Thank fucking God - a musical breakthrough climbed down my chimney last night and gave me the best gift ever. HOPE. I've been smashing my forehead against the Focusrite (music recording equipment) for months, no progress, just despair and frustration and a nasty voice in the back of my head that tells me I'm not good enough to ever make real music. Last night, something finally clicked and I understood Abelton, how all the tracks can dance around each other, the subtle accents of random noises in the background that add so much character to a song, the reason WHY I want certain instruments to enter & exit at certain moments, and my brain even started hallucinating music to fill in the blanks, hearing melodies and riffs I would have to go record later and insert. It was magical. I could hear so much beauty in the sounds that I created and the way I arranged them. Miraculous! I thought I'd never get to this point and I'm so joyous because I realize I'm on just at the very beginning. So this morning, I'd like to remind us all that breakthroughs do not randomly appear. They are the view from the summit of the mountain and you don't get to see it until AFTER you've invested all the arduous time & effort climbing. When you start your climb, the summit seems impossibility far away. Half way up the mountain, you feel tired and doubt if you'll make it. Sometimes you hit a false summit, thinking you've gone as far as you can. Sometimes you lose sight of the summit or feel like switchbacks having you walking in circles instead of making any upward progress and all you can think about is how out of shape you are and maybe you should just give up. But then, suddenly, you're at the very top and everything is laid out before you; the most beautiful view and clarity and you can sit down and eat your lunch full of pride, renewed self-belief and thoughts of which mountain out there in the distance you want to climb next. // Cha
