How have you grown (musically)?

What have you learned the most about yourself or playing while jamming here on Wikiloops? You can frame this any way you'd like, a view at yourself, a view at jamming with certain members, challenges, key takeaways, how you view/listen to music...totally open to interpretation but derived from your experiences here.

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Upon finding Wikiloops 10 years ago I quickly learned that I really enjoy playing Funk and Jazz. Two genre's that I never played over the course of 50 plus years in the music biz.

Not that I disliked those genre's, there was just more opportunities in Country, Rock, Pop and Blues in my area.

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Well, I’ve spent my entire musical career playing in professional symphony orchestras and also filling in for amateur orchestras. That’s why I’m truly happy to be able to explore this other side of myself here—a side that has always been within me.

Since my life has revolved primarily around composing for film and orchestral music for over 40 years, I naturally had to be familiar with every musical style. What fascinates me here again and again is the sheer number of high-caliber musicians who have come together; I deeply value the good friends here who bring so much heart to people and to the music.
And what I’ve really learned here is the art of timing. In an orchestral setting—with a conductor right in front of you—flexibility is essential, and that’s something I was trained to do over many years. I’m glad that you all keep me on my toes.:D:Y<3

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Claudia brought up timing. I remember that being a hurdle for me when I first started contributing here. I had never played to a click track, so getting comfortable with that was a bit of a challenge, but over time, I became comfortable with the discomfort of a click track (when creating templates, etc).

I think I've also become more "world aware" because of Wikiloops. All the different musicians here, from all over the globe, has made me be more world conscious.

Additionally, with all the talent here, I hope it's helped me elevate my approache to music. Hopefully I've absorbed and consumed enough to make me a better player, or have a better ear, or to think about music and structure differently.

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I must say that I haven't grown musically by being at wikiloops. In fact my musical skills and aspirations have declined. When I started to write songs on keyboards (30 years ago) I was always trying out new chords, riffs and rhythms. I made big orchestral compositions and Show songs. I stopped doing that at wikiloops because the 'physical' musicianship was so superior to mine. What I did here was always led by the structure of the loops and templates I found. I became a follower rather than an innovator.
Today I have no way to produce music so I've found a niche here for lyric writing and vocals. However even my vocal skills are limited now. I guess wikiloops has enabled me to try different genres (as Claudia said) and I do more 'fun' adds now.

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I learned so much here... first of all, using a DAW and recording, click tracks, mixing, arranging, so much fun!! I started from zero and found out that I really like that part of the process.

Obviously playing on so many really good tracks by great Wikiloops musicians elevated my playing too, no doubt about that. It also showed me my limitations, that's for sure :D

Also learned how to organise an album project, like the Herring King Band concept album, which was a mega project that not only challenged me musically, but was also quite interesting from a human interacting point of view. Taught me a lot of patience for sure (I think the band members feel the same, too :D :D :D )

All in all a fantastic journey for sure!

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Great points TeeGee. I echo the mixing and recording stuff. I never anticipated the need to grow and learn in that area since I was never involved in any part of the recording process (besides playing) in the past. That's definitely an area where I feel I'm always changing something lol, like looking for that next "tweak" :D:W

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One thing that I forgot to say: Since starting with the mixing of tracks on Wikiloops I notice a lot of things on songs I hear on records, sometimes even songs I listened before hundreds of times, that I never noticed before. It's amazing how it changed my listening to music, and, I have to say, my admiration for the sound technicians and mixing people has gone up a LOT, now that I found out how hard it is to get a good sounding multi instrument track.

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