It’s hard when you’ve done your best works. But the artist must continually surpass the previous one.
Tchaikovsky’s greatest piece was his final one. And it wasn’t well received so he killed himself. They simply didn’t get it.
They didn’t get it until after his death. Now we know its greatness.
Although I make the argument that Beethoven’s greatest was his 6th, his final symphony also makes a pretty strong case.
Me though, I got a long way to go. I’m just beginning.
It’s a mindset though. A continual push.
Each painting – either try a new technique or improve over the previous one. Or both.
Same with songs. I need to be learning something every time I write a song. It’s definitely easier to measure with my Classical pieces than the pop ones.
Where are you at?
So where are you at? Are you even close to your magnum opus?
I feel bad for those who have already done their best works, and know it. Tarantino’s best was Pulp Fiction. A lot argue for Reservoir Dogs but I simply found that one boring. Pulp Fiction had so much good dialog and better characters.
My favorite band, Judas Priest, nailed it in 1982 with Screaming for Vengeance. A Metal masterpiece, although they’ve put out a few excellent albums after that one.
Pink Floyd nailed with with Dark Side of the Moon. Queen’s best was A Night at the Opera. Prince had Purple Rain.
Picasso had Guernica. Everyone knows Dalí’s Persistence of Memory. And of course, we all know Munch’s The Scream. The painting that we’ve all used at least once as an emoji.
Then there’s the extreme case of Orson Welles. If you’re a film buff, you already know Citizen Kane is often ranked as the best movie ever made. And that was his first film. How do you measure up to that?
What’s your greatest piece so far?
Looking back at everything you’ve done so far, do you have a favorite piece?
You could be a writer, an artist, a musician, a craftsman, or whatever. Think back at everything you’ve ever done and what would they consider your greatest piece?
Musically, I know my producer likes Princess for the Night the best. I feel like musically, I’m only beginning. I’ve only started doing Classical music in 2012. Sure that was 8 years ago but Classical is on a whole different level of difficulty. You don’t just write a symphony. You have to build up to that.
That’s also why if you’ve been on this blog for awhile, you’ll notice I keep changing the header image. Every time I think I can make Allie or Roxy look better, I upgrade the image. They’re not just my models. They’re two of my favorite people on the planet.
Failing Up
My music producer has a phrase – failing up. It’s a great concept.
I’ve failed at more things than most people have even tried. But when you fail, you get a real good learning experience out of it. You also don’t magically lose the skill sets you’ve learned.
In my last band, I learned how to direct video. I also learned how to edit. I’m now pretty good at Adobe Premier Pro. Yes, the band failed but now I got two new skill sets out of it.
Back in 2017, I made a horror short. It wasn’t any good, but a great learning experience. I’ve worked with Nitda several times previously and as gorgeous as she is in this video, I can assure you she’s even better in real life.
Since I own the video, I might as well crop it into something. The song is Princess for the Night, a disco song I wrote for Roxy. In 2017, Roxy was modeling for me, wearing only panties, and for some reason, she just started dancing. I thought it was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.
Right at that moment, I knew I had to write a song for her. This song is the result. If you like it, please buy it from here. You’ll be supporting a lot of broke ass sound engineers and session musicians, including some real good independent orchestral musicians.
You may be surprised just how many super talented orchestral musicians are out there who don’t work for a symphony orchestra. They’re great people too.
Anyways, ponder the concept of “failing up.” Every time you fail at something, do it better.
That’s yet another reason I love weightlifting because it’s easy to measure. Artistically, it’s a little bit harder to measure. But you know your works better than anyone else.
