As I wrote previously, I had almost no interest in pursuing writing music in a long term or professional capacity when I was growing up. I’ve always had a fondness for music and instruments, but I thought pursuing that career would require tons of effort that could amount to little reward. I didn’t enjoy making music enough to potentially sacrifice other less risky opportunities. I also grew up in a time before modern convinces such as YouTube and inexpensive home recording studios were easily available to everyone. Now anyone with a microphone and a computer can record a song and post it to the internet. Of course, that also creates other challenges, such as how to stand out when it’s easier for everyone else to do what you are doing, but that’s something I’ll worry about later. Unfortunately I never got the chance to join a band or small performing group when I was younger either. My high school friends were more in to video games and computers.
My current interest in song writing started as a result of exploring free online classes through Coursera. I had taken classes in topics such as graphic design, philosophy, and computer coding, but I was basically open to trying anything. I happened upon a song writing class taught by Pat Pattison from Berkley’s College of Music. I still don’t know much about who are the big stars in the music writing world to this day, but I’m assuming that since he worked at Berkley, he was probably at least pretty good. I found his approach to writing songs very engaging and practical. It had a well developed method and definite process to it. I was initially worried that the class would involve too much of that out there, abstract, “musiciany” stuff, so I was pleasantly surprised. I studied engineering in college, and I’ve always had an engineer’s mindset for learning and solving problems, so I work better with a set process, parameters, and goals in mind. There are, of course, more abstract parts to writing music, but this gave me a solid idea of where to begin the process. Since then I’ve worked through several of the Berkley Music College work books, most of which were helpful and intuitive. These publications and classes made me realize that there can be a grounded and methodical approach to song writing that I wasn’t aware of before. Granted, I didn’t know much about writing music at all before that.
So over the past few years I’ve been learning about music production on a computer (software, equipment, workflow, etc.), attempting to write some lyrics and music, practicing piano, and mentally developing processes for how to approach every aspect of song writing. I’ve also been trying to think about what style of music would suite me best and would bring me the most enjoyment to make. I’m definitely not going to be a rapper or country superstar, but even within the realms of pop or rock there are lots of different styles and approaches. I certainly have artists that I admire (Billy Joel and The Beatles for instance) for their musical ability, but that doesn’t mean that their style would necessarily fit mine. I didn’t start writing music with the intention of talking or writing about anything in particular, but I do have some ideas about what I might like to say. I don’t have any particular end goals in mind, so I suppose we’ll just have to see where this takes me. I do want to make this blog part of that journey. Considering my other obligations to my son and the rest of my family, I can’t guarantee that this will be a quick journey, but I still have plenty of time left in my life to explore something new and potentially life altering. And if it’s just slightly life altering, that’s fine too.
Thanks for reading and I hope everyone has a great day!
