enough, and learn from it. How will the final song sound? Once you have a better vision of what the song is about, going into the studio is fun because you know exactly what you’re going to do. It takes a load off your mind, and then you can spend more time experimenting with tone, knowing you won’t need to come back and re-record.

Even if the song is just guitar and vocals, I still recommend making a demo. You’ll be surprised at what you hear when it’s playing back. It’s counter intuitive, but while you’re playing you don’t notice everything, and the demo can reveal what to fix.

I’ve recorded songs with and without demoing first, and I highly recommend it. There’s always the occasion where my original demo was spot on and I don’t need to change anything, but that’s usually not the case. Most of my demos have been pretty bare bones, but I’ve found that the better the demo, the more you learn from it. That being said, don’t be a perfectionist. Make the demo, make it pretty good, and move on. Keep finishing.

Are You Too Old to Make Music?

It’s pretty common for people to believe that there’s a time limit when it comes to making art. “If you haven’t done it by x, then it’s not gonna happen,” as if these things had expiration dates like milk or something. We romanticize the past, particularly when it comes to what we didn’t do that we should have. It’s painful. Rather than cut our losses and do it now, we believe in a magical time that no longer exists. “Well, it’s too late.”

I’m not talking about “making it” in music, but that could be a separate discussion. I’m talking about someone who wanted to play guitar, write, or draw their whole life but never took the chance. They were too scared or too busy to start, and now they’ve reached a point in their life where (in their minds) it’s too late.

When I was 26, I started piano lessons. All my brothers took lessons when they were younger but I never did. I could’ve gotten a book for “older beginners,” but I picked up a kid’s book instead. It was filled with cartoons and short pieces like “Let’s Go to a Party” and “Dinosaur Stomp.” It was pretty fun, actually. I definitely wasn’t too old, but you might be wondering about someone who’s older. We’ll imagine they’ve never played an instrument before and today is their first lesson. They’d have to learn their notes, practice fingerings, and talk about boring stuff like tuning and posture. It can be daunting to begin and the slow process is why so many quit.

Adults haven’t had to deal with the growing pains of learning a new skill in a long time. They’re used to being capable, so to fumble over a piece of music intended to teach children can feel embarrassing. Who wants to struggle at something most people master at twelve? That being said, it’s absolutely worth the trouble, and I believe anyone who’s physically able to, regardless of age, can be creative. As Kurt Vonnegut famously said, “To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.”

My advice for the older beginner is to put in the work, and be humble. No matter your age, it’s not too late.

First Do It Badly

Lots of people are afraid to start something on the grounds they won’t be any good. I’m that way. We’re usually right about it too, but the problem is that if you don’t start you won’t get any better. There’s a quote attributed to Carl Jung (I couldn’t find the source), “The fool is the precursor to the savior.” If you’re not willing to be bad, you’ll never be great.

You have to be willing to fail until you succeed. That’s all that practice really is. I’m taking piano lessons right now, and when I’m learning a new piece, it can be excruciating. Before I can play the song well, I have to sit there for hours and play it terribly. I fumble over rhythms, hit the wrong notes, forget to take my foot off the pedal, and lose my place in the music. That’s after practicing both hands separately. I trip, stumble, and fail my way through. And then I do it again, but this time it’s a tiny bit better. I continue that process 20 or 30 times, and eventually, I can play it.

When talking to students hesitant to begin writing, Jordan Peterson tells them to “Write a really bad first draft.” That gives them something to edit. Once it’s out in the world, the problems are no longer theoretical. They learn exactly what they are, and that makes them easier to fix. Keeping ideas inside and worrying about them is death. I’ve wasted a ton of time worrying about how I’m going to write songs, rather than just writing songs. Once I’m doing the work, my objectives are clear.

I’m trying to have a healthier relationship with failure; by all accounts the arts involve a lot of rejection. My teachers have been recently pushing the importance of content creation, even if it’s bad. That’s harder than it sounds. You think it’d be easy to just write something and not care too much, but it takes practice. The issue is that once you have an inkling of interest in what you’re doing, it becomes a little bit precious, and that impedes the finishing process. At any given time, I have two or three ideas that I really like, that I want to flesh out and perfect. I’ll start a new song from scratch, a project with less at stake, but pretty soon that becomes precious, too.

Allowing ourselves the practice we need will help. That’s why I’m learning to create on a schedule. I’ve been been trying to release a video every week. My first video took me the longest. I had to decide where best to shoot it, how to get the lighting right, where to place my mic, and how to edit the video and audio together. It’s been getting easier and faster every time. It’s helped me realize how I look while performing, which isn’t something I normally think about.

Adventure Time’s Jake the Dog, puts it like this, “Sucking at something is the first step towards being sorta good at something.” Getting over the initial cringe of sucking is paramount, because it comes up again and again. Every new piece of music, technique, or exercise, if it’s helpful, will have growing pains. I remember taking guitar lessons at McNally Smith and my teacher gave me a difficult exercise saying, “This is going to make you feel like you can’t play guitar.” Eventually I want to get into making more elaborate videos; I can tell you right now that my first few aren’t going to be great, but they will give me an education I can’t get anywhere else. Don’t be afraid to suck!

Works Cited

Peterson, Jordan B. “YouTube.” Biblical Series IX: The Call to Abraham, 2017, 58:30, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmuzUZTJ0GA.

“His Hero.” Adventure Time, season 1. Written and story boarded by Adam Muto, Kent Osborne & Niki Yang. Directed by Larry Leichliter and Patrick McHale. Cartoon Network, 2010.