How the hell did this spiral so quickly from quite an interesting thread about peoples perceptions of talent and what it means to them to ikanhaz pics?
Not that I mind, I love cats almost as much as I love music, but was quite enjoying reading peoples thoughts on the subject.
My thoughts, well, I too struggle with this every day. I question my talent, whether I should be doing this at all, weather anyone will ever one day want to buy my music from me and play it to other people. Not for the money, but because I want make music that people enjoy.
There are many tracks out there (like just about anything by underworld) that when I listen to them, the way they make me feel makes me think, if I can write a track one day that makes people feel the way that this track makes me feel, then Ive made it. I will be happy with my talent.
Im very much a beginner. Been producing for about 4 months, but DJing for about 8 years and involved in the dance music scene for about 16 years.
I recently had a massive creative block where I just couldnt even think about how to write a melody, let alone a whole track. It can be spirit crushing.
Times like that I find its best to just sit down and play around with synth programming, or routing effects etc in interesting ways, taking the pressure off myself and having fun and learning. Like most things in life I find that worrying about something is much worse than the actual thing itself.
Most of how I make music is instinctive, I have some basic musical theory knowledge, played piano for about a year when I was quite young, played bass and six string in some rubbish bands at high school but theres a hell of a lot more I dont know than I do know.
I know I enjoy making my music, I know I enjoy listening to it when its finished and I know the people I have played my music to seemed to enjoy it, though most of those are more "punters" more than musicians themselves.
I dont think that I could say that I am really "talented" yet, I think I have some talent that needs to be developed further, but then again, I dont know that you are every truly satisfied with where you are at as an artist, thats what drives us to constantly keep developing and evolving.
I am pleased with the outcome of my music at this point, Im aware of where I am at as a producer, my limitations etc and I look forward to the kinds of music I will be producing when I have a few years knowledge and experience under my belt.
Being scared that I wouldnt have the talent stopped me from getting into producing for years, I watched people I knew getting into it, many of them getting tracks released and doing really well out of it. I got to the point where I realised that it didnt matter, there will always be people who are more gifted or knowlegeable than I am, but that shouldnt stop me from expressing myself and denying me the huge amount of pleasure I get from the proccess...
Anyway, just my 0.02 worth....
