Starting with the easy thing or the hard thing? that's up to you to decide. I'd recommend knocking back the easiest tasks first, the ones that would take the least time to accomplish. The more difficult tasks might require some incubation time, new skillsets, or a network of friends to help you out.

avoiding  procrastination

Something is better than nothing
It doesn't have to be perfect
You'll get better with time

See a door, open a door, you don't have to step through it right away. Check to see what's on the other side. If you see potential there, then start moving.

the decision to take action - It starts with a choice. Remember the words we use in our own minds carry weight.

The language we use in our internal dialoge affects our reality. No seriously. No more of this Someday i hope to ____. A better line of conversation is I am ____. These are called affirmations, and next time you catch yourself using language like hope, want, trying to, etc. Catch yourself and think about it for a moment. Are you trying to do something? or are you Doing it?  

​going through the motions - Consistency of effort

once you understand what you want, the next step is to follow through. How many artists I know don't do this. I was guilty of it myself. It's called Failure to launch syndrome. I get it, it's easier to just push your ambition aside and play some video games. Next thing you know it's 10 years later, and have to bust-ass to make up for lost time. If you're not doing something every day, start with 1 thing. If you're already doing something every-day, then start doing 3 things every day. It'll take dedication and preparation, but you can do it. Start Now.

If you have creative ideas but never actually pursue them, you can ease the burden by capturing the ideas for later. This is the way I approach blogging and songwriting. When I have an idea, I'll add it to the list (i keep a notebook nearby so i can quickly captue the idea.) Productivity expert David Allen says "the head is for having ideas, not for holding them, so if the muse strikes you, but you don't have time to do it right now, save the idea for later by capturing it.

through a different lens (camera lens example (wide angle vs reg))
​through the lens of 6 thinking hats
through the lens of an outside perspective (ask someone)

With your list of ideas, you can sit down when it's your creative time, draw from the list, and begin to flesh them out. I do this with Blogging, social media, and songwriting. It works equally as well in all these areas. My sunday for example, is blog day. I make a point that no "real work" is done on sundays. They're for me to rest and re-charge. So I kick back with a cup of coffee, open my inbox, pick something and start writing. I'll get two or three articles done in short order because the ideas have been percolating for a while already, and before I know it, I'm already ahead of the game. No more stress thinking "oh shit, I still have to write my blog for the week, but i didn't have enough time."

All those mundane repeating tasks...

Some projects are too big to do all at once, some are slow burners that are going to take time to build momentum. So how do you handle projects like these. Don't panic. I have to constantly remind myself that It's okay, even if it feels like things are moving slowly and as long as I haven't lost hope or given up, I'm putting in the effert that further the project so as long as I continue to put the effort, it'll happen. There's no point rushing and getting stressed about it.

Do you solo out tracks and mix them by themselves? What does it mean to keep things in context?

The most important tools are your ears and your mind. Use them, trust them. If it sounds good it sounds good. but remember the context. From your sound in the space it's in, to the interaction of frequencies in your mix.

Reference mixes can help you understand how your track is sounding compared to other songs. If you're listening to a playlist, and one song is drastically quieter than the one before it, thats no good. Reference mixes can help you avoid that.

using ducking. if you hear a displeasing sound in your guitar track, a useful trick (if it is supported by your hardware) is called ducking (or listening in place.) This is basically just turning down everything, and keeping the track that has your attention at the forefront. imagine it like a lens through which you can still seee what's happening in the rest of the song as you're doing surgery on that guitar track.

​

If it feels right, it probably is. I've seen many an indie go way overboard with mixing each individual track to perfection, only to to turn off solo and have to do it again. They end up to their necks in audio problems they barely understand.

Solo out that track and it sounds fine alone but in the mix it sounds wrong. What is actually happening and why? Which interaction of instruments/tracks is causing that? Use solo to find that. Remember that sounds interact with other sounds. Just because one track is a vocal and another is a guitar doesn't mean frequencies are not competing for space. The sound is combined and played back through your sound system, and if you're not mixing in headphones, they're interacting with your room too.

So how to conclude this article, and mix it right. If you're having to solo out a track, tweak it to get it sounding perfect, and then start over again to get it sounding good in context, You're doing it twice. You don't have to. Don't worry, these skills are like learning a new instrument. they come with time and practice. Luckily we live in an age where people are sharing their years of skills and experience for free on the internet. Need some tips?  Let me google that for you...

The ability to dentify the challenges is an important skill for the career musician. In order to this, you'll need to use your imagination. First, I'd like to invite you to accept everything as possible. anything otherwise would just be making excuses.

​Imagine a single path before you. The road ahead branches and each one of those branches represents your decisions. Imagine at the end of these paths, your goals. It's not about wandering aimlessly down a path that's already laid out for you. Nope, we're making our own path, our own way. So what's it gonna take to blaze a trail, a road, a highway. what does the landscape look like? are we going to need bridges and tunnels?

