On making music - February ‘25 Experiments
The songwriting course with Brian Eno I took last month encouraged us to share recordings every week. I loved having that kind of structure to commit to. No matter what was going on in life, as long as I showed up, "finished" a recording, and shared it, I was making progress towards my goal of making music. I write "finished" in quotations because, in this context, finishing something just meant exporting what I had when the weekly due date arrived. No overthinking.
When the class ended, I was wondering how I could keep that momentum going. Then, the School of Song announced community song shares for February, and I signed up right away!
Here are a couple of recordings I have done during February. The creative limitations were:
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an electric guitar
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up to 4 effect pedals
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voice
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sounds that invite calm
Today (Feb 25th, 2025) I am starting a new recording and mixing course with Philip Weinrobe, also through the School of Song, and I am super, SUPER excited! I am really looking forward to learning about recording strategies, and learning how to “layer tracks and blend different sonic elements”.
Since my background is in video and image editing, my mind is very used to thinking about layers, blending modes, opacity, and composition in the visual realm. I am SO curious to learn how all of that translates to the sound world!
A big part of why I’m sharing this journey is to remind myself that it’s okay to show up as a work in progress. I also want to explore for myself—and for anyone else who needs to find out—what if being a musician isn’t really about talent? What if it’s more about the discipline to keep showing up, the courage to keep going, and the commitment to finding the fun in a lifelong creative practice.
So here we are, experimenting and documenting the journey in order to find out how much of that hypothesis is true. :)
For a while now, I’ve been really into exploring how sounds can make us feel calm and help release tension. One thing I’m realizing is that whatever state I’m in while recording somehow tends to get transmitted into the track. Which sounds obvious and matter-of-fact—but also WILD to me.
That said, actually getting to a calm state (and finding the fun in the process) can be challenging—especially when you’re learning and technical issues start piling up.
I love systems and processes, so I’ve been experimenting with ways to make that calm state more accessible—piecing together a step-by-step framework to help with that. More on that soon! :)