The great thing about being an Inspirational music composer is that, for me, there’s very little or no stress involved with the actual endeavor.  I love my work; therefore, it’s fun, it’s rewarding, creativity flows pretty easily for me and when it does not, I know how to get it all going again pronto.

The only stressful area I can think of at the moment is when I have some sort of technological problem in my studio (which is rare) and it keeps me from my work and thus my deadlines.  But that really has nothing to do with the actual act of writing, recording, arranging, orchestrating or producing music.

Sometimes certain artists can be stressful in the studio, but I find the studio to be the least stressful of all artistic workplaces.  Reason being that I’ve been doing this work for so long that I’ve figured out a way around or through most of the typical stress scenarios and, as producer, I’m pretty much in control of the sessions.

When I was younger I remember that I would be stressful at times when I wouldn’t know what I was doing, but then I learned the huge importance of preparation.

The dictionary defines stress as, “(psychology) a state of mental or emotional strain or suspense; difficulty that causes worry or emotional tension; [verb] to test the limits of.  I find these definitions almost healing.  Think about it.  I love the sense of it being “a state of mental or emotional … suspense”  “Suspense”.  The act of not knowing something that you wish you knew.

These “emotional tensions” that we all experience on one level or another almost daily are the result of not knowing things that we feel that we should know.  Getting in over our head is always a case for tension or stress and ‘getting in over my head’ is something I get into nearly every day these days as I branch out into other jobs within Watchfire Music that I have no business or experience doing.  Because we’re a relatively small company, I’m often the one elected to do the hard jobs because I’m an owner and somebody’s got to do it, so I win the election.

It’s then that I really feel the stress.  I look around at the project, whatever it is, and see that I’m in unfamiliar territory.  I then begin to wonder if I have the chops to accomplish the job and begin to doubt, spend far too much time doubting instead of doing and consequently then begin to fall behind schedule.

In steps stress.

When I’m in the studio making music, when I find that I don’t have an answer to a particular problem and get ‘stuck’ so to speak, I know how to stop, turn my attention to the problem and then, with decades of experience behind me, go about the activity of solving the problem.  After all these years composing and producing, I’ve learned that all problems are solvable with a little research, a little specificity, a little prayer and a little calm.

Stress has no place in any of the above solutions.  Besides, I simply get to work solving the problem with the confidence that I can do it.

One of the synonyms for stress is ‘urgency”.  ‘Urgency’ has to do with time.  If you have all the time in the world, urgency is not a factor.  Working in the studio is often a matter of watching the clock.  The studio is rented by the hour, so people work by schedule and have to get X amount done in X amount of time.  When time becomes a problem, I’ve learned to do the opposite of what one would normally think one should do.  Instead of going faster, I stop.

Most stressful people rush on faster and become more emotional.  They start pushing everyone to go beyond their limits, [verb] to test the limits of.  That’s when people start making mistakes.  Now they’re under pressure and their normal limits are being pushed beyond their abilities, they too are forced into unfamiliar territory and so the stress factor begins.  That’s when things begin to fall further behind and the rest is a vicious circle.

That’s why, when time becomes a factor, I stop.  I breathe.  I reorganize.  I reevaluate the schedule, I try to bring calm to everyone in the room – I silently pray for God, the All-knowing, to be in control rather than the suspense, the unknown.

It works every time – not just some of the time, but every time.  Stress is kept out of the room, out of mind, out of the atmosphere of the all-knowing.  Confidence is restored.  A calm comes over the room instead of urgency.

I’ve learned how to do this after years of experience in the studio.  Oh that I could do it as well in my office when I’m out there in the world over my head.

As chief cook and sometimes bottle washer of Watchfire Music I’m called upon to do many things.  Some of them are right up my alley and some of them not.  Lately I’ve found myself in far too many situations of the ‘not’ category.  Consequently I’ve been stressed out, not sleeping and staggering through life.  It’s no fun and counterproductive.

I woke up this morning with a groan, got up and decided to take matters into my own hands and figure it all out.  And so I started with sitting down and trying to take a good look at life to figure it all out.  It was then, about an hour ago, that I realized that I had succumbed to the pressures of life.

I began to think about it and decided to write it out.

Now I’ll go back and read this post and see if I can figure out how to apply what I know to what I don’t know.  Let’s see if I can learn from myself.

Ah, the human condition…  It’s a trip, ain’t it though?

Thanks for listening.