Starting Over

This blog post was about something else.  And then I decided that it was a topic too complex to be fleshed out in 30 minutes.  So I cut my losses and started over.  Which is easy when it's a blog post.  Not so easy when it's your life.

When do you realize things aren't working?  How do you know it's time to move on?  What are the signs that a complete overhaul is a necessity?

It's not about starting over.  It's about evolving and learning and digesting mistakes and internalizing failure and progressing towards success.  Because you can never truly wipe the slate clean.  You can't unmake what's already been made.  The memories are there, hardwired into your brain.  Even when you break down technique and attempt to rework muscle memory, your previous habits will always be there subconsciously, informing your desires to unlearn the incorrect and replace it with proper mechanics.

What is this blog even about?

Oh yeah, starting over.

Too late now.  Gotta roll with the punches.  And figure out how I got here, and try to never make the same mistake again.

Case in point, note to self, (insert pithy catch phrase here)... it's pretty much impossible to watch the Olympics and publish a coherent blog post at the same time.

I've "started over" musically a couple times.  The grass was greener.  I could sing lead vox and play guitar, too.  Oh, wow, that's hard.  Next time I'll play softer and more controlled so I can work on my vocal pitch during songs.  Hmmmm... you know what?  Drumming is what I should be doing.  Gah.  That's hard work.  I think I'm gonna go the folk acoustic route....  All this starting over just muddied my intentions.  And "murky intentions lead to murky execution" (thanks again @toddsattersten).

So this time, no starting over.  Just open communication and a desire to put in the work and evolve and get better.

Here's the starting point.  One of the first improv songs we performed as Oh Girl:

Fail Often

One of my new favorite blogs is Fail Often.  It is written beautifully and deals with topics that push the envelope.  Once again thanks to @toddsattersten for the referral.

The title of the blog is enough reason to read it.  Fail often.  For every home run, there are many more strikeouts.  For every perfect 10, there are countless routines that fall short of perfection.  For every hit song, there are a tremendous amounts of duds.  In order to truly succeed, you need to risk horrific failure.

Plenty of cliches, all true. 

Step outside your comfort zone.  Have some bad ideas.  Fall flat on your face.

Then pick yourself back up and continue knowing that you're that much closer to success.

On the music side, Adrian and I are prepping to record some Oh Girl material in March.  We've decided that one of the first singles will be the following song that I wrote about my son Chase when he was three weeks old.  Chase is now 3 months and change, and I can't believe how much he's grown and how much I love him.

Anjuno and EIY

Twitter has been helping me out a lot lately.  I used to just post inane stuff like "A kamikaze is neither a comic nor an Aussie.  Discuss."  Now, I've realized that there are much more useful ways to use Twitter than as a receptacle for witty banter and useless meanderings (that's what this blog is for!!).  If you follow the right resourceful accounts, you can be opened up to the plethora of resources on the internet.

2 websites have been brought to my attention that may or may not be useful throughout this whole process:  Anjuno and EIY (Thanks to @toddsattersten and @VansWarpedTour respectively). 

Anjuno is a website where artists can post their art and fans have the choice of naming the price they'll pay (Think Radiohead's In Rainbows).  It is a forward thinking concept that challenges the status quo of the current music business model.  With so many available options for the listener, Anjuno acts on the premise that "true" fans will reward artists if they feel the art is truly remarkable.  They call it "the Law of Reciprocity - that people will pay you back for making their lives better".  Musicians and authors can post mp3s and pdfs and leave it up to the fans to price the work.  It's an interesting idea, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Anjuno does over the coming years.

EIY (short for Earn It Yourself) is an exciting website conceptualized by Sarah Saturday (@sarahsaturday).  Sarah's been working with Warped Tour creator Kevin Lyman for the last 6 years and has tremendous experience as a musician and music industry insider.  To read the "About EIY" page is to be inspired.  It's refreshing to see that there are online communities being built that are aimed at putting in hard work instead of relying on "gaming the system".  Users on EIY have a news feed that is based on "My Scene", which shows all the activity from your Zip Code.  It's nice to have such an acute focus on things that are local; start small, build organically, become huge in your backyard, then apply what you've learned to the world at large.  It's a simple concept, but one I've yet to actually apply in any of my previous music projects.  EIY just launched Version 2.0 of the website, and I created my band page today (http://earnityourself.com/glynngm).  I plan on visiting this website often, not only as a networking tool, but because I want to support such a well-thought out and inspirational concept.

This is my 3rd blog post, and I'm realizing that I get sidetracked... A LOT.  I probably started this post about 45 minutes ago and have been zooming around the interweb finding useful links, checking out music, scoping the twitter hurricane.  Here are some interesting things I've found, in what will now be dubbed:

You Kept Me Entertained While I Was Posting my Boring Blog:
http://www.myspace.com/gardeningnotarchitecture- Sarah Saturday's current band
http://www.tweakheadz.com/- Resource for anyone interested in DIY home recording (great forum, too!)

That's the post for today.  The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know.  I'm sure someone famous said this, but google isn't helping me out on that front.  Very true, though.  It's day 2 of my formalized mission to become a working musician, and while I see the mountain getting bigger and bigger, I know that my biggest hope lies in realizing that one foot goes in front of the other and falling only means failing if you don't get back up...