I recently agreed to participate in yet another challenge involving self-discipline. Thankfully, this didn’t require me to starve myself.
I’ve joined a group of ambitious adventurers in a new venture called the Give It 100 Challenge. Here’s the rub: Find something you want to get better at. Do that thing every day for 100 days. Monitor your progress. That’s it.
For my challenge, I’ve chosen to record an audio clip once every day. This could be a simple guitar lick, a drumbeat, a combination of sound effects, etc. There will be varying levels of completeness to these audio clips. Some will have hours and hours of production behind them. Others will be short snippets I’ve recorded in the matter of a few minutes.
Why am I doing this?
I’ve been a “songwriter” for 10+ years. And by “songwriter,” I mean I’ve fiddled around with half-finished melodies, chords, and loops and until now none of these musical bits have materialized into anything solid. My goal over this 100-day period is to start recording these songs in my new home studio. I’ve been kicking around these half-finished songs and I think it’s time for me to give myself a swift kick in the bum and actually create something I’d be proud to share with the world.
I’m using fairly unfamiliar tools (in terms of software/hardware). This is the area that will require the most research, trial and error, and hopefully will result in the most amount of improvement.
My goals, in no particular order:
- Become a better guitar player
- Improve audio production skills
- Learn Ableton Live and become proficient in it
- Further my understanding of the concepts of mixing, editing, recording, using MIDI, etc
- Share my songs with the world (digitally of course)
- Use music as a creative outlet
30 days in
I’m 30 days into the challenge, (I started on October 1st) and while I’ve missed a few days (because the Cubs were in the playoffs and that’s really rare so I was sort of preoccupied and also because I hurt my finger and it hurt to click the record button and it also hurt to play guitar and I’ve just been so busy at work and the Cubs are in the playoffs and my leg hurts and I’ve been really tired lately and because the Cubs.)
I’m not one to give excuses, so I’ll spare you further details. But I’m happy to report that I’ve started producing some songs I’ll soon be sharing on my blog. Please check back often if you’re interested in hearing them.
That’s all for now. I’ll report more progress at the 60-day mark. In the mean time, I might post a song or two on my blog. Stay tuned, friends!