Making Music Personal

photo by phillipsandwich

This article will be geared more towards my reflection and relationship with music – in an effort – that musicians might be able to identify with me. I write, and am here, to hopefully provide critical and helpful information to better shape your priorities and understanding (even if it is not shaped like mine) of your relationship with the musical world. I can only offer what I’ve learned so far on my musical journey. I’ve played to the underground network of musicians for about seven years; followed and listened to music of all diversities, eras and popularity; and now I strive to open up my full-fledging journey using what I know and learning what I don’t know.

I understand I have much to learn; and that in itself is a valuable lesson to learn as a musician and individual.

Just within these three articles / interviews that I’ve offered for Gen-Y Rock Stars and Label 2.0 over the last two months, I’ve noticed that while I’m writing these articles it’s been a unique and fascinating learning experience for me, as well, because there is something beneficial about disciplining yourself to sit down and carve out time to simply reflect on what music means to you. This reflection becomes a very eye-opening and satisfying process.

Writing allows me to figure out and solidify:

• What music means to me
• And in general, what all sorts of things mean to me.

In the authentic cases, music is driven by what all sorts of things mean to people; passions and personal thoughts cannot become alive until they are written down and fully expressed. Likewise, these personal thoughts cannot become alive (through music!) until they are first realized and shaped from in one’s mind to some kind of written form.

Writing Out Your Ideas

As I continue to learn, writing out my thoughts about music, or anything for that matter, is a completely different process than just simply thinking about it for a short or even long period of time. When ideas are written out they are able to create and connect other ideas in ways that just thinking about them momentarily might not create. An example could be similar to writing a melody, harmony, beat or any musical pattern only in your head and not actually putting it into play on your instrument. (That example right there probably wouldn’t have came to me if I hadn’t taken the time to think and write this article!) If you start playing what you have in your head you might be able to keep the juices flowing and create something that wouldn’t have been created because you kept it in your head.

Only having your musical values in your head is just like only having musical compositions in your head; it does not do you much good; they’re easily forgettable and should be put into written motion.

This might seem kind of ironic, but if you are in some kind of frustrating musical writer’s block, try taking some time to write out (express) your thoughts about music.

This will allow you to stay focused on music, but also allow you to express why you are making music in the first place. After writing your thoughts about music and then going back to writing on your instrument, you might be re-inspired and reconnect to a feeling. The thoughts that you have in your head might be too abstract and when you write them out they might spark the right material, lyric, passion, note or progression that wasn’t occurring to you before because you might have been too tensed up.

Musicians should be able to describe to themselves and to others what music means to them.

Since I am still getting acquainted with what kind of musicians, reviewers and audiences view this marketing site, I am still trying to collect what degrees of musical pursuits, values and expectations might be on the horizon for all of you; all of us as ambitious musical participants. My relationship with music would have me suggest that there is power in writing out your ideas rather than just relying on in-passing thoughts through out the day.

Being able to describe, in writing, how you want your music to sound, what you want for your music’s future, or even what you want for your future, should help make it easier to collect and shape what you want out of your musical journey. I write out my thoughts because it is a liberating kind of expression for me; and similarly, I write music because it’s a chance for me to liberate my appreciations and abilities that I have for music.

Do you write out your thoughts? What are some ways that you use to express your beliefs, thoughts and emotions from being a musician?

This post was written by Zach Frmmel, a senior at UCF majoring in English Literature with a minor in Humanities. He plays in an indie band, GreatFriendofMine, and you can check out their music on Bandcamp here. Your can also follow Zach on Twiiter, @chazlimmerf

Tags: Music Marketing, writing, Zach Frmmel