It starts with a sample, really. Oh, I’ll just make a drum beat. Then before you know I pull out the microphone and weirdness just happens.
“You are the center piece, you are the way to go!”
Between full-time professional musicians who are in real studios recording albums, and the whole “I just don’t want to make music” (which is where I was a few months ago), there is a wide ranges of places to be. I see these people everyday on social media, playing guitar and singing in front of a propped up smart phone. Finger drums on some cool piece of gear. Ambient live streams with enough equipment to launch rockets.
I discovered the idea of “picking yourself” from Seth Godin, who wrote about it back in 2011 and 2015 (and other times, too, probably).
Once you understand that there are problems just waiting to be solved, once you realize that you have all the tools and all the permission you need, then opportunities to contribute abound. No one is going to pick you. Pick yourself.
Seth Godin in ‘Reject the tyranny of being picked: pick yourself‘
There is room for all of our music, our art, our photography. But we can’t hoard it. We can’t wait until it’s perfect, for someday, because someday we might not be here. The world needs softness, and weird music, and quirky art.
Pick something you made and put it out there. And do it again. Pick yourself, we need you.