Learning from where you least expect it
Happy Monday friends! Are you ready to start the week with a huge inspiration bomb?
Oh sheet! w/ Iva Kosic - new podcast episode!
Iva Kosic is a Serbian classical guitarist who creates music videos and entertaining content. She has 220K followers on Instagram and 50K followers on TikTok, and she has millions of views.
Being a good player is not enough to make it as a musician anymore. That's the entry level. You have to know how to get your music seen and heard. In this new episode, Iva and I are talking about what it is like to be a content creator in today's classical guitar landscape, and what it is like to be a woman guitarist on the internet now.
Iva has a great sense for understanding what works well on social media, she makes viral videos all the time, and I think everything she said is great advice for up-and-coming musicians who try to make it on social media. This conversation can also be interesting if you’re a music enthusiast but not an active player.
Being a classical guitarist can be lonely, we are not part of a symphonic orchestra naturally, and the chamber music culture in classical guitar is not as strong as for other instruments. Probably it’s because guitar can play alone so many voices, it can be a melody, accordic and rhythm instrument at the same time. But that’s a different conversation. Starting this podcast series has brought me a lot of new skills and reminders to re-explore older habits and ideas.
When I started the podcast, during the first few recording I was so stressed about being a good host. I was barely able to listen and fully engage in the conversation, because I was so focused on how I’m gonna react, what I’m gonna say and how I want to lead the conversation. But that’s not how listening should work.
When I rewatch these podcasts, I also discover some new things I didn’t really hear at the moment of recording, because I wasn’t entirely present. And here’s the problem: often when we enter into a conversation with someone, our performance pressure kicks in, and it doesn’t let us be present and to just listen to the other person, and fully let their thoughts in. If I’m already thinking about my response while they speak, I’m not listening.
I used to be really scared of the awkward silence. But the truth is, silence often happens when someone truly listens to you, and then they need some extra time to structure their response. If I react immediately, I either didn’t listen, or I didn’t take my time to shape my thoughts.
These podcasts are a great practice for me to become a good listener, and to devote my full attention to the other person, and to stay present. I always expected that starting a podcast would benefit me, but this is something I didn’t expect!
New editing trend on YouTube - the “no editing editing”
Being a content creator can be really frustrating, there’s a rising expectation from creators on each platform regarding the quality, quantity and frequency, and small creators can feel trapped. There are many channels I follow that seem to be one-man shows, then it turns out that 3-4 people are working on the channels. Which is great, I’m happy to see that being a YouTuber is a valid business direction these days, but we, solo creators can’t keep up with the amount of videos these bigger channels produce, not to mention how well-edited these videos are often.
This used to put a lot of pressure on me. I didn’t enjoy making videos a few months ago because I knew that I’m gonna spend 20-30 hours on making one, 80% of it is just editing, and then it starts all over again. But this frustration seems to be over.
I see a huge shift on YouTube. Solo creators upload more casual, longer videos with little to no editing. Honestly, I almost feel disrespected when the creators put some flashy things on the screen in every frame, assuming that I can’t pay attention for a complete 8 seconds. I find a lot of videos now where the creators don’t even trim out when they are thinking or saying something wrong. The new editing style is the no editing style, because we are so overwhelmed with the flashy, fast-paced, retention optimised editing.
What I love about this new wave the most, is how it just seemed to emerge naturally, and the creators started to upload more and more simple videos independently of each other.
I also started to be a bit more forgiving with my videos, I don’t trim out every little mistakes or pauses, and I will use visuals only when they support my message.
My latest video already has a much calmer and slower pace, focusing on explaining the thumb position for the fretting hand as good as I can, while I also let my real personality and sense of humour come through.
My upcoming video is already available on Patreon as an early access, it follows this new, simplified editing style as well:
Jaybird and Bernini - gaining inspiration from different areas
And finally, a bit less of a music thing, but I made this little digital painting of a blue jay. There's a story behind it. There's a YouTube channel I like, it is Great Art Explained, and they shared a video about the art of Bernini. The video pointed out how his genius was in representing people in a movement, giving the sculptures dynamics and life compared to the former styles where sculptures felt more static, more distant and less life-like. His works looks like one second of an act, and that one second tells you the whole story.
As an example, here's Michelangelo's and Bernini's David. While Michelangelo's seem more static, more poetic and mythological, it seems a bit unavailable or unrelatable too. Bernini's David feels to me like a real human, I can relate to him because of his struggling and concentrating facial expression, and because of his natural body posture.
This really got me thinking, and I went through over a few paintings I made and wasn't happy with. The ones that illustrates some kind of figures, not landscapes or still lifes. Turned out the thing I was missing from them was dynamics. So I sat down and tried to sketch a bird, I used a reference photo as always, but I tried to exaggerate the features that makes it look more moving. Here is the thing I ended up with:
With the bending of the branch, tail pointing up, lift face and the curved legs I wanted to suggest that this is not a relaxed situation, but the split second between when the bird arrives at the branch but already plans to move forward. The strong highlights and the play of the background wants to increase the tension too.
I like still works, they can be very poetic and comforting, however I'm really happy that I found this idea about dynamics. It's funny how this little bird that has nothing to do with baroque, was basically inspired by one of its main concept by Bernini, a master who died long ago. What's even funnier is how when I play guitar, I try breaking everything down into the sequence of relaxation and tension, bot technique and musicality, and now I see that concept in a completely different field, giving me more things to think about. I hope to be able to live with an open heart, because if I’m able to listen and observe without prejudice, I can see the little webs that connects everything. Life truly is amazing.
The full video of Bernini that I mentioned is here:
Hope you enjoyed this newsletter, feel free to share it with someone if you think they could use some weekly inspiration! Have a lovely week, and stay creative!