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For the past six weeks, I’ve been writing about the six tracks from my 2015 release Contest Winner EP, the only recording of my original songs I’ve ever released. I’ve released several other albums and singles, but I’ve written a lot of other songs that I have not recorded. Indeed, I plan on doing some simple cellphone videos of some of those unreleased tunes for subscribers in the coming weeks.
One reason I have not written another album is because I hit a songwriting drought somewhere around 2015. Sitting down and writing songs is difficult and time-consuming, and while I love it, my schedule grew increasingly hectic around that time. I began teaching very late nights at a local technical college (I could only keep it up for a year—even I can’t work that much), and the Artsville Songwriting Competition, which gave me the incentive to write regularly, folded.
Still, I have managed to write a few more tunes in the intervening years—maybe not enough for a proper album, but certainly enough for another EP. But that leads to the other reason I have not released a second album: the recording process is tedious and expensive.
It is also super fun, despite the long hours and late nights in the studio.
Today, I’m going to give a brief overview of the recording process, way back in 2014 (yep, it took me over a year before I finally released the album).
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The Portly Politico 
I know you’re a bit of a workaholic, Tyler, but one day, you may look back and wonder where all that time went.
If you can give yourself an extra hour to either chill in your home or play with the idea of another song or two, do it. We only get one chance on this earth.
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Yeah, dude, I have scaled back a LOT. I am teaching a lot of lessons—I have twenty students now!—which takes up a good bit of time, but I am taking more to unwind: cuddling with Murphy, watching movies, building LEGO sets, etc. Lately I have been painting, too, which is relaxing while also feeling productive, haha.
We have a glorious four-day weekend at the moment, our “Winter Break,” and it was nice to have a day at the house yesterday (we are off Monday, too). I met my buddy John for Japanese, and was able to get the house in order. I had one piano lesson with a little girl who lives in Lamar, and otherwise just relaxed. I had a small bit of schoolwork to take care of, but it was quite leisurely.
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Crikey, I’d have loved the idea of teaching only 20 students when I started out. Our schools and colleges are different and unfortunately, at the time, we had a Labour government that was more concerned about massaging the unemployment figures, sending kids to college whether they wanted to be there or not. If you’re teaching 20 apt and interested students, great. I’d have loved that. Trying to teach 30 odd kids at a time, many who didn’t want to be there, was annoying. I feel envious when I read other people’s teaching experiences, certainly when those classes are organised and the kids interested. It’d make me want to go back and then I read about the lunacy of British colleges and thank my lucky stars that I got out when I did.
I’m glad to know that you’re taking more time for yourself. When I read about your curricular and extra curricular activities, it makes ME tired! 🙂
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Haha, keep in mind, those are my students for private _lessons_. Most of those lessons are after school. During my day job as a teacher, I have around 80-odd students across all of my classes (actually a bit lower this year than others). I teach six classes at the school, and get in those twenty students for private music lessons either after school or during lunchtime during the school day.
If I just had 20 private lesson students and nothing else, I’d be living the dream, haha, although an impoverished one. I think if I got to around 40 students taking lessons, I could actually live off of that income, though it would be dicey at times.
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I will say, I think this year my largest class is around 24 students. My next largest are 20 each, roughly. I have one class with just four students, which is heavenly.
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