darren r hill

the creative minimalist

Tag: music

  • Rambling on – Creative Field Notes

    Rambling on – Creative Field Notes

    How have I felt this week?

    I have had ups and downs this week. At times, I have felt like everything is going well, and at others I have felt like everything is falling apart. But I am here. I have been creating and I am capturing things. I haven’t done as much as I would have liked, I have struggled, I questioned the point of creating and my own ability. In other words, a typical week in the life of most creative types, right?

    What have I created this week?

    Sculpting Sound

    The Wheel of the Year is still progressing. All the tunes and about 90% of the arrangements are there. I am at the stage of listening over and over and deciding what is missing and what needs tweaking. The difficulty is maintaining motivation to keep listening and refining. This is the part of any creative project I struggle with. Actually, forget that I struggle with many parts of the creative process, but pushing through to the end is especially wearying.

    Weaving words

    Showing up here and in a new journal are the sum of my writing exploits. I am finding the need to make space to write and breaking open a new journal, with no real direction as to what it will contain, are signs and signals that I will be writing more soon.

    Multimedia

    Not quite multimedia, but I need somewhere to put it. I have created the almost version 1.0 of my WordPress theme for www.thistempleeden.com and that is now live. There is still plenty to do, but the basics are live and the next steps involve content and structure. Therefore, I uploaded it and will begin to piece it together. Many of the pages are “offline” but as I add the content they will go live.

    LifeList highlights and lowlights

    I am refining my LifeList. I want to make sure that it captures all that I want to be. It should be a guide to my day, a light to the path. It should capture the areas of my life that need work. I currently track all this in a spreadsheet, with a simple checkbox for daily habits. That’s working well, although it’s not the easiest to share and reflect on. In summary, I am achieving about 50% of my daily habits and rituals. Language learning, a morning routine, and a little exercise are regularly achieved. The rest needs more attention.

    In conclusion,

    I feel like I have turned a page in the Creative Field Notes. I have structure yet enough space to explore.

  • Reviewing Creative Goals

    Reviewing Creative Goals

    reviewing creative goals text with an image of me in front of abstract charts

    How have we done with our creative goals, habits and routines as the first quarter of the year passes? I confess to what I have achieved and not achieved in Q1 as I review and prepare for Q2. Creative successes and habit failures are in this week’s vlog.

    Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
    namaste
    d
    xox

    If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.

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  • Lost in IKEA – Creative Field Notes

    Messy desk drawer

    I’ve not been happy with my creative space for a while. I don’t mean to sound whiny about that. I don’t have much room to work with and the space that I do have hasn’t been working. At the same time, I am very, very grateful for the space that I do have and I know that I have blamed the space when a lot of the time it is just me not working.

    Anyway, I decided to fix something I have control over. I would get myself a desk and some additional drawer space to ease the creative piles of stuff that often bring me down. So with a bank account that wasn’t looking forward to it, I hopped in the car and popped along to IKEA. A couple of hours later I returned home with a new desk, several drawers and desk tidy, type things with Swedish names.

    The rest of my Bank Holiday was spent moving things around and building the desk – no royal celebrations for me. And also, which is more unfortunate, I didn’t get much time to be creative and move my projects forward. However, I am here, reporting in and staying accountable.

    Creative Field Notes

    The new music collection has nine tracks pretty much confirmed and one empty slot, although I have several possibilities for that. I also found a missing part of one track by bringing it in from another. Cannibalising your own music is allowed… especially if the new arrangement works. Once all the tracks are pretty much agreed upon in my head, and on paper, it will be time to record and rerecord to give them a coherent sound – a This Temple Eden sound.

    This website still needs love and attention, as do several others that I own, run and use. And as a little tease, this is the current iteration of the new The Creative Minimalist logo.

    The Creative Minimalist logo

    I could make 101 excuses as to why I haven’t blogged yet, but the truth is I just haven’t motivated myself to get going. I will remedy that. I’ll soon be back in the swing of talking about creativity in all its breadth as seen through my little corner of the world.

    The creative and learning habits are going well. I have always believed in lifelong learning so giving a little structure to that part of things is good. However, creative habits have been more of a challenge. I have been able to take the time to do them, but it is the play element that is difficult. I’ll explain a little more in a future post to see if it is something that is ongoing once the habit becomes more ingrained.

    Now, I’d best get on with being creative.

    Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
    namaste
    d
    xox

    If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.

    Sign up for my (ir)regular newsletter to keep up to date with my creative adventures, including special offers, and join me on Instagram | YouTube | Twitter | Pinterest

  • Imaginary figments Friday field notes

    screenshot of emerge in Logi Pro X
    fig 1

    An update, or excerpt, on what I have been creating and doing. Keeping myself accountable, even though I have forgotten to update here for a few weeks. Inspired by my imagination, here are some…

    Figments

    I am composing ‘emerge’. I think this will form part of a collection, the working title of which is currently ‘music to journal by’ – fig 1 is a screenshot of my work in progress. I’ll do a video update on the progress soon.

    I am writing again. I have set myself a monthly word count goal. I had a nagging feeling in my soul that I wanted to write. I have plenty of ideas but wasn’t getting around to writing any. So, I set myself a goal, a little more accountability.

    The music grimoire my songwriting journal hasn’t seen much action, but I have been working on a collection of songs. I’ll be back in the songwriting journal over the weekend.

    I am reading Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. Really enjoying the oral ‘storytelling’ vibe. I always know when I am enjoying a book because I write quotes:

    He had done as his dreams had told him, but dreams know more than they reveal, even to the wisest of the gods

    Norse mythology by Neil Gaiman

    I have been watching Brand New Cherry Flavor on Netflix. It was good, but I didn’t think it was great. There were some really nice ‘horror’ video effects. I quite liked those.

    I am thankful for all of you who read and encourage me on my creative path, and as such, I’d best get going and finish a few things.

    Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
    namaste
    d
    xox

    If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.

    Sign up for my (ir)regular newsletter to keep up to date with my creative adventures, including special offers, and join me on Instagram | YouTube | Twitter | Pinterest

  • Your touch on Music Monday

    Many moons ago I had a song called Your Touch. Having just passed a New Moon, it seems fitting that a new version of Your Touch is nearing completion. The draft lyrics have been written. Now I let them simmer while I mull over them, sing along with them and generally hang out with them. I’ll also record some demo vocals and perhaps record a live version of the song to see how it feels.

    Your Touch is part of a collection of songs inspired by recent events. I am hoping to release the songs as soon as I can. So I’d best get on writing and recording. But the picture and my words above should give a little insight into my songwriting process. I’ll explain more in the weeks ahead.

    Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
    namaste
    d
    xox

    If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.

    Sign up for my (ir)regular newsletter to keep up to date with my creative adventures, including special offers, and join me on Instagram | YouTube | Twitter | Pinterest

  • Summer Solstice Blessings and some music

    Summer Solstice Blessings and some music

    solstice by this temple eden

    Blessing to you all on this Summer Solstice

    Today is the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. I wrote a piece of music inspired by the Solstice and I am sharing aversion of it with you today. You can listen (and watch) below or click through to watch on YouTube, where you could also subscribe to my channel if you would like.