This is the third article of a 3-part series – make sure to read the previous ones here:
Don’t Wait Until Perfect
Nothing prevents you from coming up with your own music right from the start. A huge number of musicians had no musical education at all. One of my musical favorites, Armin van Buuren, an electronic music composer, the king of trance, a man who has been at the top of world charts of DJs, performers, and producers of musical compositions with a huge number of awards, has no musical education, and he learned everything on his own.
All he did was write music from childhood. Naturally, he was inspired by other composers, other compositions, because at that time it was the dawn of electronic music. Instruments and ways to synthesize such music were appearing, which he, in fact, began to engage with, implementing all this in practice.
Therefore, nothing prevents you from doing the same and trying to write your own music. At first, it will turn out pretty crappy. If someone listens to your first compositions, there won’t be anything good there. Most likely, there will be some kind of cacophony, maybe traces of talent will be noticeable.
It’s important to determine to what extent this set of interests and skills that you use to write your life composition is your essence. That is, what comes from within you, what you don’t need to force yourself to do, what happens on autopilot, what brings you pleasure, what puts you in a flow state.
If you find such a combination, it’s one of the most wonderful options. It’s that very proverbial “do what you love,” and the result won’t keep you waiting. If you manage to find such a story, you’re simply lucky.
I think that eventually, if we follow the path I’m talking about, the result will be such an occupation. But this requires some effort.
Switch Yourself From Listener To Composer
The next stage is to switch your life paradigm from a music listener to its composer, to its creator. I really like this analogy with music because it very well reflects this dynamic.
As soon as we gather, for example, around a campfire, and someone plays a melody on a guitar, starts singing a song, who is at the center of attention? Who has their minute of fame today? To whom are all eyes, ears, and all sensory perception directed? Naturally, to the one who is now performing the song.
All who listen to it remain just listeners. But today’s star is the performer. In fact, the performer can even be mediocre, average, it doesn’t necessarily have to be Bob Dylan or Justin Timberlake. If you’re the only one who knows how to play the guitar somewhat, that will already be enough.
Because everyone else, most people around the campfire, simply don’t know how to do it, and they will look at you with open mouths.
Approximately the same thing happens when you start to create something, synthesize, create for this world. All the attention and all the laurels of success will not necessarily come to you right away, but you have a huge chance to do it. The chance is much greater than for those who just listen to this music.
At the very least, if you keep practicing, continue in the same spirit, then maybe from songs by the campfire, you’ll move to a stage. First, a small concert hall somewhere in an abandoned village, then a larger hall, one day, possibly, it will be a city stadium, and then a world arena or festival.
All of this, naturally, won’t happen immediately, not with the first attempt. Your skills will over time acquire a clearer cut, because to extract a diamond, you also need to make an effort. You need to get rid of all the extra facets and leave only those that we want to see, and polish them to a shine when you see the final result – a diamond.
But if you look at it while it’s not yet cut, it won’t even cross your mind that something beautiful could come out of it.
Your Taste Matters
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” – Henry David Thoreau, writer (Thoreau 1854)
So, this is the stage of switching your life paradigm from consumption to creation. Become a creator of anything. This absolutely depends on you. What instruments you will play, how you will select notes for your melody, how you will play them, at what speed, what sequence you will perform – entirely depends on you.
Here your uniqueness already begins to play a role, because even if you will try to imitate other people, play their compositions written by someone else, quite soon you’ll want to bring something of your own, some of your own shade.
Any cover performed by a cover band still sounds different. It sounds in the style of this band. They bring something of their own to it, making it better or worse, that’s another question. But the main thing is that they have their own audience, their own listeners, who like it.
This is a very important point to understand: if you create something useful and interesting for someone else, it can turn out to be useful and interesting. You need to create something. You need to create a product, content, community, benefit, and value in this world.
Infinite Combinations
Become a creator. The person you’re working for now is a creator; he created jobs, some product, a business that brings value to the society where you live. You are now helping him with this; you need to switch places with him, you need to create something of your own.
It doesn’t matter what scale your creation will be. It can be a song by the campfire; it doesn’t have to be, and, most likely, it won’t immediately be a performance at a world-class festival. Although some may have such an opportunity, grip, and sufficient skills right now to organize something like that.
Here the possibilities are limitless, and they depend exactly on how you combine your skills. Someone possesses the skill of networking and connections that will allow them to immediately perform on the world stage. If there are such opportunities, please use them.
But if not, then it’s enough to start with simple guitar parts at home. Start creating something, any project. The main thing is that it should not be only for you, but for someone else. Maybe it will bring benefit to someone, at least one person.
It’s important to feel that you bring value to this society. It’s important to understand that you give something, can synthesize with your hands, intellect, skills, abilities. Something that will make another person’s life at least a little better.
You can share knowledge with them and tell what you learned, for example, from this portion of content, which, by the way, I am creating. And I hope that my content brings you benefit. And not only to you but to someone else.
