A Minute Manifesto about a Minute of Music

I’ve been posting about a minute of music a day for the past two weeks, and as I’ve done it I’ve developed a little philosophy about it. You could even call it a project, at this point.

My goal is pretty simple: integrate making music into my daily life. A friend once said of improv classes (and I misquote), “It’s wonderful to have a scheduled time in your life dedicated to laughing.” I feel like almost any creative activity could benefit from that kind of regularity, improving life in a similar way. And lots of people do this; people take music lessons and practice every day, at least when they’re kids. But once you start working, it seems hard to do anything outside of work other than shower, eat, and sleep every day.

To try to encourage myself to actually keep it up, I’ve come up with some rules, or more anti-rules:

• I should make about 1 minute of music. Forty-five seconds is fine, as would be 90 seconds; aiming at something song length would probably be too ambitious though.
• I should do this about every day; however, this isn’t a religion, and missing a day is fine. Missing four days would be pretty disappointing.
• Quality matters less than consistency. Quality is a definite bonus though, and there’s no point in being lazy.
• The goal is to explore and improve. There’s no harm in repeating something that sounded good, though.
• If a song takes more than an hour, you’re doing something wrong. So far, each one takes about 30-45 minutes, from start to post.
• These songs aren’t an end in themselves; these serve to help me think musically to improve my bigger projects. They’re still something to be proud of, though.
• When it becomes a chore, the project is over; when you miss it, the project should pick back up. The point of the rules, however, is to keep it from becoming a chore.

Right now, to make the songs, I’m using a Korg Kaossilator plugged into a MOTU ultralite, Intua’s BeatMaker Pro on my iPod, and GarageBand with my midi controllers for added spice.

my music equipment

I’m trying to keep myself portable and low effort, which means no Reason or electric bass mixed in. I’m also making some longer, more involved music as time permits, and as those songs get into better shape, I’ll post them in this same space.

I’d love to hear about anyone else taking up this or similar projects; if you do, please leave a comment and I’ll excitedly add you to my feed reader, looking forward to about a minute of music, about every day.