#NGNY22 - Happy NoGear New Year!

The Lounge General Discussion
#606

Sure but part of it is encouraging ourselves to learn our gear more deeply and not spreading ourselves too thin, which can’t be a bad thing.

The more tracks I finish, the more I learn. Like you said though, buying a new guitar won’t make me a better guitar player though. Not buying a guitar won’t either, but practicing instead of buying guitars will.

I think a lot of us would be happy with making more music and spending less money on gear. That’s the only reason I signed up for this.

Not about your post, but I see far too many people thinking about what others are doing as opposed to what they are doing. I don’t really get that.

I’m honestly thinking about just moving over to the thread about making music in 2022 and muting this one, as I find more negativity than encouragement in general, and I have a pretty good idea about what I personally want to accomplish next year. Looking forward to having a lot of fun making music.

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#607

Frank Farelly comes to mind :slight_smile:

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#608

We’re so collectively entrenched in consumerism that some people can’t stand this thread :rofl:

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#609

Completely agree with this. Buying no new gear will leave you with more time/focus to make music.

To me it’s seems like people attention spans shorten more and more, some (young) people can’t focus long enough to watch an entire movie anymore, and the main entertainment is watching short clips on instagram/tiktok. Maybe this urge to continuously buy new stuff without ever really getting into it comes from the same lack of attentionspan.

My goal is not to feel good about myself for not buying anything, but to really focus and explore/master my current minimal setup.

I think a lot of people here will eventually buy something, but I feel like just trying to focus more is a goal/succes in itself, even if you don’t succeed in not buying anything for a year.

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#610

Probably not. But it’s possible. How many browse and dream of the next cool thing to add to the setup vs fully learning how to use the shit they’ve got.

It can become habit forming, constantly planning what setup’s next. Instead of using the setup…period.

You don’t need to be on board. But you can’t fault those who wanna be. It can actually feel good to break a routine. EX: I didn’t use social media. But I had to get FB for werk. I started using it regularly to test the game we were werking on. And you can easily get sidetracked looking at shit. But I dumped all that. And when I deleted, then closed my account…it felt liberating. Free from that bullshit.

Now, Ive noticed I check this shit too often for my liking. And wanna cut down. Unfortunately there is good info on this forum. So I won’t abandon completely.
Not yet anyways.

But to go full circle, if one can focus less on lusting after gear, and using the gear they have, they could quite possibly make improvements. Knowing your gear fully allows one to get to where they want to be without having to pull out the manual, or remember “how do I…”

Practice doesn’t make one perfect, but it does help one improve.

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#611

Lol. Indeed. :slight_smile:

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#612

It should in theory help you concentrate more on the task ahead. But this strategy hasn’t always worked in the past. Some people just quit altogether. We will see.

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#613

I fully support anyone who does this in any way, shape or form. Even if they fail. It helps your mental strenght and might just give you a different outlook on things.

Everyone just wants to be happy but sometimes you have to fight for it. Be brave.

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#614

Please knock off the trolling.

You can imagine how difficult it must be to want to change only to have someone drop into the thread and repeatedly tell you you’re going to fail.

If you don’t have anything nice to say, then move along, as you’ve missed the point of this thread.

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#615

The point of this thread is to say something nice?

I’m reminded of the old quip about what happens when you ask someone “How’s it going?” They are supposed to say fine. Not that they are feeling depressed and that their hemorrhoids are acting up.

I love this thread. I have great admiration for those who’ve taken the pledge. I considered doing the same, but am scared and weak. I would rather wait a year and ask to be added on December 31, 2022.

I learned to unicycle several years ago. It took me about 6 weeks of 1+ hour of everyday practice to reach my “no longer a beginner” goal of self-mounting and riding the 1/4 mile loop around my neighborhood sans dismount. None of my neighbors had anything nice to say. It didn’t matter, though. My commitment level eclipsed whatever benefit I could’ve gotten from others’ encouragement.

When I started unicycling, I viewed it as a novelty. Another weird thing I’d learn to do, then move onto the next thing. But I got hooked, and I did a “deep dive” into unicycling. I learned how to idle, ride backwards, hold the seat with both hands while riding, go off-road, hop up stairs, wheel-walk. And all these techniques took lots of practice time.

I hope NGNY encourages us to do more of a “deep dive” with our own setups. Good luck!

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#618

That’s not what I said.

The point of the thread is really to voice your desires for change and offer support to those who have the same, maybe even offer some tips, not shoot them down before the race even begins.

I’m sure there will be other threads for that.

So anyway. Let’s get back to where we were. Too many flags.

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#619

Do you want a job in my practice? :smile_cat:You seem to understand the complexity of the issue quite well

#621

Okay, here is a tip I don’t think was mentioned above. Don’t be an early-adopter of the latest gear. For example, the M8 Tracker. Wait an entire year before considering buying one. If nothing else, the kinks in operating system should be worked out by then. No intention to malign the M8 (I believe it’s awesome), but I expect to start reading more discussion about how its functionality can be emulated by existing gear. Bottom line: We must believe that our artistic goals can be met on existing gear.

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#622

Love the positive peer pressure here. I’m not sure I’ll be able to withhold myself if/when syntakt drops and is what I suspect it to be. Also, Avalon Bassline coming in February. AND, I’ve been wanting to get back into push2 for a few months.

Other than that, I’d be pretty down to participate:)

Edit: the Bassline is technically a 2021 purchase though

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#623

I started a year of no gear on July 1 2021. I’ve held strong with no purchases so far. I really can’t think of anything I need except for talent. Where do I buy that.

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#624

Amen to that.

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#625

My darkest fear…

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#626

Very much can be done with very little

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#627

Talent can be acquired by watching a boatload of ytube vids.

#628

Music lessons are a great place to start. I picked up an instrument I never thought I’d play last year, and take weekly lessons in my neighborhood. I absolutely love it. Lots of practical stuff that translates to all music (rhythms, scales, time signatures, timing, ear training, playing with other musicians, reading music etc).

I also studied composition/theory online with someone that composes for TV/film. We did some deep dives on a couple of musical pieces I was interested in, and he gave me some advice for approaching the type of music I was interested in making. I also learned some basic piano as part of those lessons. He recommended some books for me to continue my studies on my own as well.

Not buying talent per se, but these kinds of things are a great way to get a boost. My weekly music lessons in particular are just a great addition to my quality of life and I’m making some great progress and having a blast. Never too late to start!

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