Progress Report 1.17.25

“Building a Healthy Creative Practice”

I had two days where I did really well — got off the computer at sunset and spent the evening doing non-computer things. But I had 3 days where I fell down rabbit holes and was up til 4 am. One of those days I wrote a tutorial for my computer genius friend who is new to FL Studio. Not what I planned to do, but it was useful. The other 2 rabbit holes were completely random and had nothing to do with music, and also screwed up my sleep schedule. This stalls out my momentum. “I will never get this project finished, I’ll get distracted like I always do, I might as well give up”

On the plus side — the morning random notes practice is going well. Today is composition number 300! I ordered some colorful new D-12 dice to celebrate. I found a bag of 70 that was on sale and some of the colors are really pretty. So I will pick 15 of the most beautiful and save the other 55 for another project. Maybe at some point toss all 70 at once and make something out of that. Idea for next year???

Part of building a healthy creative practice is having some interaction with other musicians. I took some steps in that direction: set up lessons w/ tutor, talked to computer genius friend about FL Studio, joined Discord server.

Software Goals & Progress

• I want to get better at FL Studio (my main DAW)
• I want to learn the new version of Audacity
• I will need to learn some Ableton Live so I can pass stems to my tutor
• Need to tackle MuseScore so I can share manuscripts w/ tutor
• New software to add some textures and timbres — Midinous, Kaivo

Progress — I sent away to have the manuals printed for Midinous and Kaivo. I hate online manuals. I want something where I can take notes in the margin.

I successfully persuaded my computer genius friend (henceforth to be known as the CGF 😉 ) to download FLS. Some time when our schedules permit, we’ll be able to bounce ideas off each other.

Roadblock

• To get MuseScore 4 I need to go from Windows 8 to Windows 10 or 11
• Started work on new computer 6 months ago
• My daughter offered to build the new rig
• Discussed, shopped & bought all the pieces this spring
• Project has stalled out (we got distracted)
• We need — a clear workspace for her downstairs
• I need to re-arrange office for the new computer

Work on the Actual Music

I FOUND the old files!!! They were buried pretty deep

I picked out a 5 minute section in the middle. Listened, reacted, started transcribing

I had to go through a whole emotional process about — what part of this do I keep, how much of it do I change. I wrote a lot about this in my blog. I stumbled on a couple of vids by Ryan Leach that were comforting. I especially liked this one where he talks about just making a decision and going with it.