NPD (AKAI looper)

[Izzy]

Hi all,

 

I have been working with the ditto looper and now I have an AKAI E3, the kind KT Tunstal uses on her live looping performance, though I didn't know about that until I looked up "how-to" vids on youtube. It has delay and tape echo? Heck if I know what the tape thing does but this thing sends the looped bit to another am...if I connect it to another amp. Stereo looping, is it? I am going to start looping piano, so I needed this second loop pedal.

 

Now for the inner struggle:

 

I KNOW someone here as to know how I feel. Maybe you already went through this.

 

I've been working very hard on playing four songs and polishing them for when I go to an open mic night (so that the muscle memory can atone for my nervousness). I play those 4 daily for two hours, which is added to the time I compose or re-play piano songs I made up or learn more about mixing and mastering.

 

I start school tomorrow. Was going to take two hard classes, though I intend on dropping one to lessen my load so I can play a bit more this fall. If it were not for this music discovery, I would be VERY glad to go back to school because I LOVE school, but at this point I am SO dreading it. Its not just a hobby...music feels very much like what I should be doing. I know this is common for many of you who actually are pro and pay bills with it, but to someone like me it feels embarrassing because there is always a sort of prejudice towards those who "think they have talent". A self-prejudice, mind you. I admire people who go for it for the size of their balls. I mean even if you do have talent there is always the, "so do many others...get real," voice in my pragmatic head. This side of me refuses to let me be "childish" and put my solid nursing career in jeopardy.

 

Yet, all week I've considered dropping from grad school for the year to pursue music. When I think of the poor outlook I am not discouraged because I would be glad just to play and get it out of my system. I feel like a wife who never did it with anyone but her husband...and really wants to try it with a girl. But she'd put her long term relationship at risk...

 

I pay my own bills but my mother, who I take care of, is helping me so I don't take out more school loans. This makes me feel like I can't give myself that time to figure out if this music thing is worth going for. To be young and have a crap job and no prospects...

 

Have any of you given up on the music thing for "logic's" sake? Did you regret it forever? Did you go for it and regret it? Its eating at me...

[Versatile]

Nice post...!!

 

Makes very interesting reading...and vocalises the yearnings of a large proportion of man and womankind...

 

99% of musicians are part-timers, more or less happy with that situation...

 

As Albert Einstein or somebody said...'Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration'... :blink:

 

Take much care rehearsing verbal introductions/chat...out loud...and reiterate any public speaking experience...

 

Open mics are fantastic...opportunities to link up with and back vocalists who often know nothing about keys and chords...

 

Form duos and trios...

 

Open mic comperes are terrific contacts/mentors/friends...listen and watch how others cope with nerves

 

Be prepared to learn and play corny genres of music

 

'Don't give up the day job'...

 

V

 

[daveinspain]

Wow... very difficult topic. If we were talking 20 years ago i'd say finish up your studies and then go for the music full time. Get your credentials as a security blanket knowing you have something to fall back on if things don't go as you've planned. Reality is we are living in 2013 and the music industry has changed so much. It's very difficult to make a good living at it theses days, I mean who buys music now? What record companies are signing new artists to lucrative recording contracts? Recording artist don't make the money they used to from selling their recordings. If you have commercial success with a few songs or an album you can make some money from radio play. If you get radio play you can make better money doing a tour. Your music now becomes a means of promoting your shows. If you are lucky and get your music out there that's what your future looks like. You are young and very talented Izzy but most important is you have the drive. You do have a chance at it.

 

So 20 years ago I would have said finish your studies first and go for it... Today I say, definitely, without a doubt, finish your studies first and go for it.

[badbluesplayer]

Stay in school, girl! No excuses!

[Cougar]

Reality is we are living in 2013 and the music industry has changed so much. It's very difficult to make a good living at it theses days, I mean who buys music now?

 

Dave's got a point. Music is great. The music biz nowadays, not so much. The odds of making it big, even for super talented folk, are very slim. It seems to result from serendipity more than anything else. I'm pretty much self-taught musically, and when you say "even if you do have talent there is always the, "so do many others...get real," voice in my pragmatic head," I know what you mean. Not just that, but so many others were just better than me. I mean,

... are you kidding me? So yeah, I went the straight gig route. Never really thought about regretting it, I guess. It's worked out OK... enabling me to BUY GUITARS for one thing. \:D/

 

Nursing? I don't think you can pick a more secure gig. You'd never have trouble finding a job. Pay's pretty good AFAIK. You could probably work wherever you might want to live. Healthcare benefits are probably good. You could still do some music on the side. Then if your music becomes insanely successful, you can still take that route. Some people say "No risk, no gain." But how many risk and still get no gain? I gotta join the consensus here and suggest Don't give up the day job... yet.

