It’s official: I’m 10% of the way towards my “mastery” goal of 10,000 hours in the music industry.
I can safely say I’ve never put so much intentional time into a meaningful goal I’ve set for myself. This is new ground, which is both scary and exciting.
To commemorate the occasion, I thought I’d take stock of my journey – what’s changed, where I thought I’d be compared to where I am, etc.
For one thing, my 100-hour brain was pretty sure I’d be getting paid for some of this by now. In retrospect, that was merely the influence of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
I’ve talked about this before, but essentially the Dunning-Kruger effect illustrates the initial wave of optimism and confidence that floods us when we begin a new undertaking – and how completely out-of-proportion that is to our actual ability level.
I’ve come across this a LOT as a dance instructor (one couple actually wanted to learn the Dirty Dancing lift before their wedding, which was later that week). But it’s always harder to notice the water when it’s all around you, as the fish say.
That said, the drought may not last much longer: I’ll tell you more when it’s confirmed, but there’s a few opportunities coming up that might just provide some compensation for my rock and roll lifestyle.
Similarly, I expected music production to have gotten easier. It hasn’t. It’s gotten a lot harder.
Part of that is my fault, being an experiential learner, for the need to dabble in a number of musical styles to narrow down what I enjoy. Most articles I’ve read talk about producing a music of a specific style quickly, to increase your familiarity and efficiency.
Switching from house music to progressive psytrance to fantasy orchestral probably isn’t recommended in your first couple of years of music production.
At this point, I’m leaning back towards focusing on progressive house, with some fantasy orchestral from time to time for the Fiverr gig I recently started. Check out the promo video I made below!
I’ve also expanded into new areas, like learning to set up drum kits, DJing with a mixer, learning/swearing through Pro Tools, etc.
All of this has slowed my overall progress, with the advantage of broadening my skillset and giving me a better sense of where I might want to situate myself to take on a more permanent position.
It feels very much like I’m beginning the move out of the initial exploratory phase of the journey, and towards something more focused and consistent. Praying my frazzled nerves will thank me for that.
So it’s been an unexpected journey, to say the least. The saving grace over all the stress, fear, doubt, and setbacks is the intense satisfaction that comes when the song gets done or the project gets completed, and I’m still standing at the end.
It helps me feel like I can handle it a little better the next time things get tough, y’know?
I’m under no illusions that I’m taking the fast route to success, and no doubt I’ll still be struggling with many parts of this long after I hit the 10,000 hour mark. Mastery, not success, was always my goal.
Actually that’s not quite right – happiness is my goal. But how can you go through all the growing pains of mastering a difficult skill without increasing your capacity for happiness?