To play without passion is inexcusable

I wrote my first song when I was in 7th grade. It had no title that I can remember, and the only reason I used two hands to play it was to make myself feel cool. It was extremely simple, used no accidentals, and it was in the key of C. I remember feeling pretty good about writing it. I felt so excited about it, I decided to try writing more music. 14 years, a few heartbreaks, and numerous broken guitar strings later, I have written over 25 songs of original content. I have a lot more than that, but there are a majority of songs I will never play ever again for reasons I will not go into here. But I have 25 songs worth of material I can record and play, and that's just at the moment. I have other song ideas rolling around in my head that I will tend to eventually.

I've tried to do my own recordings, but failed miserably. A lot of it was because I didn't know what I wanted, which seems to be pretty common through out my life. But over the past couple of years, and especially in the past 8 months, I've realized that I have an unrivaled passion for music I have seen in only a few people. I have been writing and playing for people for 10+ years, and the only thing I have to show for it are songs I've written, but never recorded in a way that accented the ideas I was writing about. I know I want people to hear my music because it has helped me through hard times - maybe it will help someone else.

Another big thing that has stopped me in the past is the lack of necessary equipment. A few months back, I acquired the exact equipment (aside from a few small things that I have already purchased and have to pick up) I need for recording music in the comfort of my home. I have a keyboard, guitar, mics, pickups, mixer, recording software, midi cables, etc. I'm not assuming I have everything - I spoke with a friend who has done this before, and he said I was missing next to nothing.

So what do I want now? Should I record music simply because I have the opportunity or because I really believe music is what I am meant to do? If I don't do this, then I'll always have regrets about what I could have done - and I have already had those regrets when it comes to a lot of bands I've quit, or projects I've given up on. I'm not doing that anymore. I'm going to give this my best shot, and see what happens.

This is the beginning of a series of blogs where I will be documenting the recording process I'm going through. I want to have progress updates more for myself to see how much I've accomplished. A wise person once told me that I always focus on the negative qualities of everything I do, and that's why I have always failed - I can never appreciate the good things I'm doing. Being able to see my progress should help me see the good that I'm doing for myself and maybe for others.

Thank you for reading. I'm excited to share my music with the world in a quality that I can proud of. I would say I can't wait to begin this journey, but I'm already knee deep, haha. So I'm excited to continue the adventure I started all those years ago when I wrote my first song.