Well, I finally, actually finished a track. After years of sketches, experiments, half-efforts and abandoned ideas, I finally saw a track through from start to finish, and, -gasp- I didn’t hate it. I’ve sent it to a couple friends, and lo and behold, they think it’s “tight”, “mixed well”, “coherent”, possessing “flow” and a “head-nodder”.
I’m not gonna link to this track. Linking to it would mean that I felt like it was finished, that it didn’t need any more work, that I was ready to release it to the world. I’m not, but I almost am. If you want to hear it, send me an email and I’ll consider sending you a link.
The funny thing is, I didn’t have to give up being picky about my music or anything. I was picky, and it’s still almost done. It’s not the most amazing track ever made, but I feel it’s all those things my friends said. On a big system, the bass would slay. It would definitely wreck heads.
So, that has led to some increased confidence about where I’m going with this music shit. I think finishing this track was the result of two things: one, getting to the arrangement a lot sooner in the compositional process and two, it’s the payoff of an extended period of committed study to the instruments I play, and synthesis/sampling techniques in general.
Feels good.