International

Concept

Album

Month

Wow, I've got lots to say. This has been an awesome experience.
I didn't beat the challenge; all the rules were met except one.
10 - Everything I created was original. The theme of the album was to remix other things. Well, what I ended up doing was taking a motif from another song, making it my own, and then built a song around that. Some of the results are completely unrecognizable from their source, some just barely. One song breaks this pattern by only using some speech samples; that one has no musical relation to it's source. Another track is only included because I liked how it turned out. Consider it a bonus track.
20 & 30 - I started this challenge on March 1st. And by "started" I mean I installed a driver for an old midi keyboard I had in the basement and installed Garageband onto my computer. On March 2nd I googled help on getting my keyboard working and continued to install Garageband. It took two days to install. On March 3rd I googled "how to use Garageband". Get the picture? There was nothing from before March because I literally was starting from zero. Before this project, the total number of songs I had written over the course of my entire life was... zero. I had written some phrases, some ideas. Zero songs. I wasn't even sure I could write a whole song. Anyway, who even knows where those little scraps of music are right now? Or what format they're in? Nope, rules of 20 & 30 were covered.
40 - This was my one and only challenge. I did not know if I could create even 3 minutes of music. I gave my chances of producing 40 minutes a solid 0%. The fact that in the end I produced nearly 20 minutes... that is amazing. I am truly amazed. I did not know I had this in me. Next year, I will totally BEAT THIS CHALLENGE!
This project, for me, was completely "learning to swim by jumping off the deep end". In the end I learned that I can make songs, they're pretty decent, I enjoy doing it, I get into a flow state very quickly doing it, and my wife and kids like listening to the results. I know I failed the challenge, but there is no way for me to see this as anything other than a total win. The project was a way to trick myself into learning something awesome about myself and my life is richer for it.
I took some notes during the month. This is all honest and true.
3/1: Dug my old midi keyboard out of the basement, installed GarageBand.
3/2: Googled help on getting keyboard working, continued to download GarageBand, played with Noise.
3/3: Googled how to use GarageBand, got my motifs started, bought Rebirth for iOS and got some rhythms going.
3/4: Tried to move forward with what I had so far, had no idea how to do that, panicked. "I guess I can't actually do this."
3/5: Did some random stuff, hit on something decent, got my first song framework in place. "I need to do what I always do: throw random stuff at the wall until something sticks."
3/7: Formed melodic phrases.
3/10: I can copy/paste from Figure to GB. This will be a big help.
3/16: Two songs done. Only one counts. Also, I think I want to add a few measures to one.
3/21: Discovered GB live loops and also very cool effects.
3/24: Did very little today due to a day long massive headache.
3/26: Added vocal samples to 4th track, completing it.
3/29: "I need to suck for today." But then it got better.
3/31: Finished trk5. Tweaked trk2. Can't stop; maybe one more? Yep, did one more.
That last note... I finished the work I had left for the last day and felt sad. I didn't want to be done. So with 4 hours left I made another song. Again, I am so surprised and happy to have found this capability in me.
So here's the lesson I would share with others: Don't be afraid. Just jump into the deep end and flail about and be cool with the possibility of failing. The worst thing that happens is you have a funny story about how one time you tried something crazy and failed spectacularly. It beats watching more tv. And you just might be surprised when you don't fail and you discover something new about yourself. I believe living your life as a never ending series of new jumps into new deep-ends leads to, when you're old and lying on your deathbed, looking back on your life and smiling.
Final note: I have much to learn and improve and one of those things is production. I swear, the whole thing sounds great on my headphones. In other environments your mileage will vary.