Life lessons found in the RPM challenge (T-minus 2 days)

I've been "preparing" for the RPM challenge by pulling out old, familiar, favorite albums and listening to new music on sites like Reverbnation. Not like I don't have enough to do anyway, but working on the challenge is something of a "must" for me. I'm not sure why I'm so excited to start (in two days) nor am I sure why it is a must to participate this year, other than I really did miss it last year.

There is a wonderful sense of accomplishment associated with writing a song and telling yourself, "it is okay". It is okay for someone else to hear this song. It is okay for other people to not like it or for it to not be everyone's favorite. It is okay if it isn't one of my favorites. It is okay if it isn't as developed, complex, or musically mature as songs I typically listen to. It is okay...(insert any excuse here). There is also a fabulous sense of accomplishment when you finish - even though you finish tired and grumpy without any desire to even look at your instrument(s) for a while.

This challenge is really a terrific life lesson (when used as intended) which teaches to enjoy the process. I've always struggled with "enjoying the process" in school, work, life, etc. I tend to focus on getting to the final outcome...only to realize that that is just part of the "bigger" process. However, for some reason I do enjoy the RPM challenge process. Perhaps because the only potentially negative outcome is that I don't finish - I feel disappointment in myself for not following through to the end. There are no other negative consequences - not everyone will dig my tunes...okay; there will be someone out there who does though...okay; and I will, more or less, like the tunes - I'm satisfying a need (to write music), following through on a task, making something, and having a lot of fun enjoying the entire process.

Two days and counting...not listening to my own advice about enjoying the process - I have two days to enjoy!

Needles in haystacks - finding that tune

I must admit I'm pretty intimidated when I cruise over to a music hosting site like Reverbnation or Virb and try to find a tune I like. After the first few tunes I've spent time hunting for by genre I'm pretty impatient and irritated by the whole process. I'm impatient because of the time it takes to find something if, for example, I'm looking for Celtic music and find everything under the sun with "celtic" in the keyword, and I'm irritated because I ultimately decide on listening to a song because of the image or name associated with the artist, album or song. I've judged a book by its cover! I may miss the coolest tune, but alas have no "cue" to look for it. Perhaps this applies to me more than others simply because my music tastes tend to be on the outer rim of mainstream (there are some exceptions: loved early-career R.E.M, early Sting (solo), dig U2), but I'm sure everyone struggles with this to some degree. If there is someone out there who does not, I'd love to hear how you deal with tihs problem!


There are organizations that have brought in Web2.0 - I can think of many - to help sort through this problem by social networking, but there is always that someone that was the first to find a band/song/album. How did he/she do it? He or she must have some cue from somewhere. Moreover, is popularity really solving the problem? Just because "Roll out the Barrel" is well known doesn't make it interesting to listen to as discovery! It does make it easy to find, however.


The problem for listeners is finding something new and appropriate and the problem for emerging artists is getting listened to by the right group of listeners.

Hounds to the Music