Good mumble folks,
Hope you’ve all had a great January! We’re already roughly 7% of the way through the year, I swear some days feel longer than some years.
Piano in a skip
I got my first keyboard (musical kind) when I was 15, from a skip.
When I was a kid I would change what I wanted to do when I grew up every 2 weeks, astronaut, actor, artist, etc. my older brother was always very supportive but sceptical because he knew it wouldn’t last that long. One day I was positive I wanted to learn how to play piano so I could be a musician, I think I had just gotten really obsessed with Tim Minchin.
It lasted longer than 2 weeks though (maybe 3 and half), then one day I arrived home to find a keyboard that my brother had found in a skip, he rewired a plug to work with it and gave it to me. I was over the moon and started learning immediately, I thought about getting lessons but just ended up repeatedly watching youtube tutorials and watching people play. Then about 3 years later I got my first paycheck and I bought a Casio CDP-120, the kind of digital piano that had 88 fully weighted keys. That was 10 years ago now and I still play it all the time, it sits behind me in my office.
It’s still just a hobby but I feel confident saying it’s been the most vital part of maintaining my mental health throughout my 20s.
Part of my goals over the last week was to make some music for Wunderwurld, I made a commitment to get better by dumping a chunk of my savings on the studio version of Ableton, I’ve had the intro edition for ages and I wanted some bells and whistles, especially because I want a decent amount of orchestral instruments in the Wunderwurld soundtrack. I’m taking some obvious inspiration from Viva Pinata to begin but I’m sure as I expand I’ll find the core of what makes it unique.
It’s still early days, I only had a few hours but I’m feeling positive about this direction already, took a few false starts.
/assets/audio/WW - Day Theme.mp3
What I did last week
Did I achieve last weeks goals?…. No, no I did not haha.
I got very little done this week work-wise, I did a restructure of my office and desk so it’s a heck of a lot more organised, I have a fancy new (bought over a year ago now, but left in a box) microphone and audio interface.
I’ve been messing about with Ableton, trying out all the new tools I have. I’ve made the progress shown above on game music and got a list of SFX I need for the demo.
I ran a heck of a lot, I’ve now reached 159.8km for this month, which is way more that I expected so I’m pretty thrilled with that, I’ve been out of shape for so long that it feels odd to see noticeable changes.
I also ended up having a pretty ridiculous MTG game, you start with 20 life, but I managed to gain over 4000 more life thanks to my 30+ indestructible horses.
I also watched The Menu this week after hearing all the buzz from work and my partner. My god, I strongly, thoroughly recommend it, might end up being my favourite movie this year.
What I plan to do next week
I’m gonna try to focus a lot more on work this week, we have our monthly First Friday at work where you get to spend the entire day on self-development so I’ll be working on WW most likely. I want to aim to do the things I missed last week and get a simple Music & SFX Manager in the game, I’ll grab the ones I’ve made for Echo’s Climb to make it faster.
Sidenote: I can’t wait to watch Poker Face, the new detective show from Rian Johnson (Knives Out, Glass Onion), apparently it’s a Columbo type of show and I am so here for that!
Still don’t really know how to start and end these things, something about mumbling would be on brand but would sound terrible… erm… bye.