Well, it’s Easter Sunday - so happy Easter, if that’s your thing.
March has been a pretty transformational month; apart from Spring making its appearance, it’s been a month of growth (taking chances), re-calibrating old beliefs, and inspiration for what’s to come.
After my disappointment of not meeting my goal to record a new demo every month in February (and I will say, my standards for a “demo” are quite high, requiring a high level of sonic quality, to put it simply), my expectations for myself were tempered somewhat when I watched Ian Thornley of Canadian rock band, Big Wreck, talk about his mindset when it comes to singing and performing. I’ve always been in awe of Ian’s voice, so to hear him admit to having some doubts helped to curb some of my own.
In addition to that, a recent interview with Rik Emmitt, who I knew from my days at Humber, also touches on what it’s really like behind the scenes and the challenges of always being “on”. He likens the game of baseball to being a performer, wherein even the best hitters — the hall-of-famers — only average around .350 over their career. To put it into context, that means for every 10 at-bats, they are only getting a hit about 1/3rd of the time.
Being a musician can sometimes feel like that: As well-intentioned and determined you are to hit it out of the park, you’re only human, and so mistakes are part of the game. It’s the determination to continue to hone your craft — and go easy on yourself when you fall short — that will lead to improvements.
All this to say, as musicians and singers, we can be so hard on ourselves, especially if we take the game of music seriously. For beginners and hobbyists, the fun of playing and exploring this new frontier easily eclipses any lack of “technical skills”. But as “serious” musicians, we are often our worst critics.
But much aligned with my recent Stumbling Towards Enlightenment post, what we choose to believe about ourselves and the world can determine what we allow ourselves to do; if you get the attitude right — as many beginners are predispositioned with — then success is far more likely.
This month, along with my songwriter friend Michael, saw us performing at a couple open mics around town. Michael was kind enough (and had the presence of mind, sorry Michael! I’ll be on my game, next time!) to record a couple performances of mine.
Here I am at Hermann’s Jazz Club on View St. with a cover of Beck’s Guess I’m Doin’ Fine:
Then upon request (thanks, Michael) — and fortunately not a very challenging song to sing — another rendition of my song Let You In:
To wrap things up here, I want to share that I’m feeling inspired to put together a collection of the past 10-20 songs that I’ve written over the last several years. These are a collection of songs that encapsulate an era of time for me. Part of me wants to conclude them and put them on some sort of record, for posterity, so that I can begin a new chapter of songwriting.
That will be my focus going forward: finishing up the last bits of the songs that I’ve left unfinished and working towards recording simple guitar and vocal demos as a starting point. From there, I’ll be looking to share these songs with other songwriters to get feedback, improve and iterate on them, and then, hopefully, generate the inspiration and motivation to produce them in my studio.
Producing music — especially when you are quite picky about what you want to hear — can be daunting. I will have to pace myself and schedule time to do this.
Ultimately, I want to enjoy the process. Finding inspiration in the music I grew up on (Radiohead’s Ok Computer and Silverchair’s Neon Ballroom, come to mind) as well as new music and production techniques that stand out to me (listen to the vocal production sound on this track from the 1975, which one of my guitar students wanted to learn this past week).
On that note, I recently recorded a demo of an original song called California Gone. I put it up on my Patreon as it’s not really ready for primetime but offers a glimpse into where the song is going to end up. You can access the demo recording as well as the lyrics there if you sign up.
All in all, I think it’s important to celebrate the small milestones while continuing to be gentle with ourselves. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and as long as you’re enjoying what you’re doing, then you’re succeeding.
Thanks for reading.
Much love,
-Dave
It looks likes you are beginning to find the balance between the seriousness of what you love to do while playing around with it and having fun. It can be a hard balance to strike when we know what we are capable of and fear letting ourselves down. You continue to put yourself out there and the more you do, I am sure you'll be able to channel that post performance before you even go on, transforming on stage before our eyes. I am so proud of what you have accomplished so far and can't wait to see where you take this.
Hi Dave. I loved watching your performances! I especially love your song, California Gone. I totally appreciate how difficult it would be to throw yourself out there in front of real, live people - gasp! However, I bet you'll be darned proud of your performances if you do!
I look forward to hearing more of your music! I definitely want to be there in person some day soon!