Introducing Sound-A-Week. (Name suggestions welcome.)
OK.
So my last few posts have highlighted the difficulty I am having balancing life’s daily demands with finding time for creating audio pieces and compositions (even every so often “music”). In an earlier post I noted that at times like this:
“…I turn my attention to the task of learning something. I’ll complete instrument tutorials, practice a piano piece, read up on my DAW, blog, etc.”
As I go on to note however, this time around I’m not even doing that. Again, that is largely a function of lack of time.
This issue reminded me of a correspondence with Stretta about his release “ATAOIB“. Basically I asked him how he found the time given demands of family and job. His answer boiled down to modifying your expectations to fit the time available. For that project he set out with a very definite realization of time constraints and created his works within those.
So, where is all of this leading?
- I have not been able to “compose” things of late in part because my time is limited and my ambitions outsized in comparison to the time available.
- This has contributed to a creative block and to my doing nothing with audio and music for weeks.
- This means that I have made “having enough time to compose” a “gatekeeper” (to use a phrase from a good friend of mine) to my sound-related activities.
- Perhaps if I change the nature of my expectations around these “compositions” I may be able to remove this creative block.
So how do I propose to do that?
I am going to post one “audio thing” every week for a year. Various sound bits, mini-compositions, ideas, found objects, etc. Could be 10 seconds long, could be 30 minutes of found sound, could be something from my archives, could be brand new. Whatever it is, it will require me to be engaged with sound, the working process, and keep my “musical mind” active even when things are pressing in other ways.
I’ve created a page titled “Sound-A-Week”. (Yes. Very creative of me. I’ll change it eventually.) You can get to it via the top entry in the far right-hand column. I’ll try to post something every Monday.
Cheers all.
Hey, this is a great idea and a helpful post. Some big changes coming up in my life. But when the dust settles I may well steal your idea for my blog as well. Cool. Thanks. Peace
By all means, please do! I’m increasingly convinced that Consistency, in whatever amounts, counts for more than manic burst of output. The month long starts and stops are killers for me because I spend so much time “getting back up to speed” that – by the time I do – my window closes again. Better to keep a small crack in that window to ease the ramp ups. (Bad metaphors aside…. )
Kind of comes down to that whole ‘tortoise and hare’ fable I guess….
EDIT: Good luck with the changes btw. I hope they bring positive things when all is said and done.