So, as I mentioned in the last post, today was a day off. Of course I’m apparently pretty bad at taking days off, so I still managed to get some learning in, covering a variety of different semi-related topics, including quite a lot of photography, but still overall it was a pretty laid back and relaxing time.
But, the time for relaxing is now over, and it’s back to work for me, starting with the launch into the next 30/30 challenge: Music. I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while, actually. I’ve been looking forward to all of them, if I’m being honest, but music has always held a special place in my life, and I do very much wish I was more musically inclined.
This challenge has a couple of main target goals. First and foremost is going to be gaining a rudimentary understanding of music theory and basic composition, with the goal of being able to produce simple but effective music tracks that can be used to augment my podcasts, videos, and games. I’m planning to gear my learning mostly toward video game music production strategies at this stage, primarily due to the similar usage as atmosphere building background music. I’m hoping to learn enough to be able to put together a competent composition, even if it isn’t anything super original or fancy, that can manage to tell a story of its own, to enhance its companion work.
The second goal is to gain a basic proficiency at playing the keyboard. I’ve owned a keyboard for years, and have never learned to play, which I’ve always thought was a shame, but up until this point not enough of a shame to actually sit down and take the time to learn. But, music composition goes a lot faster if you have a direct way of recording the music that you want, so knowing how to play the keys will be a big help in that regard. I’m hoping that by the end of the challenge I’ll have built up enough of a basic skill level to be able to reliably use the keyboard to get musical ideas into a digital audio workstation.
So, with the goals stated, let the challenge begin!