Have a nice and creative month everyone! We are in the beginning of October and the best thing we can do is to schedule all these things we want to do in this month or even further the next two , three months.
Today is the starting date of the 1-5 songs production challenge. We must write,record ,mix and release 1-5 songs until 12/30. If we want to be accountable to our goal ,we should consider all the factors that may hold us back from the things we have to do in order to achieve our goal. As I have told you before ,there are no excuses like “I have so many things to do ,and I have no free time left for me” or “ I don’t have the knowledge to do something like that right now” .The best thing you can do for yourself is to schedule everything you want to do and set the right priorities.
Maybe you are the “who needs a schedule? I am an artist and such things like deadlines eliminate your inspiration. I agree but not having a schedule,you are going nowhere!
What does that mean for our home studio? As I told you before in a previous post the most easiest thing for us to do is to get in our home studio with no schedule and just hanging around with all these “important” things we have to do but they keep us away from our goals.The perception of writing music,songsand recording whenever we have free time is another factor that we don’t do as many things we want to do.It eliminates our creativity. We have talked about this many times in the past,that we don’t have to wait for the inspiration to strike . The inspiration comes through the work! If you have one of these times where inspiration comes and gives you a very good idea for a song ,then you have a very good reason and motivation to get in your home studio and get something started.But if you do this on schedule ,then you have more time to your disposal to work on your projects.
I’m sure that you have plenty songs or parts of it recorded to your mobile phone ,written to a piece of paper or even you have unfinished projects into your p/c and still remain ideas.From my experience I can tell you ,that you can’t do that much without a schedule! Even if you want to finish that project you are working on for the last 2 years,it’s very hard to accomplish anything if you don’t set the right priorities.
MAKE A SCHEDULE FOR YOUR PROJECTS
You have to think and schedule all these actions that must be taken to go towards your goal. Let’s say you have to schedule this 1-5 songs production challenge starting today and has due date 12/30. As you know this month will be songwriting month .You have to book time for yourself to write some songs. Even if you have only two hours a week for songwriting you have to set a schedule and be very consistent. You have to consider that life happens and some of you have day jobs ,families and you have to add this one,but this one is very important too. You have to prioritize what is the most important things in your life and what can help you achieve your goals. The best think you can do is to write down to a piece of paper your goal (this challenge for example) and what you have to do for getting things done and finish your project! You can tell what you are willing to do to your wife or a friend and tell about your deadline. This way you will be accountable to someone.The next step is to schedule in details what you are going to do in your home studio and when. Without a schedule you are going just to waste your time.Believe me there are so many things to do I your home studio just to spend two or three hours without doing nothing.
Another thing that I ‘d like to mention is to set goals that will be realistic and achievable. Let me explain you on this one. You can’t schedule to record and mix in one month 5-10 songs if you have a plan of working in your home studio only 2 hours a week. This can’t be done.It’s something unrealistic! As I told you before October is songwriting month. This means you can have by the end of the month 5 or more songs. What about the next month? You can’t record, let’s say 6 songs, if you have planned only two hours a week in your home studio. If you set realistic goals and you have a schedule for everything , that reminds you that you are doing something important for you! The deadlines will keep you accountable and focus to your goal. You will feel much better with yourself when you get better results!
DEFINE YOUR SONGWRITING TIME AND RECORDING TIME (IMPORTANT!)
I know that I wrote it again but this month is songwriting month! And why am I saying this again now? Because many of you are confused about the songwriting process. Songwriting isn’t about using your DAW, and recording scratch songs, creating audio tracks and so much work to do just for the need to capture your idea somewhere. You’re missing the point here! Songwriting is all about you and your instrument. You can use technology with so many ways. Just record your idea to your mobile phone. Write the lyrics in a notepad and there you go! You have your idea written and you stay focus on your songs.If you turn your p/c on, you will waste your time on doing other things than these you should.Recording phase is a whole different procedure and you can’t mess it up with songwriting!
Leave your comments and let me know about the goal you have set for this 1-5 songs challenge and if you have any schedules onn this project.