This week’s NEWS is made possible by Soundfly, a unique online music school. The following is a message from Soundfly, who wants to know: What’s on your mixtape? [What is this?]
Not to get all existential up in here, but life is the ultimate mixtape, isn’t it? Every day, we encounter tons of raw material — sounds, feelings, situations, people — and get to decide how to mash it all together to make a coherent piece of work, one that feels like us. The great thing about a good mixtape is it’s both reflective and creative. You take in and put out, listen and play, suck and blow, imbibe others’ sounds and vomit them up in new ways. Should you put that Max Richter dreamscape right next to The Wu-Tang’s “Ruckus in B Minor”? Or will your intent be better expressed through some Errol Garner, a 90s throwback, and Sam Smith? It’s a creative process.
Such is life. Humans are creative beasts, constantly taking in new sounds and spitting them back out as their own. It is known, Khaleesi. The thing that defines you is choosing the sounds that uniquely express who you are.
This week, we launched Soundfly, a different sort of music school. We’re out to help people unlock, stretch, and push their creativity through music. We want to support you in starting the next great band, writing the next kick-ass song, picking up a new favorite instrument, or anything else that’ll help make your personal mixtape a little more interesting. We currently have courses on songwriting, touring, piano playing, reading music, improvising, band leadership, and, pretty soon, composition, arrangement and more. Or you can browse our online magazine for tips, features, and interviews with musicians.
We hope to be the primordial sludge to your swamp monster (if that’s what you’re going for). Or the mosh pit for your stage dive. Music in some form or another has accompanied our ancestors for 50,000+ years. Woolly Mammoth charging? Bang a drum. Dumped by your boyfriend/girlfriend? Wallow in some Bon Iver. Is the sky aglow with the rockets’ red glare? Write an anthem. Train car hopping in Montana? Ain’t no better companion than a six string.
If life is a mixtape, what are you going to include on yours? Let us help you make that mixtape a little sweeter.
• Soundfly: https://soundfly.com