So in anticipation of challenges as a part of goal-setting. I'd recommend putting pen to paper. list everything you've got, from things you're already doing, to ideas that might seem like a pipe dream, unreachable, impossible.

As you begin to understand more about what your options are, you can start to understand what's attainable, and what it might take to make it happen. This Link, gives an animated breakdown that goes into more detail. 

​Basically, this part is going back through what you thought about during this mental excersise. say x ammount of time later and asking questions like:

Hey, It's Cody Gene here from Gene Media. Welcome to 2020! We're opening up a whole bag of Music mindsets, principles, and Methodologies to help you as an artist, creative, and entrepreneur. For the new year, we'll (I'll) be bringing you more creative-focused content in these three categories...

Are you a songwriter? Enter the Contest at
www.genemediacreativestudio.com/contest
Are you a thinker? Do you like food for thought? Big picture thinking?
Visit the blog at www.genemediacreativestudio.com/blog

​I guess the first question would be how do you want to capture your ideas? 

If you have a decent laptop or computer you can use a DAW with an audio interface. *Cubase/nuendo, protools, logic, studio one, reaper, are a few examples. For basic tracking they all do pretty much the same thing. The workflow and the price-point is the main consideration while you're just starting out.

For Audio interfaces, there are quite a few out there. It depends on your budget. like, the Behringer U-phoria series is probably the cheapest, and the Apollo ones are on the top-end. I'd recommend going onto amazon to browse and read reviews if that's the way you want to go. Just remember, you usually get what you pay for, so if you can afford to spend the $$$, then get the best you can.

Or you could use a built-in recorder that captures to SD card (like someone mentioned the zoom R16) I had one of those for years, they're mobile and useful, but the preamps aren't the greatest. but it gets the job done.

other considerations, will be how many channels you need. will you want to use mics (if so do you have a nice quiet room?), or a direct-in signal? I'm guessing you could probably get by with a 2 channel (for most purposes) or an 8 channel if you need to track drums, or want to go all out with lots of mics.

Gain staging - once you're setting up to record, set your input gain to the highest you can get without clipping. I'd recommend doing a google search for 'signal to noise ratios audio' or 'gain staging audio' to figure that part out. basically, you want the 'hottest signal you can get without clipping or introducing too much noise' 

As far as sending your tracks off for mixing. Your engineer will probably ask you to consolidate your tracks. which basically means you export your tracks individually, each beginning at 0:00. This allows for the engineer to easily align them in the new mix session. ​

Personal: what are you doing to stay on track?
*insert needs here* 
Professional: how are you presenting yourself? inter-personally, through your band/niche/culture etc *insert values here* 
Promotional: how do other people recieve you? analytics, conversations, Email replies
*insert systems here*

let's say you're looking for a deep-warm tone. It sounds great on a good sound-system, but it doesn't show up on small speakers.

What do you do is not a question that can be directly answered yet; that is, unless you already know what your options are, and in that case, you probably already have your problem solved.

let's start here instead. Okay, so lets say your genre is indie rock. It's a song that's driven by the guitars and the vocals.  

great, now which instruments live in the low-end. commonly this will be drums and bass (kick, toms, Bassline, the bottom of the guitar, and the deepest part of the vocal. The bass doesn't cut through? ask yourself which instrument and why?

The kick drum sounds good, the guitar/vocal sounds fine. the bassline doesn't cut. It doesn't always need to be front and center, It can act as the glue to hold the song together. When you move away from your good sound-system to your laptop/earbuds/car stereo/mobile. it seems to disappear completely.

A few areas to consider. 

• Tone/Texture
• Levels/Consistency
• Depth/Clarity

Imagine your low-end in 3 bands. you've got sub-frequencies, Low-frequencies, and precieved low-frequencies (low-mids and above) 

Check for trouble areas in the context of these three 'bands' 
EQ is your most powerful tool! try to find the frequency range you're looking for using your solo function to listen for which tracks might be competing for 'space', 

for example, the bass if it's most present at 80Hz, but the guitar is 'masking' the bass up between 160- 300Hz. You might also have low-frequency energy competing in tracks where it has no business being. here, a hi-pass filter would be your friend. 
For example, The bass is warm and present between 60-160hz, but adds nothing above that. because it's being covered up by another instrument, 

Have you ever felt stuck?
Have you ever felt hopeless?
Have you ever felt like Quitting?

How do you use reasoning to understand a problem in order to recognize your blind spots?

How do you take something that seems impossible and turn that into actionable things that can bring you closer to your goals?

I'm creating a downloadable guide that you can follow step-by-step to help you solve for your challenges.

If you think you might find this helpful and want it NOW, click over to the Contact page to ask for it. 

Comment below, what is the biggest challenge you face as an idependent artist?