Jack of all trades or master of one?

Anything about MUSIC but doesn't fit into the forums above.
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Steven West wrote:
Do what you have to Lady J. Because those that are going to sell it never can. ;)
Wow, thank you!

I think technology is driving this though. It's like, in a previous time one would not think of doing all the things because they just weren't capable of it technologically. But now because everyone can wear many hats many little two bit labels like you say, expect us to do everything, whether or not we are particularly great at one aspect of it.

I have chosen to focus on three areas and kick six others to the curb for that reason.

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I am a generalist, and a very good one. I can teach myself better-than-adequate competency in anything I get interested in. I get interested in lots of things. There is no way I would forfeit that ability to become immersed in anything which attracts my interest. I thrive on mastering new things.
An idiot on Set Theory:
"In some cases there is an object called red that contains everything that is red. In much the same way a pot is a plate."

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well just buy the Macromedia webtools . does everything you'll need from studio, but at a fraction of studio cost.

or doesn't it?

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well just buy the Macromedia webtools . does everything you'll need from studio, but at a fraction of studio cost.

or doesn't it?

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I'll bet I'm the absolute most severe case of jack of all, master of none among all of you in this entire forum.

I do music, have done it semi-professionally. I play guitar, drums, keyboard. I compose and arrange. I sing. I don't know if I'm any good at any of them. My music doesn't get the kind of response my paintings and photography does.

I do art, been a professional artist for 13 years.

I do photography, but haven't done any pro work in it yet.

I do writing, and have written for TV, film, comic books, and working on a couple of novels.

I do directing, and have directed two CG animated TV commercials for big name products.

I do design--am currently designing UI for an upcoming VST, and I also do fashion design--I designed my wife's wedding gown, and also design dresses for her to wear.

And the worst thing is, I can't just do one thing. I want to do it all, and I spread myself waaay too thin.

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Lunatique I'll bet I'm the absolute most severe case of jack of all, master of none among all of you in this entire forum.

When did this thread become 'my dick is bigger than your dick?'
An idiot on Set Theory:
"In some cases there is an object called red that contains everything that is red. In much the same way a pot is a plate."

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I'm not much of a Jack, but hope some day to achieve the title of Joker.

Meffy

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i'm more like a hack of all trades...stir the pot, see what happens... :)

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whyterabbyt wrote:Lunatique I'll bet I'm the absolute most severe case of jack of all, master of none among all of you in this entire forum.

When did this thread become 'my dick is bigger than your dick?'
Since when did being a master of nothing become something to be proud of? What I meant is I'm the WORST case there is that I know of. It's not a good thing you know?

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I do a lot of things, all of them badly.
:scared:
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my opinion is some of us need a creative outlet, getting good at something is a matter of certain innate abilities and a lot of practice.

the point to me is the 'good' in this is being encouraged to allow things to flow out, the 'bad' is being discouraged or stifled or burned out.

i figure in certain people, a certain amount of creative force needs to find some outlet.
i let myself get burned out with photography.
for a while i was writing novels through the dark months of northern winters -- but it's a lot harder to get people to read 350 pages than listen to a 5 minute song. so i've come back to music where I started quite a while ago --

because an audience is part of the equation. there was a time when music was by necessity a very collaborative art. Mozart ,et al had to find players to manifest what they heard in their head. And players played before patrons and an audience. Some pieces of music were played/heard 1 or 2 times in the life of a composer.

Thanks to technology, making music now can be as solitary a pursuit as writing. The audience of presumed shared sensibility is easy to imagine out there in cyber space. The 'collaboration' and shared experience of music maker and music listener can be reduced to posting a few songs on a web site. There's rally no 'need' for live performance. I have songs up on the soundclick site. Presumably somebody somewhere is listening because soundclick tracks these statistics. They track stream listens as well as downloads. I'm most heartened when I get a few hits in the download column. But then I think of what that might mean -- somebody somewhere has their iPod loaded with 1 or 2 of my songs and they put their ear buds in and now they're in as solitary a world as I was in when I made it. Not necessarily a good thing.

sorry to divert the topic, but I've been giving this all some thought. and when things will out, there are specific conditions in which they'll out.

Pablo Cassals once said if he went without practice for three days, the audience could tell, two days his wife could tell, one day he could tell. It's not quite the same world today, but maybe the most rewarding parts don't change.

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Lunatique Since when did being a master of nothing become something to be proud of?

Some people revel in their own failure.

What I meant is I'm the WORST case there is that I know of. It's not a good thing you know?

Why not? I consider being capable of many things to be a good thing.

And people do brag negatively y'know.... "Im the most f**ked-up guy here, nobody's more f**ked-up than me, no way".
An idiot on Set Theory:
"In some cases there is an object called red that contains everything that is red. In much the same way a pot is a plate."

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I do both music and graphic/multimedia design professionally at the moment, primarily in cinema. I've also done broadcast tech, video postproduction, photography and journalism.

Some of these were spinoffs from music - I learned to design because I wanted to do my own visuals, for example. When you're working pretty much solo, you're going to end up learning a lot of spinoff trades even if you're not trying to. (plus there was no-one around to learn from, seeing as forums like this were quite far in the future at the time). But I grew up around it too, as my parents are musicians and visual artists, so maybe being exposed from the beginning of my life helped with the learning curves.

There are downsides, certainly - it takes a lot longer to get things done and can be overwhelming at times! I find that in the last two years in particular it's seriously wearing down my attention span, so I'm having to force myself to do one thing at a time. Problem is, when ideas keep coming faster than one can get them actualized, it's hard to focus and prioritize, especially when you've got contract stuff that has to come first... personal work tends to slide. I'm trying to finish three albums right now - one of these was actually conceived five years back, begun in 2002, and probably won't be finished until mid-2005. :cry:

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I am more a composer, never been really a god performer, although I started to learn piano very early. I know I still can play a bit of arpegios on a piano or chords in a guitar, but my concept of a performer is much beyond that (like a 'virtuoso')

Now technology allows me the right tools to make music in a way that's acceptable for me, and I believe I can make some clean production work too.

It's nice to work with other people, but I also like the idea of not depending on anyone. By the way, I also love drawing, and make the cover art for my CD's :wink:
Eventually something intelligent will appear written here. Watch this space.

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i've mastered nothing and pretty much am a jackass of everything else............

:hihi:

lates

t-willy

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