This is it. My plan for the next few months. I’m nervous and excited.

I wanted to set it up like a project, with internal milestones and expected deliverables so that I can avoid my usual goalpost-shifting.

What do I want as an outcome? Simple. More musical output at a higher standard than the previous year. One completely valid criticism I had last year was that my output is minimal. You can choose to become bitter or better, so I’m going to become better.

So, here are my  plans for the challenge:

1. Every day I will open Ableton 9 and use it.
2. I will intentionally investigate one feature or tool within that per day
3. The minimum time spend per day will be 15 minutes
4. I will make notes on my findings and write about them, including tutorials used, forums frequented, etc.
5. Findings will be posted daily. Short form on Instagram and long form on this blog.
6. This will dovetail in with online tutorials but must involve practical application on a daily basis – what did I do with this information
7. End output is minimum one finished track to post on all streaming channels.
8. Stretch goal would be three finished tracks, one each 30 days.
9. This challenge will cover recording techniques, production tools, and gaining a better understanding of sound engineering.
10. I will track all costs associated with this challenge (equipment, libraries, etc, if needed)

This challenge will occur daily with the exception of illness where I am unable to move. (This happened last year.) In that event, a day adds on to the end date of the challenge.

I want to break this into four blocks. Three 30-day blocks and a final ten-day speed run. This will allow me to break it down into smaller chunks, identify what I need to work on first, and prioritise as I go. 100 days of learning random parts is all well and good, but to achieve these outcomes, I need to give myself the best chance. The other reason is that there are a lot of 30-day challenges for music production and it seems a good format.

With all this in mind, I don’t expect to have a particularly interesting social life in the next while, so apologies in advance unless you’d like to come drink tea at the desk next to me while I’m working. Which, for the record, I quite enjoy. Otherwise, I’ll see you on Instagram.

Wish me luck!