Songwriting Slacker

TIP OF THE DAY: If you’re considering home recording then don’t procrastinate thinking you must wait until you have a bunch of high-end gear. A standard SM58 (which most musicians have) can create crisp/professional vocals that stand up close to industry standards. Most things within the world of audio recording do not boil down to the gear you own, but the knowledge you obtain in mixing.

Regardless of what gear you have, it doesn’t matter if you do not have an understanding of the free tools that reside in most all DAWs:
1- gain-stage meters
2- EQ
3- Automation
4- Compressors
5- Reverb & Delay
6- Saturation tools

The six things mentioned above are THE KEY to getting a professional mix. If you do not understand why these tools are so vital then head to the comments for essential videos to get you on the path of creating professional recordings. Knowledge will carry you further than any piece of expensive gear ever will. You can own a top of the line camera (with a gazillion professional settings), but what good is any of that if you don’t have a basic understanding of a camera? Gain knowledge THEN grab gear as needed.

- Josh 🎧

Music theory.
Just the mention of those 2 words has most of us strumming punks on edge. Our tongues quickly locked & loaded with validation to shoot down any music snob who says, “it’s important that you have some understanding”. We rattle off a list of famous musicians who didn’t know music theory.

Let’s go back further than that, back to the beginning. If you’re like me then you picked up the guitar and started strumming with a pick randomly. Innocently trying to play something/anything that had a resemblance of ‘good’. Me personally, I had no thought on the way I was holding the pick or how I was strumming, I was clueless. Fortunately my ambition & natural born talent for creating/hearing melodies would be my tiny light that guided me through the vast darkness of all that I couldn’t see within music.

I spent many, many, MANY years as an intermediate guitarist at best. I was finding beautiful melodies & unique sounds on the fretboard by ear. I was discovering relationships between different chords by ear. Musically blind. I’d been gifted the keys to unlock any door within the world of creativity, but I stubbornly stayed in the dark and wasted years feeling around by ear, slowly finding my way to each door. More time wasted looking for the key hole. Once found, effortlessly unlocked.

I’ve been writing lyrics, singing and playing for nearly 23 years (Josh Purgason, Thoughts Are Nuclear). There is a lot that I’ve learned in that time, music theory included (thanks to my fiancée encouraging me to do so). What I want to do is share with you my journey & approach to music. Not as a teacher, but as a student who still has much to learn. Thankfully I never lost that child-like wonder & imagination when it comes to music. Through that, I believe I’ve got something different to offer than the countless content creators within the musical community. I want us to learn, write, grow & nerd out together. Lastly, if there’s a certain topic you’d like to me to discuss then throw it down in the comments.

Your fellow slacker, Josh