Advice/Ears Needed

Hi Guys (and Gals),

I have been wanting to post this for some time, and I really need some advice. First, let me say that although I am asking people to listen to some of my music, I am not trying to solicit commentary about it. If you'd like to, great--I am always interested in that. But, what I am actually looking for is a simple "yes" or "no."

My life in the past 3 years has been really rough. So much so that I have been utterly prevented from working on music at all, with one exception lasting about a month. I won't go into details, but the personal challenges that have been affecting me have, I feel, seriously damaged my creative spark, and have made me question if I should be working on music in the first place.

I know I can get it back, because my drive to work on music is as strong as ever (if not somewhat transformed into a form of desperation). And to be honest I have never felt that I was supposed to be anything but a musician (and I'm totally at peace with the idea of having some day job, even though I'd like to support myself, however meagerly, with music). But, at this point, after feeling so defeated for so long--I have several projects of music that I am intensely proud of, but cant do anything about--I need to ask myself if I should keep going. This was never something that I had to ask myself before. During the year prior to the 3 years mentioned above, I often had to choose music over sleep. As you can imagine, the human body can only keep that up for so long.

The request I would like to make of the nice people involved in the PA forums is to help answer this: based on the demos at the soundcloud link provided below (I just took a random sampling of demos for different projects), do you think I should continue writing music, or would my time be better spent elsewhere?

I am not concerned with becoming a rock star or anything, but it does matter to me that someone somewhere would get something out of this music besides me. All I would like is an honest opinion on whether or not you think that is plausible. If you do, that gives me reason beyond my own desires to continue on. If not, I won't be offended. But since I write music for people who like to dissect music (like prog fans), the PA community seemed like the perfect group of people to give meaningful opinions.

the soundcloud playlist and profile I just set up for this is here: https://soundcloud.com/demosforreview/sets/what-should-i-do

The compositions are in no particular order. Also, I am not a good singer. Anything with singing would be an actual lead singer.

Thank you in advance for anyone willing to reply with a simple "yes" or "no."

Thank you, Finnforest. I appreciate your response.

You're right that it's a question no one can answer for me. I'm just looking for guidance where I can.

I definitely feel like I should, and I really want to. But I've just felt that the universe has been against me, coming from a lot of different angles.

Thank you again for replying. I appreciate it.

Nick,

Yes.

Edited by Dayvenkirq - June 29 2015 at 19:10

Mighty fine stuff. Don't stop.

Nick: For what it's worth, use whatever emotions that are eating you, doubts included, to make music. Use it as a tool to siphon the negatives out of your system. Let the emotions take form. If someone else finds the end result to be interesting or not is irrelevant really, as long as you can use music as a tool for yourself.

As someone who listen to music as a tool, perhaps because I don't have the skills to create myself nor the patience needed to acquire those skills, that would be my general advice to anyone, but in particular to those who create music and are going through troubled or challenging times on one plane or another.

Personally I lack the imagination to imagine what these tracks might sound like in a finished form, but among the ones I sampled there were quite a few that came across as compelling in their current state, so I would imagine that there would be people finding enjoyment in this music if they came across it.

Oh, and Smurph, the Sentai obviously could not be in better hands than yours!

Polymorphia wrote: Also, you're voice isn't bad, at least on the clips I heard. Obviously pitch corrected– ideally, you wouldn't want to have to do that– but not bad sonically. Consider working on them and using them. UPDATE: It looks like my comment is a bit late. Sorry about that. I'm glad you've decided to continue, though!

Well, I am always working on my voice. I definitely wouldn't want to pitch correct in a final product.

Better late than never. It still means a great deal to me. Thank you, Polymorphia.

Dik*Hed-Radio wrote: There were 2 songs that stuck out for me... I'm more of an ambient guy so 'Weeds' and then my favorite was probably 'quiet section from in the veins of adventure'. I feel they kept a steady flow of emotion and had me engaged throughout the whole song. Only thing that threw me off were the drums at the very end of 'quiet....' I think your music shows promise in a lot of respects and that you should continue to explore where it might take you!

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah the drum fill would sound a bit jarring there. It's a transition into the next section of the piece (not in that clip).

Thank you again, I really appreciate it.

Thanks Growingart, it means a lot to hear that.