In this section which is dedicated to my students, clients and
several subscribers, I usually give tips, from the action, focused on
productivity, but now, I will go to the opposite way.
In a
lifetime of tireless work, as time goes by, the study and talent becomes
more insufficient. For that, I have discovered a tremendous secret that
carries years of experience: it is okay to stop.
The limit: In
my experience, I have been lucky to know and exceed my limits because
you can know them. Consequently, you can acquire commitments that you
can fulfill and also reject in which you will not be able to achieve in
an optimal way (but "what is optimal?", this topic could develop another
post too: How to say not?). My limits as a composer, sessionist of pop
music in piano, arranger, producer and co-composer, and teacher have
been:
Composition: 200 songs in 2 months; 4 songs in one day (at the age of 14)
- In sessions - recordings: record 12 tracks in 2 hours (with band) (2012)
- In recording compositions: record 16 tracks in 3 hours. (2018)
- In composition and production: Close a compositional collaboration and make the arrangement in the DAW-model for 20 instruments approx (including 6 brass) in one day. (2018)
- In arrangements and production: make a bigband arrangement with the recording in vst in 2 days and make 3 arrangements for a string quartet and piano in one night (in both cases the experience was crazy and I would honestly prefer to not repeat it again). (2013 and 2018)
Quantity does not
imply quality; My last piano work "Colors" took me almost 6 months to
write. The disc called Escamas took me 4 years, but Seventh Gate
composed it (the main lines and ideas) in 2 months.
According to
my limits, I prefer to have 2 weeks to study a session / event. In case
of productions and compositions (works made for hire) or co-compositions
between 1 to 2 months, but that is my case and I believe that each one
must find the balance between what he/she considers the minimum to
deliver and the healthy time it takes do it. Regarding to my own
compositions, nowadays, I have accumulated so many that to compose them I
take the time I have to take, and in the production of these the limit
is the release date. Returning to the limits in work for- other people:
in many cases I felt stress and other negative emotions that ... looking
back at it makes no sense when you choose to do what you are passionate
about.
Just to be clear, this text is written to self-demanding,
perfectionist people, who loves to do things well and who, in a certain
way, cannot avoid it; these are the people I work with. Under no
circumstances I believe that mediocrity leads anywhere, although in the
world we live, to be an expert in something does not imply that you are
doing well, furthermore, the development and deployment of all the
skills that involve moving forward require discipline and work. On the
other hand, moving on to the other extreme is could be a problem that
can cost you a lot if you can't stop even a few minutes a day, or
whatever it takes.
The moderation came to me like a lightning
when I began to have serious health problems due to I had not really
felt that since the injury that I acquired during my travels and that
never leaves me. From different points of view, entrepreneurship
studies, yoga, philosophy books, friends, etc. I understood that
moderation is like the silence of traditional music, without breathing
there is no singing, without air there is no life. If you don't know how
to measure moderation, my tip today is to look for it and keep working
hard, constantly moving forward, loving music / production or whatever
you do, enjoy it. Having those little breaths help you to remember that
we are "" "" lucky "" "to be able to give ourselves time to do what we
are passionate about.
Photography y Text: Danilo Dawson