Some time ago I published an article “The Creator’s Manifesto: Align Passion, Purpose and Income While Contributing to Humanity”, where I cover this topic very deeply, so if need a little bit more inspiration on that, read this one.
Some Will Listen
The next point is understanding that your melody, in principle, is interesting, and someone will listen to it. How does this work? We all know about the existence of notes and musical instruments.
If you choose a certain musical instrument, then someone has an auditory or emotional predisposition to it, I don’t know exactly how it works, but someone likes a certain genre of music where there is its own set of instruments, and another, for example, doesn’t like it.
And if forced to listen to this music, they won’t get any pleasure. Although for another person, it’s an incredible delight. Creation works approximately the same way.
There is a unique set of skills and interests that are interesting to some person. If they are interesting to you, then there will be another person who will also be interested in this set. And in the combination that you offer, it will be a unique variation, because this composition, made up of notes, will be inherent only to you.
The first point is that someone will have a natural attraction to what you create, because for them it’s close, this genre hit their emotional state or somehow resonates with the frequencies of their brain and makes their body move in time with this music.
As happens with me and electronic music. At times, I can’t do anything with myself and start jumping like crazy if I hear certain rhythms. It’s some kind of madness, an uncontrollable process. I don’t have this with other music, but with certain genres of electronic music and patterns that I can distinguish, this happens constantly.
Choose You Genre
The second positive point is that the story about niching, about what they say that you need to choose your niche, in this case becomes inapplicable, because you have a wide range of interests, as a person.
This means that you can talk about all your interests, as I, for example, do in my content. Despite the fact that I’m an IT specialist from head to toe, this is my main profession and the main value that I now bring to society, it is built around IT, inside the world of information technology.
I can talk about psychology, business, startups, personal brand development, other skills that I possess, about system analysis, and so on. This is an absolutely unique combination that is inherent only to me.
But if you’re interested in at least one of them, you will like my content. Then my task is to present it in such a way that it is interesting to you. Do you understand what I’m getting at?
A person who is interested in one skill can later become interested in another skill, another instrument that accompanies an instrument already known to them. And this combination of instruments and skills will resonate with this person. Why not.
If you write about several of your interests in your personal blog, you can attract a much wider audience than if you write about one narrow interest, which has only one.
I talked about this in detail in my previous article about how the most profitable niche is yourself: read Beyond Niching Down: The Multi-Interest Personal Brand Business Part 1 and Part 2.
What to create
So, the question arises, what to create. Here the question is extremely broad. You need to figure out for yourself in your life what is interesting to you, what is your musical staff and set of instruments with which you can create your future and write your melody.
For me, the most obvious answer to this question is business. Because business is such a broad concept that, firstly, allows you to play your melody, and secondly, play it on the instruments that suit you specifically, which are that unique combination that only you will play.
Note that there are different types of business in the world; this is conditionally a certain genre of music that you can join, and there is room here for everyone. If you, for example, are a fan of some genre of music, and tomorrow a new group appears that plays in the same genre, maybe with slightly different combinations, melodies, or a set of instruments, you will listen to them with pleasure. Why not?
It’s the same with business. As soon as you offer a unique product that is inherent to you, to your business, there will be a consumer who will listen to your melody.
Naturally, building a personal brand fits very well here, which is not limited to one product; there can be a combination of products, they can be different, but all are built around your interests, and this is the key point to understand.
By combining what you have, your skills, knowledge, you can build something unique, some product that will help other people. That is, actually, what makes your melody one of a kind and allows you to attract listeners.
If you are building a personal brand, your melody will attract other people. Your task is to make as many people as possible hear it, to invite people to the campfire, because if you just light a campfire and start playing, most likely, there will be no one around you.
You need to make an effort to gather this party. It may cost money, some skills that you may not have, you may need help from other people, as is usually the case.
You may know someone who knows how to organize events. And here, again, there’s an unlimited number of possibilities and combinations of what can be done, and for each person, it will work differently. It will be an absolutely different mechanism and its own story.
So here there’s no need to get fixated on one solution that works for me but won’t work for you, and my path will be different from yours, even if we go in the same direction of building a personal brand.
Creating Your Own Red Pill
“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher
In conclusion, I would like to direct you to not let this become just entertainment content that you read, say: “Wow, cool thoughts,” but do nothing with it.
Start with something simple, you don’t have to immediately do something complex.
Come up with your goal. Try to draw yourself that lighthouse that will guide you through this field, even if you’re not planning to turn away from it yet.
At the very least, you will be looking at it with your peripheral vision, sometimes turning your head and body in its direction, maybe at some point you’ll think that it’s time to turn from this well-trodden path.
Set yourself some goal, ask what you want from this life, how you want it to go.
Start creating something, bringing into this world, being not just a consumer, but also a creator.
Do something that can be useful for another person. Even if it seems stupid, uninteresting, or no one will be interested, it doesn’t matter, the main thing is that you share it.
This is our main strength as a species on this planet. We know how to create, transmit information to other people, make decisions, think, create.
Become a person who creates something, create your own red pill and finally get out of the matrix.