The Slow & Steady Path Of Process Mastery…
https://youtube.com/shorts/qBmPBHjWGrg?feature=share
It’s easy to underestimate just how much time & energy is required in the process of “achieving” mastery. How many cycles one must go through to not only learn, but engrain habits into muscle memory and ascend the ladder from unconscious incompetence all the way up to unconscious competence. How many years of repetition are necessary through which to discover all there is to know on isolated component-subjects and practice the implementation of those discoveries enough times for them to become “natural” enough that the channels become solidly etched enough to begin allowing the free flow of individualistic expression beyond the basic technical capability.
It’s nuts to think it’s been nearly 35 years since my musical journey began all the way back with learning piano. Or roughly 15 years with composition & recording, when I’d first started writing songs during school and recording them at home on a 4-track cassette machine. Or a couple decades since beatmaking on an Akai MPC2000XL. Or a decade since getting into Ableton and tying it altogether in what might actually validly started to be called “producing.” Or how both long & short ago that seemed - putting together my first full-length tracks on a black MacBook in Bali - and how much damn development has occurred slowly but surely as making and scrapping literally hundreds of ideas, properly completing maybe another hundred to near-pro standards… still feeling like I’ve barely got started. Or how much time has been put into testing out dozens of different tools (plugins), going from acquiring cracked versions of nearly everything to making the actual investment in the legit versions after countless hours of listening to the finest of distinctions in character between a wide variety of compressors, reverbs, and analog gear emulations.
Every once and a while, there may come along these kids that are born “naturals” and just start slaying something from day one - ending up with billboard hits a year after first getting into the game. But for the majority, there are no shortcuts. Whether it’s day-in, day-out or more casual, there’s growth that can only occur over years and decades. Even starting with a fantastic taste and intuitive knack for how to navigate a DAW and all the variety of tools and skill sets required to finally put together a completed track, there are so many damn component sub-skillsets that take hundreds of projects to even come to realization of their existence, let alone mastering. How many different compressors, EQ curves, and types of saturation you need to test out on a wide range of elements in different contexts… no way to accumulate that kind of experience without the “10,000 hours.” How many side-by-side references with a range of pro material, how many “failures” to measure up before even starting to fully comprehend the differences as discovering what a huge difference the most minute changes in various parameters on dozens of different tools in a project all add up to… there are no shortcuts other than putting in the time & energy to ‘arrive’ at the point of professionalism.
Mercury Retrogrades have always been said to be a good time to revisit and refine old projects… this one in Taurus timed appropriately with the Taurean themes of physical things, possessions, beautification, etc - having chosen to ween off a Slate Digital plugin subscription I’ve been using the past 4.5 years and upgrading the virtual emulations of analog gear in my toolbox… going back through ALL the projects (well over a hundred) from the last few years that haven’t gone to the “grave” folder, swapping out Slate plugins with my new ones… and what a process.
It’s been fascinating to observe what a huge difference can be made with the smallest of tweaks…
Not just changing out one plugin for an equivalent other, but one barely-perceptible improvement here, another minute change there… nothing drastic unto its own… yet all these very minor changes all adding up in addition with the increase of refinement in the ears, taste, and skills… how much clearer, crisper, full-bodied, powerful, and pro the final masters sound & feel compared to previous versions from just a few months ago I thought at the time were pretty good. For as much as i still question what difference any of it makes when barely anyone hears, it’s pretty satisfying to observe & feel such growth.
And as monotonous it can seem at times to go through the same process over & over again of swapping out the same plugins in a different project and going through the same testing one against the other to listen/feel for the smallest of differences, this type of repetition is a practice unto itself, the final results of which cannot be seen or heard immediately, but are accumulative in a way that those 0.01% improvements may seem totally insignificant on the surface, but with consistency over time, add up to massive leaps.
Nor is it super exciting or sexy to filter through hundreds of old projects as undertaking these process, deciding which to put to death and reorganizing the ones to keep. But as actually doing it, there’s some sorta psychological… thing… occurring at a deeper level that’s tough to really understand or put into words, but feels highly significant as part of the foundation for increasing efficiency & effectiveness moving forward. ”How you do one thing, you do all…” as the saying goes… clearing unnecessary clutter and increasing the cleanliness & orderliness of what is not just for easier navigation when returning to the same projects or reference for completion in the future, but establishing the standards & habits that’ll carry forward to transform the way to approach new projects with greater structure & ease in working with simplified organizational foundations both internally & externally in the workflows established.
Sure, this may sound like stating the obvious to some. Perhaps having ZERO earth in my natal chart, I’m a late learner when it comes to this stuff - even despite having heard/read it thousands of times in all sorts of personal development & hustle-porn motivational shit. Those with alot of Virgo, Capricorn, and/or Taurus in ‘em probably would think I’m retarded for just finally starting to get this at age 39. But, better late than never.
Blah, blah, blah.
Take what you will from this.
And enjoy the sample of results… 🙏
I've been trying to learn to play guitar for years. Okay thinking about learning to play guitar for years. I bought an acoustic one a long time ago and I have attempted to take a lesson here or there, but I just never get into it. It's too hard and then my ADHD brain kicks in and I lose interest. I really do want to learn to play one day. I just need to commit to it.
I think musicians never finish studying, you can handle theory perfectly, you can handle a style, a movement perfectly. But practice becomes mastery, constancy in study, playing, playing, playing, playing, playing, by ear, reading the score, even composing or just listening to music, you never finish learning.
💯