[RowdyMoon]

Do both....your young, no kids...do both!

[quapman]

Ya I'm in the stay in school camp as well. You can definitely do both but you have to prioritize.

And as Cougar stated nursing is a very good gig. And having spent time in hospital I also

consider it a very admirable and honorable one. I respect what you do.

 

 

I guess I would ask you one/two questions.

 

Do you want to pursue music to get your voice heard and your original songs out there?

Or, are you willing to learn covers in order to start gigging?

 

The answer to that question is 2 very different paths.

Good luck Izzy.

 

This is your decision to make. Nobody can tell you how you feel.

 

Do I regret not following my dreams and making music my life?

No, I think I made the right move. I know way to many starving musicians.

[Izzy]

 

 

I guess I would ask you one/two questions.

 

Do you want to pursue music to get your voice heard and your original songs out there?

Or, are you willing to learn covers in order to start gigging?

 

The answer to that question is 2 very different paths.

Good luck Izzy.

 

 

I do NOT have notions of making MONEY off music. My grandfather did that. People who make money with instruments play what people want to hear at parties, are hired guns playing jingles on a Wednesday in a recording studio, and about 0.0001% are making a profit from music they compose and play.

 

Why do it then? As Ani DiFranco said, "I just hope someday some woman hears my music and it helps her through her day." I am tired of the options. The music I love isn't being made. I am making it and I want it out there.

 

I have a nursing degree already, so I can just work part time, pay my bills and play music...problem is I am not into mediocrity and want to keep on with grad and eventually with PhD to teach.

 

Its a matter of choosing what I want to look back on:

 

1. I wish I'd gone for it and had more fun while I was young and just kept my RN. - me with a safe job and $$$

 

2. I wish I'd kept on with school, music is a lost cause and no one really gives a ****. It is so self-involved and tortured. -me with $ and a few good memories

 

Thanks for your input, guys. I'm going to do the best I can to keep with the music, and I am with you on keeping with logic. If it were not for logic I wouldn't have even had the chance to buy the equipment to make music.

[quapman]

Sounds like you have a good handle on this Izzy,,

You don't need us

[Riffster]

It is up to you.

 

There is a time for everything and timing sometimes cannot be dictated. If you are feeling the music right now you may not after you are done with your studies.

 

On the other hand, school will be there one year from now, waiting for you.

 

By the way and I may insult like 75% of the forum here... is that people are buying music, I know I am and if you look at music sales you'll be surprised, it is folks that are stuck with Classic Rock that do not buy new music, that's why they wonder who is buying music these days.

 

Trust me, I have seen musicians houses here in Nashville, a lot of them are making a living at one level or another.

[Malchik]

Money made is always at the shows.

 

But seriously, go to school first. I wanted to be a rock star, but honestly, it's more fun having a career and recording and gigging on the weekend.

 

I'm twenty-seven, and I consider myself over the hill as far as touring the country goes.

[moparguy]

Hope you use the pedal to post some songs with that voice of yours

[Cougar]

I have a nursing degree already, so I can just work part time, pay my bills and play music...problem is I am not into mediocrity and want to keep on with grad and eventually with PhD to teach.

 

That is one long road. Normally I'd be supportive of going for that higher degree. But you're already well set up. And an RN producing music like you are... that ain't mediocre! And I love your non-commercial approach....

[jaxson50]

I think you are an incredibly talented song writer and singer, and you have that rare ability to expose your inner feelings to the listener and draw them in. Fearless writing is about as rare as hens teeth these days, it takes guts to write personal stories, but you do that.I can not speak to your qualities as a nurse, but if you put as much passion into that endeavor as you do into your music then you are going to be a great nurse.You are only blessed with youth for a short time, like the old saying goes, youth is wasted on the young.. I will tell you this, if you have a hard time with rejection and criticism, music may be a better second job...but if you have a burning drive to write and play, never give up.