Exhale #33: The first song I've ever written
1st of 100 Silly Songs
I've played my guitar almost every day since the pandemic started.
Somewhere along the way I started to want to write my own songs. However, I thought to myself, "I'm nowhere near advanced enough to start doing that." I've assumed that there must be some educational process that all music creators go through in order to learn to write their own music.
So I didn't even try.
This has happened to me at least a dozen times in my life - wanting to try something new and not starting because of a fear of failure, a feeling of overwhelm from not knowing how to even begin, etc.
I know most people can relate.
It begs the question, "How can we try new things more quickly and with less resistance?"
I think I've finally figured it out.
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I believe this is one of the master strategies of learning that not many people talk about.
It's also a way to create better stuff and to have more fun doing it.
Many times when I want to start doing something new, I resist the hell out of it. I come up with so many excuses about why "now is not the right time to start" or "I'm not ready" or "I'm not experienced enough."
In The War of Art, Stephen Pressfield calls this "the resistance."
Now I've read the book Mindset and have internalized the concept of a growth vs a fixed mindset, but there are still certain things in life I have an unconscious assumption that you're either born good at or not.
Such as creating music or writing which have been two recent focuses of mine.
Then a couple weeks ago, sitting in a Lyft and coming home from celebrating my cousin's marriage at a bar, I Google'd "How to write music reddit" and found this amazing Reddit post.
The gist is that one strategy for writing great music is to write and play 100 silly songs.
It's called playing music, not working music, for a reason.
“On average, around the twentieth song you will have (accidentally) come up with something you think is good - good enough to play to your friends,” the post reads.
It’s about being silly/having fun and just getting a lot of reps in.
That hit me hard. I felt like I had discovered a universal truth that would inevitably help me write music.
I knew immediately that this was gold because I've used this same strategy many times before with success.
Learning to use social media when starting Brute Strength years ago.
I posted every day and did my best to make myself laugh. It worked and the channel grew to over 100k followers in a couple years and supported the quick growth of the business.
Writing this newsletter.
I committed to writing weekly for 24 weeks and constantly checked in by asking myself, "Is this fun?" and "Is this me?" I've continued to get more and more messages from people that are getting a ton out of these emails, and I think my playful attitude with it has been a big factor.
When I started Soul Searching Adventures. I decided I would just start with one, and I would make it the most fun experience imagine-able for ME.
This took most of the pressure off of me to be world-class on my first one. In the end, it was life changing for most of the participants and one of the most fun and meaningful experiences I've ever had.
I've found this concept of starting fast, having fun, and getting lots of reps in early all over the place from some of the world's best creators.
In Bird by Bird, the prolific best-selling novelist Anne Lamotte suggests writing a shitty first draft as quickly as you can.
In her most recent podcast episode with Tim Ferriss, she says that almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. She goes on to say that great writers are all great editors.
You can't get to the editing until you've got a shitty first draft down on paper or computer screen. I find that it’s easier to get the first draft done when I keep it fun.
In this cool 2 min video, legendary radio and TV show host Ira Glass says when creating something new, you have to accept that you will suck for a while.
“There is a gap between your taste and what you're capable of producing in the beginning. The only way to close the gap is to produce a large volume of work.”
Like 100 silly songs.
Treating every new thing like a silly experiment can take most or all of the pressure away to "be good at it" immediately.
It also overcomes the objection of "I don't know enough" yet to try.
Kids start trying to walk long before they're actually ready to walk. By practicing before we're ready, we learn to do the thing.
Get a lot of reps in, and keep it fun. As soon as we take ourselves and our work too seriously it can become a chore and we lose our sense of creativity.
I think a good question to come back to from time to time is
"What am I currently avoiding starting?"
Then as a thought experiment imagining what it would be like to take the 100 silly songs approach. Or even 5 silly songs, and seeing what happens.
The reddit post and writing this email inspired me to start the experiment.
Here’s me playing the first song I've ever
written entitled "100 Silly Songs."
One ask
If you've been loving this newsletter, I would so appreciate it if you would share it with a friend or two. You can send them here to sign up. My intention is to make this email one of the best things you read all week. To make you think, laugh and hopefully leave you feeling a little more relaxed - like a nice long exhale.
Peace,
Michael