Party (WR 24)

Every mentor visit is a chance to learn and explore new ideas. Each visit I am continually learning and getting better at my craft thanks to the guidance and wisdom of my mentor. This past mentor visit, the first thing Jonathan had me do was listen to Beethoven's 5th symphony. At first I didn’t see how listening to Beethoven’s 5th symphony was relevant or would help me with music production. Then the more we listened and talked about it I saw how important it and vital it is for a producer to understand classical music.
This past visit, we talked about how music should be like a party. A party with many people all in their own groups about the house. Each group is talking and having their own conversations, talking about various different things. Then you, the listener, walks into the party. At first everyone stops to greet you, then they go about their normal conversations. You then walk around hearing bits of every conversation. This is exactly how music should be, except with instruments instead of people. The piece starts with a main theme, then breaks out into many different musical ‘conversations’ between the different instruments as you the listener walk around and hear different bits of each conversation. All the while each conversation is going on you just hear the closest one the clearest. When Jonathan said this, it all made sense to me. Just like a mix, there is multiple things going on and when you want to introduce a new idea, the other ideas shouldn’t stop but should keep going lower in the mix. Similar to a party, when you exit one conversation it doesn’t just end, but just gets softer and replaced by the new conversation.

"Break" (WR 22)

This past week I was fortunate enough to have the entire week off of school for spring break. This was a great opportunity for me because it allowed me time to get a lot of stuff done and be very productive. Even though it was spring break, it was hardly a "break" for me. Every day I was productive and I spent a great deal of much needed time working on ISM related things. The first couple days I spent working in my home studio on my album. I got a lot of great songwriting, production, and mixing done. I even started working on the 4th song (out of 5). Then on Wednesday, I got the chance to spend the entire day working at C - Factory with Christian Chavarria, an associate of my mentor, recording and producing one of his up and coming artists. This was a great experience and I got to meet/hangout with some really cool people. Then on Friday, I once again went up to C - Factory to meet with my mentor. We worked on some of my projects, talked, and I also got to sit in on a session with one of his clients. Overall, it was a great week and I got a lot of much needed stuff done.

Home (WR 20)

This past Friday I went on my 5th mentor visit of the year. Every time I go on a visit I am learning and experiencing many new things and ideas. This is especially true for my most previous visit. We talked and discussed many topics, but two main ideas stuck out to me. The first idea we talked about was the concept of a countermelody. The second takeaway I had was the idea of ‘home’ within a song.
The first big thin Jonathan explained to me is the importance of having a countermelody. To put it in context, we were working on one of my songs and there was a long guitar solo. He said that while the solo was good, there should be some things added to support it so the listener does not get board. Jonathan had a really good analogy to illustrate this. He said the guitar or main melody should be like the road of a road trip. Most of the time you are focusing on the road, but every now and then you look off for a moment to see a mountain or lake. The counter melody is the mountain/lake. Its something that distracts the listener for a moment but doesn't take away from the road.
The second takeaway I had was the idea of having a ‘home’ in a song. Jonathan said that every song should have a solid home, but the song should have a good amount of time away from home so that when you return to home, it truly feels like home. He said its just like a real home, your home doesn't feel special until you have spent time away from it. Like when you go on vacation, and then return to home it really feels special to be home. In a song, Jonathan explained that you can achieve this by having parts of the song that feel unusual so that when you return to that home, it feels special and has a greater emotional impact.

Mentor Visit 2 (WR 17)

On Monday January 19th, I went on my second mentor visit. I met up with Jonathan at his studio in Dallas. When I arrived, Jonathan told me that today we would be working on a project for one of his clients. It was a latin/pop song and our task for the day was to record acoustic guitar. We started by setting up the mics and line checking the patches. Jonathan showed me so much that I did not know before like how to position the mics, what mics to use, how to get good levels, etc. He then grabbed his guitar and went to the live room and I got to run the studio. I was in charge of recording him play. One really valuable thing I learned was how to operate ‘punch-in recording’. Punch-in recording is basically starting recording the channel after the session is playing. I did not know how to do this prior, but I now do and will be using it a lot because of how handy it is.

While we were working, Jonathan mentioned that he would be out of town for the next two weeks because he is going to NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants). This is really cool to me because I've always wanted to go to NAMM and now I personally know someone that has gone, Jonathan even played at NAMM last year.

Mentor (WR 15)

Over the break a lot of exciting things happened to me in regards to ISM. The biggest being that Jonathen Camacho from C-Factory Productions said yes to being my mentor! Jonathen is one of the best music producers in Dallas and I am very excited to get to work with him all year. He produces all kinds of music ranging from latin, pop, rock, and so much more. You can read more about Jonathen and C-Factory here (http://christianchavarria.wix.com/c-factoryproductions).

Another exciting thing that happened was that on this past Saturday, I got to visit my mentor for the first time. The first thing I experienced was Jonathen working with a client. They were in pre-production and had just created a scratch track. Once his client left, Jonathen then took the time to help me with some of my songs. We worked on mixing them and basically rebuilt them from the ground up. He showed me all the things I was doing great, and all the things I need to fix and improve on. All in all, this has been a great break and I got a lot of productive stuff done.