Seeds of Music – Where Ideas Are Born
Kyle Williams told me he got the idea for Seeds of Music when he was talking to a musical friend about his own music dilemma.
A few years ago, Kyle said he was felt a confused about what to do next as a songwriter and musician with the current chaos of the music industry; his friend offered advice that planted a larger seed.
“Why not interview successful and motivated folks in the music business?”
Seeds of Music was born! And it’s become a great site, full of interviews with music professionals about topics all artists face.
In September, while Natalie and I were living in a hotel and trying to close on our house, Kyle reached out to me. He asked if I’d be interested in doing an interview with Seeds of Music. Our talk was a nice break from my stressful month of uncertainty. Uncertainty, a theme, indeed!
The main theme of the interview was about building a mailing list, but we also discussed some of the other aspects of working in music, aka, making a living! Our video interview is here.
After the interview concluded, I chatted with Kyle for an additional hour about his thoughts on music and goals. Kyle feeds on the positive attitudes, even if the music business is difficult to predict.
I walked away inspired. His site might offer some seeds for you, too.
PS: Here are two of my favorite interview’s Kyle’s conducted so far:
1. Jack Conte – Patreon gives new meaning to patronage and the creative class!
2. Gabriel Mann: How to make a living as a musician? Be Useful (AWESOME THEME!)
Note, I misspoke in my interview and meant to reference Gabriel Mann. (I accidentally said Brandon Mann; not sure why baseball was on my mind.)
Hiking, Looking Backward, and Writing
Every morning, Lois, my dog, insists that we go on our daily run. She’s become my personal trainer.
There is a lovely, wooded, 80-acre park nearby our house that we’ve made part of our route. The beginning of the trail is slightly uphill. It reminds me how out of shape I am. (Lois says she’s in excellent shape.)
Today, after running a mile into the trail, I decided to turnaround and take the same trail home. What does this route looks like from the opposite perspective?
The sun was to our back for the start of our run, and we were treated with the sun peaking through the colorful, autumn leaves on the return home. (Plus, it was easier to hike down hill!)
The forest trail reminds me of the importance of writing, composing, or creating. It offers us to consider multiple perspectives about an experience, the simplest being looking forward or looking backward.
Often, we may find that looking backward is an easier trail to hike.
It’s not about the years, but minutes and hours
My guitar students often ask, “How long will it take for me to learn guitar? How many years have you been playing?”
I could give a long-winded answer, a synopsis, or an adage to this question.
The long-winded answer is a detailed description of my twenty years of playing guitar, which begins with my initial, failed piano lessons at age nine because I never practiced, to the foundations I learned when I practiced and played guitar five to six hours a day during high school (studying songs, playing in jazz band, etc), and the songwriting I internalized during college years, then plateaus where I didn’t improve much, and draughts when I was teaching English and I struggled to dedicate time to music, and the one summer I took lessons with Ken Andreoni to study how he interprets modes, to the songwriting sessions where I kicked out songs ever week, and my current practice routine…
However, that’s not the answer my students are seeking.
So my synopsis is this: practice 15-30 minutes everyday and you will improve. You will find some techniques, chords, songs, and concepts will take more or less time to learn than others. Sacrifice 30 minutes of wasting time on Facebook or watching one rerun of the Simpsons, and make that guitar time.
And the adage? Play guitar everyday. It’s about the minutes, not years.
I think the adage is true for about learning anything, right? Sure, it might take 10,000 hours of deliberate, focused practice to become a master of something, but it only takes 15-30 minutes every day to enjoy a skill as a hobby!
The world might be a happier, heathier place with more folks taking up hobbies, than taking selfies.
Grandpa Burg, a violin hero in his 90s, inspiring future musicians!
How do you start a new project?
- Do you start at the beginning, like a runner at the starting line, ready for the gun to fire?
- Or at the end, with the definite vision in mind, working your way backwards?
- How about starting in medias res, somewhere in the middle, and circle around the story, like a Greek drama?
- Or do you start with simply a spark of inspiration, no concrete plan, like jumping into the cold waters of the lake?
There is no one way to start working a project, except by starting.
The Scary Moment of Having No More Excuses to Create Art
For a five months, my wife and I were negotiating with a bank to close on our dream house.
“Dream house” might be an odd choice of words for folks to hear, for our dream house isn’t a giant mansion or lake front property. Rather, we simply dreamed of having a large enough, cute, quaint home in Ann Arbor that we could afford.
In the spring, we created a check list of 10 things we wanted to have:
1. four bedrooms (office for Natalie!),
2. a yard (space for our pup Lois!),
3. a basement (music space for me!),
4. a garage,
5. 1200+ square feet,
6. a decent sized kitchen,
7. Ann Arbor locations,
8. Ann Arbor schools,
9. historic charm, and the biggest kicker:
10. affordably in our budget.
We looked at our list and assumed we would have to compromise. Home prices in Ann Arbor are expensive, and home sizes are rather small. To put this in perspective, our rental house was 800ish sq. ft, and the rental price was being raised to $1500.
But luck shined on us! The first home we saw, had every thing on our check list! We went to other house showings during he summer, but nothing compared to that Cape Cod.
After multiple delays and two mess ups caused by sellers, we finally closed in September.
The wait was worth it. We’ve been living in our Cape Code for a week. We wake up each morning with smiles on our faces. Do we really live here?
Today, I realized that I no longer had any more excuses to not be working on music every day. If I’m not creating, I couldn’t blame the procrastination on feeling cramped, on being too busy, on being homeless (which we sort of were all of August and September).
I now have the space to create.
And honestly, I never should let myself believe excuses not to create or reach goals. There is never a perfect situation for the artist or musician. We must always fight procrastination, distraction, and life getting in the way of art.
In January, I created a goal to write a song a week. 27 weeks in, I had to abandon ship as Natalie and I moved out of our rental before closing. Two songwriters have kept our game alive; Jon and Manny have written a song every week, reminding me that we can beat excuses. It’s time for me to get back on the horse.
