2.4 years of skill development. (Leo was right!)

[Realms of Wonder]

Wanted to share this from my life, as hope for those acquiring the skills to live a authentic, passionate life, and to encourage you to just START.

• Even if you dont have a completed plan yet. If you follow the right principles (These specifically highlighted in this thread. Work ethic, Choosing Love, Creativity,  and the power of learning.) You can create amazing, spectacular results in your life you couldn't have imagined when you took that first step.

 

Right before quarantine hit, I decided to start producing music, having talked about it for years but never taking any action.

• That first year, Investing  over 700 hours, and produced some of my first instrumentals. So many days it felt like I was make ZERO progress. And I wanted to quit, seeing other artist I look up to and how skilled they were, I began comparing myself to them. Thankfully, having read the book Mastery by George Leonard many times, as well as the compound effect by Darren Hardy. I realize my path was normal, spurts of growth, plateaus and even dips, then another spurt, and so on.
• The next year, I invested another 600-800 hours, this year was even harder, literally starting HUNDREDS of projects, and fewer than 4 out of those I considered good enough to turn into complete songs.  I was still frustrated, I felt like it was being so much harder than it needed to be, I felt that I was "Playing" but not "practicing" and maybe that was why I felt stagnant. I decided to do more research into books on how to play music, and stumbled across "The lesson" by Victor Wooten. and it changed the way I saw music, more accurately it reminded me what I already knew, but had forgotten through all my Violin lessons as a child. 
• So far this year I have put in way over 500 hours, more importantly, the quality of the time has increased. during that time I have "rough finished/demo" (structure, lyrics, melody, percussion, groove, etc..) 8 songs, and have more than 8 in the pipeline. 

 

In this video (one of my personal favorites.)

Leo points to the fact that a class of thing exists that can only be acquired through long term, consistent action. Day by day, for weeks, months, years and decades. I have found it to be true in my experience. I can only imagine how it will be in a decade or two.........   

Today another song was rough finished, and its one of the best so far. And that entire process of it took less than half the time some of my first songs did, but the quality is magnitudes higher.  I am still early on the music production journey, a little over two years. and even in that time, its becoming more and more effortless, and more and more enjoyable!

 

For you, what is a meaningful skill you want to invest in, or already are?

Edited June 21, 2022 by Realms of Wonder

[Leo Gura]

Great job! Keep going!

[puporing]

Great stuff thanks for sharing! I'm glad you're seeing the fruits of your labor! 

Edited June 21, 2022 by puporing

[Phil King]

Bro thats so crazy. I also am learning music production. I have been dabbling in it for a couple years since high school in FL Studio and i played guitar, but only  in the past 3 months have gotten serious about it. I started learning piano and made a lot of shitty projects in ableton live and have maybe 1 cool song. Ive been playing a lot of piano and trying to learn music theory because i think it should help with creating songs

I also love that Victor Wooten Book "The music lesson"

How would you go about increasing the quality of your practice and how long does it take to get to a point where it becomes quicker and easier to make a decent song. I watch a lot of livestreams from producers like nick mira and kennybeats and they can make something crazy good in like 20 minutes by using seemingly simple stuff. 

2 hours ago, Realms of Wonder said:

I was still frustrated, I felt like it was being so much harder than it needed to be, I felt that I was "Playing" but not "practicing" and maybe that was why I felt stagnant.

I feel this. Any advice on getting over this

[Realms of Wonder]

4 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Great job! Keep going!

Thank you Brother  

3 hours ago, puporing said:

Great stuff thanks for sharing! I'm glad you're seeing the fruits of your labor! 

Thank you! me too, its very rewarding  

[Realms of Wonder]

1 hour ago, Phil King said:

Bro thats so crazy. I also am learning music production. I have been dabbling in it for a couple years since high school in FL Studio and i played guitar, but only  in the past 3 months have gotten serious about it. I started learning piano and made a lot of shitty projects in ableton live and have maybe 1 cool song. Ive been playing a lot of piano and trying to learn music theory because i think it should help with creating songs

I also love that Victor Wooten Book "The music lesson"

How would you go about increasing the quality of your practice and how long does it take to get to a point where it becomes quicker and easier to make a decent song. I watch a lot of livestreams from producers like nick mira and kennybeats and they can make something crazy good in like 20 minutes by using seemingly simple stuff. 

I feel this. Any advice on getting over this

@Phil King Thanks for the response brother!

 

I would say you are on the right track. I grew up playing violin (10+) years, so it may be easier for me than others.

That being said,

• Do not underestimate how much you can grow in just two years. if you have been taking it serious for 3ish months, your doing your best, coming up with a bunch of projects that dont meet your standard, or you feel suck, but dont know how to make them "not suck." You're exactly where you are supposed to be. 
• Dont "create" music, instead "Play" Music. In "The Music Lesson" its talked about a lot, Music as an entity that you build a relationship with. It is something you connect with, you tap into. I like to think of music as already whole, complete, and waiting for someone like you, Mozart or Kevin Parker to hear it, to "tune in" to it. 
  • when you're in the middle of a project, listen to what Music tells you should be added next. some of my favorite moments of music are when I was listening, and letting Music inform my body and voice.
• I still have days where I feel I make no progress, or a project goes nowhere. I think that is normal, over time, as we invest more into the craft the balance shifts from.
  • Beginning: Tons of shit songs but get lucky every once in a while
  • Middle: tons of shit songs, but know why some songs work and some done, getting "lucky" more often.
  • Expertise/Mastery/10,000 hours: even the shit songs a better than any of your best songs at the beginning. Plus a deep understanding of WHY and HOW to play beautiful authentic music.

