I recently visited the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) during my trip to Toronto. I wanted to share some of the art I saw and my thoughts on it. If you do find yourself in Toronto, I would definitely recommend stoping by the AGO.
This was probably my favorite piece that I saw that day. It is part of a collecction called 1 to infinity where Opalka began writing each number from 1 using white paint on a black canvas. The canvas got closer and closer to white as he counted increasingly larger numbers and in the end, the color of the canvas and the paint were both white. I like the use of the blank white canvas to end the work as it is similar to a mathematicians approach of using the limit as x tends to infinity to solve problems. Additionally, from afar it just looks like a simple grey painting with some lines, but looking closer reveals much more about the work. It's a metaphor for most things around us, where it looks simple from afar but you have to look closely to understand what is happening.
Although the subject is this paining is relatively simple, I really liked the use of colors and shapes to recreate it which adds a new dimenion to the piece.
For the following painting, the thing that initially caught my eye was the bright and vibrant colors created by Monkman (honestly, the photo doesn’t do it justice). It pulls you into the painting and forces you to explore the scene. While I do not understand what the nude men are doing, there is a clear group of people painting the scene. Each artist has an entirely different recreation, sending a message that whenver something is recreated/retold, the story will be changed becasue of how it was percieved by the person.
If you know me, you know I love colors so naturally I was a big fan on this one.
This following painting was inspired by the artist's time at Cape Pine. When she showed up she couldn't see anything throught the thick fog for a few days. I enjoyed how well the artist recreated the visual effect of being surrounded in fog in this work.
And lastly, not a piece of art per se, but this room was gorgeous! Coffee wasn’t bad either.
As you might or might not know, I play the guitar. By play, I would say I find chords and tabs online and then just follow them to learn the song. That approach has allowed me to learn some songs to play but hasn’t really helped me understand what I’m playing. So I thought the natural next step would be to take what I learnt from Ableton and apply it to the guitar.
One of the biggest things I learnt was how moving down each fret on the guitar is also like moving down one key on the piano. Also, the middle of the string is an entire octave higher than the open string note. From physics, this makes sense as the higher octave is twice the frequency and a string that is half the length will oscillate at twice the frequency.
I also spent a good bit of time learning the different types of chords. There are three main types; open chords, bar chords and power chords. Bar chords and power chords have the benefit of having the same chord shape making it easier to switch between the different chords. Open chords, while they are more difficult to learn, provide a fuller sound so are often preferred. In the end it depends on the sound you are trying to create.
Once I learnt the chords, it was much easier to start picking some melodies on the guitar as all the strings are in the scale. This meant whatever pattern I plucked, it (mostly) sound good. My lead guitar work still needs some skill before I share some clips but here’s a short clip of my playing the rhythm guitar for a very popular song. Let me know in the comments below if you can guess it.
I recently finished Deep Work by Cal Newport. Per popular request here’s my tl;dr on the book.
Deep Work is the act of intensely focusing on one particular task or project without distractions for an extended period of time. The book points out that in today’s work environment, we’re constantly replying to emails, bouncing between meeting, and are distracted by everything around us. As a result, this makes it hard to work deeply which is required to do work that creates value, making it a skill that is valued more and more.
There are two major deep work strategies. The monastic approach involves working on a only particular project for an extended period of time, may it be a few days, a week, or even months at a time. The rhythmic approach involves scheduling a few hours everyday to complete a task. Here are some tips the book gives to successfully incorporate this into your life:
Find a separate location to do deep work, not where you usually work
Put away anything that can distract you during your session
Make sure you have everything you will need for the entire session
Set a specific goal and keep track of your progress
Downtime at the end of each day is important to allow the brain to recharge
Another interesting insight was to finish working on one task before starting another. This allows you to clear your mind so you won’t be thinking about the unfinished task when you start the next one.
The book also urges the importance of reducing distractions, both while working and not. Being able to focus on a particular task for a long time requires the ability to not be distracted. One way to do this is to schedule blocks of time where you are allowed to use the internet instead of the other way round. It also urges re-evaluating the use of social media and other internet tools. While they might provide a benefit, is the benefit substantial enough for the amount of time that you put in and the other things you could be doing with your time? If it is, continue using them, if not, stop.
Lastly, try to reduce the amount of shallow work you do. People waste a lot of time time without knowing it. Here are some more tips:
Schedule all your time for the day, reschedule as necessary
Prioritize work that requires your expertise
Work with your manager to create a shallow work budget
Take time to respond to emails properly and make them process centric to reduce the number of follow up emails
Don’t respond to emails that you believe won’t bring any value
I’ve been scheduling all my time and that has definitely produced some benefits in productivity. I recently cleared out one day a week on my calendar to work on the most important task of the week and totally disconnect for the day. Finding a space to work at that is not my desk has been a little challenging but going to try a few spaces around the office where people can’t find me.
I’m also in the process of re-evaluating my use of social media and the internet. I have noticed that much of my time is wasted here. I now schedule blocks of time when I am allowed to use these services so I can use the rest of my time more efficiently to work and focus on hobbies like music, writing and so many more things I want to pursue. Doing this for a week or so, I have to say it is one of the hardest things I’ve done, but I have been able accomplish a lot.
Excited to see what this approach creates.
My first instinct on how to get started on music theory is my first instinct for when I want to learn something new. I googled “How to Learn Music Theory”. After not too long, I came across this awesome website: https://learningmusic.ableton.com. It walks you through the basics of music theory by breaking down music into its smaller components and slowing adding them along the way (notes, chords, baselines, melodies, etc). At each step they give examples of different songs and recreate it to help you understand what each component adds to the song. They also have advanced lessons where they explore these concepts in greater detail after you have grasped the basics.
The best part is that you can also create your own sounds to help you learn. You start with just making beats, and then slowly add the different components that make it into a song. This approach breaks down the daunting task of creating a song to making smaller individual components that work together to make something bigger and complete. As an engineer, that approach sounds familiar and gives me comfort. Here is a first attempt of me trying to make some music. (Warning: This might hurt your head :P)
I have to say I really enjoyed doing this course on Ableton’s website. Now whenever I listen to music I can hear the different parts individually and how everything works together to create the song. I would recommend anyone, wether you want to make music or not, to take this course. I have a newfound appreciation for the music I listen to everyday.
After some thought, I’ve finally decided what I’m going to write about! Music.
I’ve been wanting to play my guitar more, and more consistently, and eventually start making my own music. Unfortunately for me, I don’t have the fuzziest about music, what goes into making music and how to start. I’ve been playing the guitar for a bit but that has mostly been blindly playing to chords/tabs without understanding the music and the different layers that makes the music I enjoy listening to.
I plan to use this blog to document my journey of learning music theory, studying existing music, and eventually making it. Follow along to learn how I get there and maybe I’ll even help you discover some cool stuff along the way. I’ll also write about some random stuff along the way. Let’s go!