SUMMARY
Today’s theme was workflow. To summarize my work flow, I spent the day working on a jazzy-ish swing-ish composition.
PRACTICE ROOM (GUITAR LESSONS)
- Rick Beato: 5 Things Every Beginner Guitarist SHOULD Learn (9:55)
- Continue Justin’s 117 Free Lessons YouTube Playlist
- Want a bigger challenge?
CLASSROOM (THEORY & ANALYSIS)
- Holistic Songwriting’s Artist Series
- Genius’ Songs Deconstructed Series
- Rick Beato’s What Makes This Song Great Series
LAB (THEORY PRACTICED)
OUTSIDE (CREATIVITY & THE BRAIN)
Kevin Kelly Interview: Part 1 (Full Episode) from The Tim Ferriss Show (Podcast)
“He is Senior Maverick at Wired magazine, which he co-founded in 1993. He also co-founded the All Species Foundation, a non-profit aimed at cataloging and identifying every living species on earth. In his spare time, he writes bestselling books, co-founded the Rosetta Project, which is building an archive of ALL documented human languages and serves on the board of the Long Now Foundation. As part of the last, he’s investigating how to revive and restore endangered or extinct species, including the Wooly Mammoth.” – From YouTube video description
STUDIO (SONGWRITING)
- Holistic Songwriting:
I found a drumline on Soundtrap that I really like, and I’m going to use it to write a song. It’s so cool! The line is in 3/4 and its supper jazzy, maybe even bluesey. I want to write a piano and cello line to it. of course because of the jazzy feel, I want to keep the main melody in the lyrics.
Today I focused on this “jazzy song”. First of all, it’s harder than I thought it would be. I’ve gotten a big chunk of it kinda done, but it still doesn’t feel right. I think it needs a stand up bass or saxophone. The problem is that Soundtrap doesn’t have either of those. Well it does, but they don’t sound very good. The main thing I need to work on for that song is finishing the draft. Then i’ll go back and fix the tone of the song. (that’s my plan).
CONTROL ROOM (RECORDING & MIXING)
- Clark Eagling: Soundtrap tutorial 5 – Arranging the song, Mixing and adding effects
- all five videos in the playlist,
- \ Soundtrap Support (Effects and Mixing)
- other creative people online using Soundtrap and see how they are using it, like Swick’s Classroom Recreating Chainsmokers on Soundtrap.
WHAT I LEARNED and PROBLEMS I SOLVED
I underestimated the difficulty of writing a piano line that’s off beat. I got it sounding good after a bunch of tries, but it still didn’t sound right. I decided to listen to other people’s songs to compare and contrast. I realized that the style I was trying to recreate is very bass heavy. That’s what I was missing. Considering that, I’m going to go back to the project to try out new bass lines.
TODAY’s ACTIVITY EVALUATION
Content (The WHAT)
Rating: OK – 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – HIGHLY ENGAGED
Rating: 4
I liked that I could work on a project the whole time.
Process (The HOW)
Rating: OK – 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – HIGHLY ENGAGED
Rating: 5
Surprisingly I was productive and not distracted.