I think that the sentence I was told that really impacted me most was my brother telling me “I would have never thought you could produce such low level crap”.
It was the very first thing I had ever recorded by myself, I was rather proud of it, knowing it was badly recorded but full of the emotions I could put into music at that time… It devastated me, and it took me a decade to overcome the feeling that I should only produce gold.
Now I just don’t care at all when people don’t like my music, and only grab in people advices the ones I can use, the ones that ring as truth to my ears
Stop you are a musician for me and I have a classical training. There are no rules, just convention on music harmony to improvise more easily with others. Rules are here to be transgress in anything really.
If this sounds good to you then you should shout out loud that sounds good and be your first support. everyone find its own audience it’s all matter of emotions and soul connections.
Sometimes we need coaching, psychology and self confidence. only that, is a very good start.
And I was for so long bent out of shape that people close to me weren’t into my music…who aren’t into that music anyway. It’s not like they were going to go turn on Autechre to clean out their ears of my music. So silly. And so I started looking for like-minded people and their opinions and that helped a great deal. From “I mean I don’t get it but good job” to “I love how you inversed the envelopes responses on those two sounds; sick bro”
I just turned 37, and it wasn’t until 5 or 6 years ago I got serious about wearing earplugs to band practice/playing shows/attending shows.
I WISH someone had convinced me when I started playing music at 10 that protecting your hearing was cool. The advice I give these days - usually unsolicited - is:
Protect your ears, protect your gears
I also wish I had been taking better care of my amps and effects pedals over the years of gigging and touring.
Best piece of advice i’ve ever received is so basic on the surface it makes me feel a bit sick.
It’s basically “Except that your track your making won’t sound as slick as the mastered ones you’ve been listening to, and the most important hump to get over is to actually compleate something and not live in a world filled with just perfect 4 bar loops that don’t progress”.
Also, quitting being a daily pot head work wonders for finishing tracks
My father taught me music originally, and he’s passed along a lot of good advice. I think the best advice is that if you like a song, learn how to play it. If it’s a challenge, good, you’re learning something.
Set limitations and work within self imposed parameters. For example, learn one instrument and explore it’s boundaries to the max before moving on to something else. Avoid collecting gear to reduce distractions.
What feels like 8 bars to you as a completely stressed out performer actually feel like nice and danceable 16 bars for the audience.
At least in the case of techno. Feel free to take your time, people are here to dance, not to admire how quickly you press your buttons.
Echoing others here on the importance of limitations. I read this over twenty years ago and it completely tilted my world off its axis, and it still resonates:
“My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self of the chains that shackle the spirit.”
