Recently, I composed the score of a short film project that won a contest and is part of a festival in Cambridge, Massachusetts on June 29th. 2 problems. I live in Dayton, Ohio and after doing some numbers crunching, I realized I wouldn’t have enough money for both hotel and transportation. After exhausting all my options (aka family members 😛 ) I created a go fund me campaign. I don’t particularly like crowd funding because it feels like I’m begging, but after remembering a potato salad kick starter inadvertently got funding for $50,000 (which happened in Columbus,OH btw), I realized asking for $300 to go experience a moment of my life and career that I’ll never have again is modest in comparison. Thanks for your time reading this. Please share and I hope to see you in Massachusetts on the 29th!
I’ve been making music for 6 years and running this blog for 4 years. I appreciate all the support I’ve gotten over the years. That support and my love of creativity is what keeps me going, but I must keep it real with you. I don’t get payed for any of my content and haven’t for about upwards of 8 months. Now, money isn’t the main goal, but I need to survive. It’s affecting my life, relationship and well-being so this is why I am writing this. My loved ones are worried I’ve been investing all my time and money ($1,000+ over the 6 years) into this dream without any returns and think I should rethink my life choice. I disagree and I hope you do too. If you’re convinced please support financially or, at the very least share the content with people (Which I posted at the bottom of the post) . The hardest part hasn’t been making content, but getting people to see the hard work. I am a one man team, humbly asking for your assistance. If you’re not convinced the stay tuned because I’m about to do a brief breakdown of my investment into my dream over the half decade.
A $400 Desktop computer to upgrade from laptop because it had horrible RAM (2gb) and no storage space (200 gb).
A condenser microphone, stand, interface and cables (Approx. $300)
A drawing tablet ($100) So I could work in Photoshop to create my own album covers and now animations.
Instruments ($300) – This includes my acoustic guitar, keyboard, and MIDI keyboard.
Reason 8.3 ($400) when I first started out I have a pirated version of Reason 5 and after a couple year of that for studying I decided to invest in craft and upgrade to the recent version,
Multiple Cameras ($300) due to some breaking over the years from use or accidents.
That alone is $1900 investment over the last 6 years and I’ve only made maybe a tenth of that back.
On my YouTube channel I post a music semi-daily and have been working on a daily music making challenge where I try to make a short 1 to 2 minute theme every day or two. I also occasionally post music theory/mixing tutorials (embedded below this paragraph
I’m thankful for anyone who has read this in its entirety and I hope you continue to follow me on my creative journey. Thanks for the past support. Let’s make something great.
Bonus! Here’s a short compilation of clips from my animation practice
After making music daily for about 40 days for my YouTube Channel writer’s block was inevitable s here 3 things I try to do to overcome it.
Ignore the Initial Quality
Most people get stuck in writers block because they are trying to hard to make the Mona Lisa when they aren’t capable of it yet. There’s nothing wrong with dreaming big and grand, but be aware of your limitations and go with the flow when something doesn’t come out how you want it initially. You can refine later. Use this as a first draft to at least get a first draft going so you have a springboard to jump from when inspiration does return.
Try Something New
One reason we fall in a rut artistically that we find a groove and stick with it. The way to counter this is to try something knew. Come at your work from another angle. Do you hate writing in first person perspective? Write a silly story that is in 1st person. Not only will it be good for practice, but it could inadvertently inspire a new idea.
Do Something Else
Sometimes you just have to know when to quit and do something else. If you’ve tried and tried and it’s more frustrating than productive. Take a break and relax. Start another project or just go and play for a little while you calm down and let inspiration take its time. Inspiration is like a finicky girlfriend and you never know when she’ll be in the mood 😉
There we go another one bites the dust. If you liked this article check out my other articles linked below or watch an embed from my YouTube channel. Thanks for reading. James Out!
Late night at work last night by here’s Ear training day 26 & 27. Today I’m trying something new the melody exercises! It’s like the melodic intervals listening to 3 or more successive notes and guessing the distances. Even though I’m great at melodic intervals this is a challenge which I have accepted and will conquer!
Today is day 25 of ear training and I’m continuing review of Harmonic intervals or guessing the distance between two simultaneous note. The goal is 90% and I got an 83% today
Hey guys! Didn’t get to post my ear training results to wordpress because I didn’t get to my computer after work until it was really late but I did post to instagram (@jamesrevelscomposer) if you want to see the ear training results fresh off the press.
So I’ve been doing doing chord progression recognition of the Major scale particularly the I,ii,IV,V scale degrees. Yesterday I got a 65% which was a huge jump from the 48% I had but today I normalized with a 56% with my goal for each type of training being 90% I still have looads of work to do
Here is day 12 of ear training and day 5 of harmonic interval training where I guess the distance between two simultaneous notes. My goal is 90% accuracy.
So Day 8 of Ear training but my 1st day of harmonic interval training which is listening to simultaneous notes and guessing the distance between. My goal is 90% and I got a 42%…44 correct and 60 incorrect. Can’t wait to see how I progress throughout the week.
Here’s a great hip-hop beat titled Zodiac by Monte Booker. It starts with an unnerving yet interesting electronic/glitchy sample then slowly progresses into a catchy, and funky hip hop beat. It’s a great journey aurally and definitely worth the share. Know anyone who makes cool music? Shoot me a link to their soundcloud, youtube or bandcamp page and if I like what I hear I’ll feature them. I’ll have another eargasm for you tomorrow at noon so stay tuned!
Audio SeXXX 