Since about December 2019, I've been planning my projects for 2020. No it's not because of the New-Year-New-Me thing...it's because that's where my winter break from work lines up with me time to plan for the next year. In fact, Yoda summed it up nicely. "Do or Do Not. There is no Try." This is the year of doing.
- Website. So for starters, this website was a huge goal this year. So, cool got that.
- Website Store. Secondly, and supplemental to the website is having a product store directly associated with my website and not be a satellite location. Check.
Now, for the on-going projects. They include:
- Album. Create #chillhop album with my buddies and drop to all major streaming platforms
- Film. Create #stockfootage to underscore with my / our #chillhop music
- Album. Create #soundtrack album of my #concertband music, but mixed with orchestral elements. I have outsourced that to one of my buddies who has been studying audio engineering from Full Sail in Florida. Ideally, he will be able to make my compositions sound more "realistic" and I can will be able to use them as an album as well as demos for film/tv eventually.
- Copyright. Register ALL compositions with the U.S. Copyright Office. Most are already registered, but many in the last couple years are not. It's a pretty penny to get them registered, so that's part of it too, and they just upped the registration fees.
- Recordings. Get more of my #compositions recorded by live small / chamber ensembles and move away from MIDI as much as possible. Now that I have my own recording gear and digital audio workstation, that is a more realistic possibility.
- Cover Songs. I would like to start doing primarily instrumental Tower of Power-esque arrangements of cover songs. I think those would be fun projects. We're actually doing a few of these at work...
- Blog. I need to actually update this blog with some regularity.
- Vlog. I would like to start a video blog. I've been testing the waters with my #dailycoffeewithMike thing I do every morning, so I might be able to transition into something more substantial. I also need to utilize Instagram / Facebook stories more consistently. Yes, I do the coffee thing, but I need to use it more throughout the day as well.
Instructional Videos. I would like to do this by making a thing out of my compositional pursuits early in the morning (#musicdailywithMike maybe?) and just document my process. Additionally, I would like to get instructional stuff going on YouTube as well.
Book. As a first step to instructional videos, I'm writing a book which will be a pseudo pre-read or supplemental information from the instructional videos.
Podcast. Me and a couple buddies of mine and I started a podcast about the pursuit of happiness within the creative process (#apathtosophrosyne). So far we've only done a few episodes and we haven't really gained much consistency in our own process. Two of us are in Japan, the other is in South Carolina. A tiny bit challenging, but not impossible. Website: https://www.facebook.com/PathToSophrosyne
Audio engineering. I need to get my engineering skills back up to par. I have been doing much more lately, and I love it.
Read. Read more books. Listen to more audio books.
Education. Listen to more educational talks (TEDTalks, YouTube University, etc., Masterclasses)...in this day and age, access to all the world's knowledge is right at my fingertips.
COMPOSE. And then most importantly is just write music music...constantly.
Oh yeah, and don't work get so wrapped up with work that I forget to focus on my family and my own stuff.
