There's a difference between hearing and listening. I think most of us hear a lot of music throughout the day, in the car radio, the grocery stores, elevators, commercials, etc. It probably is becoming more rare these days to actually LISTEN to music, where we're focused on the music, listening to the lyrics, song form, etc. And I'm not judging anybody, because I'm the same way. We have such short attention spans and there's SO MUCH media out there coming at us all the time, it's hard to sit down and focus on listening to something a lot of times. But that's why live concerts are so important these days. Going to a live show forces us to sit down and focus on watching and listening to a something that we paid for; that we got into the car and drove specifically to hear. But it also forces us to break away from the mundane of going through the everyday emotions; forces us to FEEL human again.
A lot of people have assumed I combined the two loves of my life together: beatboxing and saxophone. However, that's not really the case (especially since I've never really ever beatboxed vocally before)! Instead, I had a very normal American music upbringing: playing in concert band and jazz band in high school, and then majoring in classical and jazz saxophone in college. It was only then that I heard various musicians making interesting percussive sounds on their instruments. And never really knowing whether I was more of a classical or jazz or pop saxophonist, I just starting messing around with the instrument. Adding musical things here and there, not knowing where it might lead. Over the years I slowly evolved my playing style, learning to "slap tongue" from contemporary classical saxophone, to hit the instrument from watching fingerstyle guitarists, experimenting with multiphonics from avant garde jazz players, getting my feet involved with stomps from playing the drum set, and even singing while playing since, well...guitarists and pianists do it all the time. Why not on the sax??
(Advice for getting started) Listen to a lot of music and learn particularly the chords of your favorite stuff, by ear preferably. I'm very chord/harmony driven, so I usually start there, coming up with chord progressions that sound good to me. People might find this unusual since I play a very non-chordal instrument, the saxophone, that can only play one note at a time. But maybe that's another reason I play like I do, I'm trying to treat the saxophone like a chordal instrument, like a piano or guitar!
But anyways, I like to improvise around with bass lines and chord progressions until I find something I like. Then I'll add a melody on top, repeating this process for other sections of the song (like verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, etc).
And the most important thing I've learned with composition is, it's NEVER going to be perfect or even as good as your best song, but that's okay! Just keep writing in whatever system works for you. I often struggle with this perfectionist attitude, and so I often have to absolutely force myself to finish a darn song! I even started a Twitch channel where I would write a song in 90 minutes, and it wouldn't matter what came out on the other end, as long as I finished it!
As much as people say it, it's totally true: Only pursue music as a profession if it totally consumes your life; if it's all you can imagine doing. When you're young, explore it! Have fun with it! But when it's time to pick a career, just know that it's NOT easy. Even someone like me who has millions of Youtube videos and has played in over 30 countries and all 50 states; it's still a daily struggle to keep things moving forward constantly.
But I do think there is a secret to success; maybe even guaranteed success. SUSTAIN IT! Millions of people have sought out a career in music but only a few make it, solely because they stuck with it, through the inspired and (mostly) uninspired times. So the million dollar question, I think, becomes 'How do you sustain a career?' I think it takes 3 things: Stay healthy, keep things challenging, and keep things fun! If you can keep these three things up, you won't get bored, you'll keep growing, and you'll be able to physically keep going!
