New Monday #104
Happy Monday -
Anyone still have NAMMtrax? My cough finally stopped killing me last night.
Today, New Monday is two years old. 104 weekly episodes without missing a single dingle Monday. A milestone.
First of all, thank you to all who read, all who click through, all who skip, and all of you who write in. You’re the reason this thing gets written.
The original idea for New Monday came out of conversations Dan and I would have, wide-ranging conversations about audio, music and creativity. I thought people might find the conversations interesting and inspirational (I certainly did). And I thought maybe it would be a good way to begin the week. Some history. Some news. Some ideas. Things to help you look forward to getting into the studio and creating. A different way of looking at your Monday. Not as the same old thing, but as the start of something exciting.
The first two or three episodes came out of those conversations with Dan, and we still have those conversations, but NM has morphed into its own thing, which I find hard to describe, because it seems to be always changing. A reader, Matt, described it as, "a weekly love letter about all things music.” I’ll go with that.
Challenge Yourself
As I have mentioned, I’m rather ADHD, very inconsistent, and find planning and discipline impossibly difficult. Basically, I’m a nut rolling down the roof of a house, onto the driveway then down a hill. Committing to writing New Monday weekly, with no end date in sight, has been a huge challenge. Doing something daily or weekly is a wonderful way to move the ball of your life forward, to learn, to grow. I’d bet a bunch of you are already committed to doing something like a daily/weekly music practice. For those that aren’t, consider this your invitation to start. I cannot recommend it enough.
Things I’ve Learned
It’s going to be usually average, occasionally good, sometimes bad. Anything you do is going to bounce around in terms of quality and your level of satisfaction with it. That’s life in general. If you chase perfect, you’ll usually find something to be disappointed about. Pick something else to chase. Use a more tangible yardstick for measurement of success.
I decided I was going to commit to finished: around 1000 words written and emailed every Monday around 10am Eastern time. Send it. If it sucked, I sent it. If I hated it, I sent it. If I liked it, I sent it. If I thought it was funny, I sent it. If I had to pull over to the side of the road and tether my laptop to the iPhone, I sent it. If I had nothing to say, I sent it. If I felt bad about it, I sent it.
So, whatever you’re up to, commit to the doing of it, not the quality of it.
Quality will come. The more you do, the better you get. Quality will come from consistency, not from trying to have quality. Obviously, you have to push a bit. Practicing Chopsticks isn’t going to help you play Rachmaninov. I’m assuming you're conscientious. Want to get better at mixing? Knock out a song a week. Don’t have enough to mix? Search out free stuff on the web like this.
There’s a concept I throw around called Minimal Competency Level.
When you first start doing anything, you have this huge dynamic range, from brilliant at the top to utter suckage at the bottom. See diagrams:
Brilliance always stays at the top, but the more you work, the more your output sucks less. In other words, even your bad stuff becomes not all that bad. Your Minimal Competency Level comes up. You’ll still bounce around, occasionally hitting brilliance, but even the stuff that you think sucks will be pretty good. Thank god. Keep at it, and you’ll level up.
Allow change. You’re a creative person. You’re wired for novelty and you move away from what is boring. New ideas will come to you. You’ll steal them or people will suggest things or there will be happy accidents. Choose to experiment and explore, and see where ideas might take you. The things that work will stick around; the things that don’t will go away. New Monday changes all the time, although it has moved into a kind of format, which I’m partially happy about, because it makes it easier for me to write, but I also hate it because I want to be surprised, and be surprising.
One thing I never want is the same old thing, even if it’s good. I want you all to be a little on edge, never knowing exactly what to expect when you click these emails open. It keeps people paying attention. SO many things about music are the same old same old. The same chords, the same snare sounds. The same vocal styles. Imagine how cool radio was in the early 70s when Motown, Led Zeppelin, Engelbert Humperdinck, Lynn Anderson, Gamble and Huff and Bowie were all possible. Or the 80s when Prince could turn up alongside Nirvana alongside Rick Astley alongside Laurie Anderson. Damn, radio could be so surprising.
Allow things to come to you from other worlds.
Unexpected Value. You will get unintended benefits and value. In fact, the expected value of whatever it is you do might pale in comparison to the actual value it brings you. New Monday has brought all sorts of completely unexpected relationships and opportunities into our laps. Dan and I never expected that. I’ve met and have been in correspondence with a ton of you—that’s been wonderful. I’ve made some very good friends. I’ve become a writer as a result of New Monday. I never thought I could crank out 5k to 10k words a week, but I can. I’m in the process of writing a book because of New Monday. I never saw that coming.
Change yourself. If you pull off a sustained repetitive project, you’ll make yourself into a different person. Your attitude towards yourself will change. Your relationship to fear and criticism will shift. Your confidence will increase. You’ll probably become more forgiving of yourself and more accepting of your limitations and quirks. You’ll batter down your perfectionist tendencies. You’ll get over yourself. Heck, you’ll plain old get better at a skill.
I’m looking for another weekly or daily thing to do. Perhaps I’ll try physical exercise (that remains so difficult for me — I get so damn bored).
Of a Repetitive Nature
Here are a few things to hear.
Here’s a thing to listen to...
First up: Michiru Aoyama. A quick visit to his Apple Music page reveals a never-ending scroll of albums. As I write this, his latest was released February 8th. By the time you read this, his latest release will be February 9th. He’s been making an album of ambient music daily since October of 2019. Each album consists of 8 songs, each the same length, resulting in short, lush ambient instrumentals lasting about 20 minutes. Some works are longer, some shorter. It takes him all day to put together a record, and he maintains a tightly disciplined schedule to do so. It isn’t the most creative music one might hear, but it makes Mr. Aoyama a living. Here’s a quick article/interview.
Brian Epp doesn’t do an album daily, but if you follow him on Facebook, you’ll see he goes for months on end releasing a song and a video a day. He’s incredibly prolific. He plays everything on his recording, and they’re all over the place stylistically. He relentlessly experiments with instruments, themes, and recording techniques. Sub Human Isolation Units is a fully realized composition. I wish I had a quarter of this guy’s creative juice.
We are at the end of 104. Not the best ending to a year of these things, but not the worst. Not brilliant but above my Minimal Competency Level. Another year writing these seems daunting, but I trust ideas will come. There’s so much music out there.
Now, you have a year ahead of you. Pick. Pick something to better you. To move the ball of your life forward. Doesn’t have to be music or creative. It can be getting your social media posts into a weekly routine. Baking a loaf of bread every other day. Exercising. Pick.
If any of you decide to embark on a weekly or daily music or recording, or really any sort of practice, I’d love to hear about it, so feel free to write. If you’d like a personalized challenge from me, that can be arranged. If you want to toss around some ideas, we can do that, too.
Very warm regards, all.
Luke