Try stuff

The most important lesson I’ve learned in making music is that you have to get out of your head and just try stuff. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten a new piece of gear and haven’t really used it until I read all the tutorials and tried out every built in preset without even attempting to create my own.

Thinking back to the days before The Darph was a thing, back when I got my first guitar and was first making music, the most productive times I’ve ever had were when I disregarded how things were supposed to be done or how the experts advised and just took my equipment and experimented with it. And by productive I mean the times I made music I’m proud of and that resonated with other people.

The absolute worst times in my musical life were the ones when I was paralyzed by just having to know every in and out of my equipment and trying to perfect someone and being too scared to delete a preset and replace it with my own.

Which brings me to today. I got a new pocket operator, the PO-35 Speak, and I made sure I broke the seal on it by recording over the first three presets on it and messing with all the knobs and buttons right away so there was nothing to be afraid of anymore. Now I can focus on just making music. I try to apply that to everything from how I mic my amps to what tunings I use on my guitar.

So be sure and break the seal on your fear and just do something. Make a noise. For the love of all that’s unholy, please focus on making sounds.