Two days ago, I officially reached the 100 beats milestone. To be clear, I've made significantly more than 100 beats throughout my career, but I haven't been counting all this time. Also, I couldn't count even if I wanted to because there are computers that I no longer have, so I couldn't figure it out. The 100 beats are from the time I started making beats on the Ableton Push 3 in December of 2023. This accomplishment is, first and foremost, impossible for me without God's grace operating in my life. Along the way, there have been a lot of smaller wins that I'm proud of, which make up reaching this 100-beat milestone.
The first is a practice/character trait that I believe is a gifted superpower of mine, but can also be a hindrance depending on the context. This superpower would be planning. Before I started using the Push, I made a plan on how I would actually go about using it. I spent two weeks straight reading about the machine, organizing sounds, choosing samples, and buying extra cables that I would need. I wanted as much of my bandwidth to go towards being creative as possible and as little bandwidth as possible to go towards trying to figure out how to load sounds or how to use the Push. The level of preparation I allowed myself to have before programming a single kick drum really set me up to hit the ground running, in my opinion. There was a voice in my head trying to convince me that I was just finding excuses to not actually do the work of making beats. Which is a real possibility. It's very possible to be stuck in the planning phase and never get into the actual doing stage. And I've done that. It's something I have to actively work against. I think I got the balance right with this.
The second small win is that I can actually play all of these beats. Historically, I've been the producer with 1000 projects and 50 actual beats that can be listened to. Stuff would always remain in a tweakable state. It's a picture of an overall issue I'm using this series to combat, which is that I have some sort of fear or insecurity around my ideas and my artistic expression. So, for one reason or another, I keep it from entering the world. I have 100 completed beats, most of which anyone can listen to. The only reason you wouldn't be able to is because they are being released on a future version of Tajin Tapes.
The third milestone is that I feel like I've started to be able to really break down the science of a Kid Maestro type beat in a way I haven't been able to before. And with that, it's officially time to branch off and find the next component to add to my arsenal. And I'll drill that for another 100 beats. Being able to methodically build my sound just seems so freeing. And it's something I have to be intentional about for sure, but not anything I have to overthink. The reason I don't have to do that is because I'm choosing to improve via repetition versus thinking really hard about a single beat.
Anyway! Just wanted to share!
Stay Creative. Stay Godly.
Kid Maestro