The Next Battle

Have you worked out yet I'm a very driven, look forward, kind of girl!

So the good news, since my first attempt to write a song I've come so so so so very far, I know that and I'm grateful for it.  I'm amazed in fact but.....

I'm me and being me means looking forward to the next challenge so that's what I'm doing.  Remember my post about crash and burn?  Well it's just how I'm built but it's also how I keep the motivation and the momentum going and I think that's key to all this.

What's this all about?  Well I'm moving on again.  Kind of!  I've been listening to my music, I tend to do that a lot it's a little weird but it's how I process what I've done and understand what I like and what I don't.  It starts off being new and fresh and cool but as I listen I'll find it being more stripped and I'll start to hear the flaws I want to fix (oh sooo so many!), the bits I love, the story that's hidden beneath what I actually recorded.  I can't always (or usually even) fix it but it helps me move forward just a little to the next song.   That's the point of all this early stuff anyway.

I'm painfully aware all my music pretty much fits together in terms of sound even if I've mixed up the genre a little (which really surprised me, at this stage I expected them all to sound exactly the same!).  What I want now is to start thinking about getting outside of my current style and expanding my repertoire so to speak.  Which is far far harder to do than it sounds for two reasons.

1)  I am using a very very limited number of skills and pushing them to get the results I am thus far.  The reason I have my "sound" is because it's all I can do with what I've got.  The solution, learn more!  In particular drums, drum beats and rhythms often define a song style and set the foundation and all I can do thus far is a couple of dodgy funk beats and a couple of dodgy rock beats. It's not surprising they always lead me on the same journey. I need to learn how to lay down the foundations so I can build on them,  That takes time and so it's going to be a real challenge and a longer term one.  Don't expect a breakthrough on this next week!  And it's a similar battle with piano and guitar (both rhythm and lead) but that's understandable at this stage,

2)  I need to understand other styles in order to play them, song structure, techniques & even how instruments I don't play feature prominently - for example, take country, without some very cool banjo, yes there are plenty that don't have banjo, but it's pretty important as are violins and double bass etc.  Country can just be cool guitar but it's also a lot more than that.  And the fact I don't sing means I need to find a way to compensate, take out the singing and the music NEEDS to be more interesting.

There is another option and it's one I'll be perusing and that's to learn how to use my limited skills in new ways.   I'll be challenging my teachers to open me up to new ideas based on what I've already done.  Tweak it a little and find a new option.  See didn't I tell you how amazing all this is, it's not easy, quite the opposite in fact being a musician is a very demanding and difficult choice but in terms of fulfilment, development and payback it's got to be up there as being one of the best (next to parenting which is an incredible journey).