About Me – RJ Ellsworth

Writer’s Block

October 4, 2011 RJ EllsworthLeave a comment

As some of you folks have experienced, writer’s block is just a straight up terrible thing. You get stuck in the same old rut and you try to push through it but nothing in your mind budges.

I’ve known some people that get through it by writing a bunch of junky, unusable tunes until they hit some spark and they go from there.

One thing I found to work for myself, is to play a different instrument for a while and play that instrument only (unless you play a specific instrument in your band or whatever). Playing a different instrument and forcing yourself to play it for a while will get you thinking differently about the same music that you write. I always have a guitar and a bass handy and I play the guitar with a pick and the bass with my fingers. When I’m not in a rut, I’ll play both interchangeably and do whatever I want with them (mostly meaning I play guitar with either my fingers or any one of various picks, and bass with fingers and/or picks).

This used to be especially successful when I also had a drumset or my keyboard handy. I am currently without the drumset and my keyboard is being used by my younger brother so I have been limited to the stringed instruments, but I eventually will get me another for use in my studio and also for me to get rid of my writer’s block.

Another good technique, is just listen to new music and pick out things you like and just learn how to play it on every instrument you own. It can give you some insight into how someone else plays and what their creative moments have lead to, which could also spark some sort of creative fire within you.

This is what has worked for me so far, and I am interested in finding more ways to help me become a better musician all around. I hope this helps one of you folks.

Standing, shaking, frightened and rocking?

January 31, 2011 RJ EllsworthLeave a comment

I have always wondered what the sensation of being in the spot light and being the focus of attention would be like when I was a youngin’. I thought it would be so awesome to have everyone look right at me and actually desire to see what I have to offer. I always played guitar because it seemed so cool to be able to create things that people actually enjoyed hearing, so naturally, I wanted to play in front of people after getting better.

The first experience playing in front of people that were not friends and family was an extremely scary one for me. I did not expect that I would be so worried about standing in front of a bunch of people and doing something I’ve practiced thousands of times before.

But I did…

My knees shook and my hands began to sweat. I could not look away from my guitar and up at the staring faces. I played and winced as if I were in physical pain for every mistake I made – which made me make more mistakes. The whole time I felt like just leaving mid song and never come back. But I didn’t want to let down my band mates, I was the only guitarist and the music we played would not be the same.

So I suffered for the entirety of the first two or three songs. But something happened.

I started to ease up on the terrible feelings I had. I looked up and saw people jamming their heads and moving their bodies. I loosened up and started moving around a bit more and the feeling turned into something different.

I can only describe that feeling as the ultimate bliss…

Years later, this feeling of fear has turned into a form of rush that actually turns my energy up several notches and leads me to playing more aggressively and more eccentrically purely for entertainment. What was once an almost debilitating fear is now an adrenaline rush.

No more stage fright.

The basic feelingdoesn’t go away but with some conditioning, you can turn the jitters into something positive that will end up making you perform better. The real issue is making it past those first few frightening shows, because you can’t avoid it, you just have to make it through them.

There is not a wonder solution to the issue, you just need to change your own mindset, which may be extremely difficult for some. But the reality is that the key to a strong stage performance is to convince yourself that you are amazing at what you do.

I can tell you that after just getting up on that stage and telling myself that people want me to play that I have become more and more capable of having fun doing what had initially intrigued me as a kid. Sharing the things you create with others is an experience I hope everyone gets to have at some point in their lives because it is unlike any other. Stage fright is a real issue but it isn’t something that has to stay forever. You can essentially choose to be without it, you just have to know how to believe.

Domain Name? That sounds fun

May 11, 2010May 18, 2010 RJ Ellsworth2 Comments

So I’m investigating Domain names, which is a pretty crucial part of having your web presence be of value in some form or another. I’m trying to imagine what I would use my unique domain name for in the coming months. I’m sure it would be a higher priority to actually get one if I had money coming into my bank account in some way. But I think I still know what I could use my own website for.

I’m an aspiring Audio Engineer and the benefits of having my own dot com are a plenty! I can have detailed information about myself and my work all localized in one easy to reach place, along with rates and fancy pictures. I could also use it to spout out my opinions about music in my area and maybe even what I think about the music I hear on a regular basis from around the world. I could also use the site to link to bands and artists that I am working with and ones that I am soon to work with.

For example my band, Grandeur4clARC.

Or a band that I am the recording, mixing, and mastering engineer for, Akhenaten

Or that band that I’m working on the pre production steps with at present, Ateeth.

I don’t know for now, It is a bit much to think about when I hardly have any plans on how to market myself. More soon…`