Hopefully that helps!

 

All the best

[Frosty97]

4 hours ago, Realms of Wonder said:

it reminded me what I already knew, but had forgotten through all my Violin lessons as a child. 

After reading your post as I was watching youtube videos, I stumbled on to this video and reminded me of what you said about you playing violin as a child. This dude also played violin and said “it’s not about getting the notes perfectly right but is about feeling what the producer felt making and playing the notes.”

https://youtu.be/FgzyLoSkL5k

Just wanted to share:)

Edited June 21, 2022 by Frosty97

[mmKay]

7 hours ago, Realms of Wonder said:

For you, what is a meaningful skill you want to invest in, or already are?

I started a 1 year singing challenge December 2020. It's going good. Bursted through my life long Limiting belief of singing being an innate skill. I bought courses, hundreds of videos, i went to voice coaches, practiced with gifted friends... 

I'm still not that good since singing is such a vast and complex skill but im getting better and definitely im better than 1.5 years ago. 

[cjoseph90]

What is the video posted above? I cant see it by OP

[flyingguitarist]

@cjoseph90

https://youtu.be/uw6lRNBZvv8

This one

Why valuable things require development overtime

[Harikrishnan]

Congrats and keep going...

[flyingguitarist]

@Realms of Wonder congrats mate !

I like that video too

[Kshantivadin]

7 hours ago, mmKay said:

For you, what is a meaningful skill you want to invest in, or already are?

yoga, photography. a lot of limiting beliefs

[Realms of Wonder]

 

13 hours ago, Frosty97 said:

After reading your post as I was watching youtube videos, I stumbled on to this video and reminded me of what you said about you playing violin as a child. This dude also played violin and said “it’s not about getting the notes perfectly right but is about feeling what the producer felt making and playing the notes.”

https://youtu.be/FgzyLoSkL5k

Just wanted to share:)

Glad you shared! Thanks  

[Realms of Wonder]

11 hours ago, mmKay said:

I started a 1 year singing challenge December 2020. It's going good. Bursted through my life long Limiting belief of singing being an innate skill. I bought courses, hundreds of videos, i went to voice coaches, practiced with gifted friends... 

I'm still not that good since singing is such a vast and complex skill but im getting better and definitely im better than 1.5 years ago. 

Great job! Has that belief about singing being a natural talent, innate, been the biggest hurdle so far?

[mmKay]

4 hours ago, Realms of Wonder said:

Great job! Has that belief about singing being a natural talent, innate, been the biggest hurdle so far?

nah, it's easy to logically understand that it's a coordination of muscles you have to train to obtain a desired sound. What the biggest hurdle is  is that the progress is so minimally slow it's demotivating sometimes. But over time it does compound. And it's fun to sing around and let go, so that pulls me through. + a list of 120`+ YT videos that motivate me to keep going .

[PepperBlossoms]

@Realms of Wonder Thanks for the book recommendations.

[Frosty97]

Do you ever hear new tones in your dream

Edited June 28, 2022 by Frosty97

[MaxV]

Thats awesome man. 

Keep it up! 

I've been producing music for about 10+ years now. And only now do i start to scratch the quality i wanted to reach.
Back then i wouldn't even believe it was possible to reach it in the first place. 

Both Mastery and The War of Art are great books! 

What i did learn however is that every day or every phase will give a new set of challenges. 

I  finally am able to produce something to be proud of. But the world and the style i used to produce vastly changed and i personally struggle if want to continue producing. I love music and i love playing and fooling around with it. But the whole Social media spiel that occured through the years and the rise of Tiktok and the short attention span music really made it difficult for me to progress lately. 

I even had some weird insights about myself not that long ago. We live in a fantastic time to learn pretty much everything. When i started to produce, you where pretty much on your own apart from a couple of amateur tutorials of people who actually didn't knew what they where doing. 

Nowadays there are SO MANY great masterclasses to learn from. This is a good thing! But i noticed myself getting a bit bitter 'because no-one struggled to get better like i did back in the day'. I even noticed myself thinking that i'm actually not good at producing at all because it took me 10 years to get where i am while others get there in a year or 2/3. 

This is all bogus of course. Sometimes its a frustrating grind. Especially the mixdown phase. But nothing beats the moment you can listen to a finished song. And it will be there with you for the years to come (And those oldies will mean more to you the more years pass!)

[Realms of Wonder]

On 6/27/2022 at 7:56 PM, Frosty97 said:

Do you ever hear new tones in your dream

Not that I remember, not musical per say, insights yes.