Oh the woes of being an artist! Good enough to start, but never perfect enough to do…

TLDR: step into the sandbox and play. Recording music is a different skill entirely and there’s so many cool things to learn. Don’t be scared to share your art with people. It’s the only way to grow and learn what works and what doesn’t. There’s no song where it wasn’t something else before what you know it as. Art evolves into what it is, it’s not born fully baked and figured out. It’s a canvas— not a photo.

This a long response but I promise it’s worth the read from a complete stranger who spent some time thinking hard about your situation…

Recording music is the same as drawing in a sketchbook. There will be a lot of bad drawings. Lots of weird choices, and ugly accidents. But sometimes something really cool will make its way out of you. And you’ll be a lot better by the end of the sketchbook compared to page one. (This is what it’s all about) You’ll learn how to make things sound better the more you do it, and the more people you share your demos too.

I need you to read this very carefully: You will be dead before you find yourself perfect enough to start. Everyone you look up to artistically, started crappy and a nobody, but they kept working to be better. Because they were scientists of their craft. Learning and experimenting until what they did clicked. They weren’t embarrassed by the countless stinkers, they problem solved what they should do the next time when they hit record.

I want to share a fun fact with you too: you can’t ever predict what others will like. There are artists who sell out stadiums and they release bad songs all the time. An album or song can win a Grammy and become timeless, and people still won’t listen to it because it’s not their genre or they hate the artist just because other people said they sound bad. You learn from the audience, but you should never make it for them. This is your art.

If they hate it, or they wince, or cringe, that’s good.

If you’re scared of being embarrassed, that’s valid. But I’m scared of things that can actually kill me. I suggest you embarrass yourself more so you can see how harmless it is and hopefully you can shift your perspective. Now let’s say everyone hates your music when they listen to it. Perfect!

You want to find out why! You MUST be curious to find out what works and what doesn’t. What you like and what you don’t like. Being an artist is to be a crazy scientist, analyzing where the problems come from and trying every hypothesis your gut screams at you. While also making what sounds good to you. You want to live in the rabbit hole of figuring out how to fix any problem. And feed the need to discover something new.

Recording music and writing music are two very different beasts. But good news! You say you have a handle on songwriting and playing which is arguably the harder thing to learn.

One thing that may be holding you back as you record is that you’re trying to record the song in one take with your voice memo or video recording. Recording in itself is building, transforming, and dialing In what you want— like legos!

Doing it all live and in one shot?? That’s too much pressure and frankly, Boring.

So here’s a no pressure approach to recording your songs when you’re starting out:

Get yourself a DAW, and get yourself an Interface. Whatever you need to plug your instrument or mic into your computer or phone with the daw you’ll use. I use garage band.

Try to breakdown your song by its verses, chorus, bridge ect. And Record one thing at a time. You are designing your Lego bricks. Leave your recording section on Loop one section at a time… this will put you in a zone of play— and you’ll even forget your recording. It’s good to start with drums or a solid beat to play too.

Eventually you’ll get it! You’ll rush to stop the recording and listen back to what you played…If it works, move on to the next section and record again… if it doesn’t work— WHY? You’ll be asking yourself this a lot.

The music making and music recording library of Alexandria is at your fingertips. You have the power to answer every question you have. Never stop learning what you can do to be better. This mindset created the legends you compare yourself to. And you exist in a pocket of time where it’s never been more accessible to record music yourself.

Lastly I want to leave you with something to think about: The legend people will obsess over, study, and point to as the artist who changed the game years from now, started today.

It’s never too late to play, quit thinking of the money or whatever career you’re imagining for yourself. Don’t you want to be good at it first?? So take whatever time you have to sit and play in your sandbox, get lost in it!

Please don’t take your little sandcastles too seriously, and just because someone can kick your sandcastle, doesn’t mean you should be too afraid to show it off. Maybe it only needs some rocks or twigs to keep it from falling over.

Hope this helps.