Feb 1, 2025
2/1/25
A large part of failure to produce great work is a failure to even define a process of creation -- some artists create 100s of first drafts that then make their way patchwork into their final work.
If I want to improve my musical ability I can focus purely on the live aspect or I can also include creating songs with a process that ends with me posting on a streaming site.
In an ongoing process of creation that could look something like -- Practice guitar daily -- (iterative process of improvement)
Create an original song by just playing and listening -- Record the song using the cheapest mic you own (Phone) -- Edit and mix if necessary -- Post to a streaming site or a site for musician to share songs -- Get Feedback
This would be an iterative process that falls in line with the "Just Ship it" mentality
You can also keep attempting to record something that sounds like your favorite musicians music -- especially if you do so without looking up how they did it -- your creativity in creating sounds and using available software will help define your sound! Your limitations and constraints will be your strength and unique voice.
Combine this with another concept called 'making smaller circles' as defined in the Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin, you try to elaborate on different parts of the process improving as you go, so now that you know that one chunk of the process is the mixing part you could stick with the same song and release several remixes of your own song, or if you want to improve your musicianship you would focus on the live music element and being able to play for ten minutes straight to a live audience like family members or a coffee shop.
Doing the whole process in this iterative 'dry run' manner also gets it in your head that you can do the whole process; it makes it more real. Your mind will process in a whole-picture way. Could this possibly be the same reason that learning one language helps you learn another language?