What would you do if...?

[MattCurious]

Hi everyone

If you've been around the forums for a few years, you'll have seen me dropping in and out at weird intervals, having mad flurries of activity (which has its advantages and disadvantages) then vanishing for sometimes months at a time. My activity on the forum usually correlates to my writing activity. I reckon I've probably spent less than a year actually working at this.

So I've taken the step of reducing my day job down to three days per week. This is less dramatic than it sounds - I've spent ten years working towards being able to do this so there's a plan and very little risk involved for me and mine. Don't doubt that I know how lucky I am to be able to do this.

Where I really want your help is in building a strategy.

I have a month until I actually go part-time, and I want to use that to do all the planning I can. I need not only to be writing, mixing and mastering and honing those crafts, but also to be putting my business head on. Meeting and collaborating with people. Building relationships.

So. If you had this opportunity: what would you do to make the most of it?

The only constraint is that I'm in London, UK, so going door-to-door in LA or Nashville is not an option except maybe (finally) the Rally in Nov 17

Best wishes
Matt

[Len911]

So. If you had this opportunity: what would you do to make the most of it?

Matt, I kinda do, but haven't made the most of it. That's awkward for sure, hopefully I'm the only one with that perspective.

The more time I have, the quicker it seems to go by and the less I seem to get done.

mad flurries of activity

That seems to be how things actually work. You get inspired, encouraged.

That's the hard part, keeping inspired and encouraged. The thing about planning is that you never seem to allocate enough time, and that can be discouraging.

If my life was more balanced and I had more activities than just thinking about writing, mixing, mastering and music stuff, I'd probably do better at the aforementioned. I've already got a single-minded focus, so I certainly don't need any motivational books, cd's, or seminars, lol, I'm still here chugging and plugging along.

That may be the point, chugging and plugging along, getting very little accomplished, or one big motivational fell-swoop of accomplishment and then a fade out. Maybe the best strategy after all is to plan a full life and squeeze
the music in between the cracks.

[eeoo]

One thing that helps me out is to think of it, at least schedule-wise, like a job. Punch in to the studio at 9:00, work all day, punch out at 5:00 type of thing. It's really easy to get distracted when you're working from home so the more you can do to keep that from happening the better.

[hummingbird]

I just watched this today, for some reason I think it might be on topic (or I could need lunch )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DPsOY0 ... e=youtu.be

[Paulie]

Some top of mind ideas for you:

• Make sure you have your recording setup in order. Hard drive space, plug-ins, microphones, etc. Don't let the gear be a detriment to your productivity.
• Figure out which styles of music you are going to work on first. Songs? Instrumental cues? What kind? Then, do some studying of these genres and take notes. Figure out the musical forms of the genres you want to write. Find several good a la's and bookmark them. Take notes on mixes, instrumentation, tempo, etc.
• If you are targeting a specific library, check out their web site and find out what they need
• If you don't know who to target, go to IMDB.com and search for music librarians per supervisors of shows that you think you can write for. Listen to cues and watch the shows that you want to write for. Take notes.
• If you have any new plug-ins or libraries, try and find training videos online to learn them the best you can.

There's probably a lot more to do, hopefully this stimulates some thinking.

[Kolstad]

If you work in intervals like that, are you really the planning type?

[MattCurious]

Thanks, guys - this is all really helpful.

And what would you do on the business / commercial side? One thing I need to learn is how best to approach things outside of Taxi - as people say, it's one of a number of tools; I need to get better at both Taxi and the other tools - but first I need to know more about what they are

Kolstad - sorry if it wasn't clear from the original post. What makes planning difficult is the unpredictability my job - I'm a senior attorney in London's equivalent of Wall Street.

Personally, I love a good plan

[mojobone]

Make a plan, break it down into a prioritized list and since you maybe don't know what the unknowns are, you might consider hiring a coach. Definitely plan to attend the Road Rally, and definitely a website should be on that list, along with PRO membership.

[FMstereo]

Matt

You mentioned collaborating with people as part of your plan, and the "constraint" of being in London. In this day and age, it's not really a constraint though.

I'm in NZ, and I co-write with people in different places. This has opened up my world in respect of connections. In addition to relationships with libraries/publishers through Taxi forwards, I now have access to others outside of Taxi that came about through my co-writers’ relationships.

This forum is the perfect place to find collaborators. Check out the Collaboration Corner, if you haven’t already.

And yes, go to the Rally if you can. I know it’s expensive, and it’s a long flight, but it will be worth it! It’s invaluable to building relationships with other Taxi members, chatting about different libraries/publishers, (finding out what sort of experiences people have had with them, which ones are great for instrumentals, which ones prefer to deal with songs, etc,) and you also get to meet industry professionals. Not to mention all the wonderful classes there are, and learning so much about the business and the craft.

All the best with this new phase of your life!

Cheers

[MattCurious]

Thanks, guys (liking the new forum layout, btw) - this is all extremely helpful and encouraging. I'm starting a new job in January (which will enable this change) but I think after that would be a good time to explore collaborations. I've had a couple of great experiences along those lines this month already, which were extremely rewarding.