My First Time

Chris Richter Academy of music
CHORD THEORY
Chris Richter Academy of music
LEARN GUITAR
Chris Richter Academy of music
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There’s just something incredible about the first time you do something, the initial feeling of fear, which turns into excitement and ends with a kind of feeling of flying. You’ve just gone into uncharted territory and absolutely owned it, the least you should be feeling is excitement. And I don’t doubt your next course of action is telling everyone about the crazy amazing thing that just happened.

Every first is important, I just placed first in my maths test or I just completed my first ever crossfit class (Which I just did and let me tell you I was not great but I finished it and I am so incredibly proud of myself for making it out of there alive. Crossfit is on another level and I loved it.), they are still important milestones to celebrate no matter how small they may seem.

But this is about music and music has a whole new world of firsts that bring with it a massive collection of benefits.

The opportunities music can give you are confidence building, risk taking, adventure making, types of opportunities. You will get to see the world in a whole new light and experience everything in a different way to most people.

In the beginning of my music story I had just finished my senior years at school, I was actually about to start my new career in the photo processing industry. Looking back, it was probably a great idea that I didn’t pursue that particular career. I’m one of those unique people that know how to process 35mm photographic film, something I will no doubt not need to do in the near future. I assure you many of us will acquire skills that will become almost useless in the very near future of our lives, but we live and learn.

For some crazy reason, instead of a photo-processing career, I toured Australia at the age of 18 with a group of strangers doing something that I could never have imagined would become such a huge part of my life. The number of firsts I experienced in this one year of my life was absolutely astounding.

We were on the road constantly, performing at hundreds of schools, town halls and churches, in front of thousands of people. Staying with a different family every week and in a different town with incredibly different surroundings. The firsts just kept coming; the first time in a TV studio in Sydney; first time on a millionaire’s yacht and the first time meeting some of the most amazing people around Australia.

But in all these firsts, the most exciting and freeing experiences to me were when I started writing, recording and performing my own music. These tracks were mine, I made them and I didn’t have to play them or perform them any certain way, I didn’t have to follow someone else. I just grabbed my guitar and created whatever damn music I wanted and no one could stop me.

One of the most exciting days of my life was listening to the radio and hearing a song I wrote playing on the local radio station. It could have been any song playing on the radio at that particular moment, but it was my song, my recording and I was kind of surprised, it actually sounded pretty good, well in my opinion at least.

There’s a band I worked with regularly over the years and while working with them there was one particular first for them that stood out above the rest. They turned up at a gig, played some covers and only a few originals throughout the night. As the night went on, the drinks were flowing and the dance floor was crowded with a moshpit of a combination of newly discovered breakdancers and a whole range of dance moves undiscovered. In the craziness of all this a voice started off quiet from the back and slowly got louder and as they got louder more people started to catch on to what they were saying. Eventually there was a chorus of people screaming out the names of the bands original songs, they wanted more of their music and that’s what they got. For the rest of the night the band played their original songs the best they ever had and the audience thrived off of the energy, they even sang along at the top of their voices to at least some of the words. This gig was a huge buzz for the band and this was only the beginning.

This first was one of the most encouraging moments, when you realise, hey, what I wrote is cool and people do like my music.

For you, the firsts will continue to happen, first time in the studio, your first EP or album sale. The first time you get asked to support a major artist.

My daughter released an EP in 2013 at the age of 14. One of her firsts that she is very proud of was at school when a teacher came up and asked for a signed copy of her EP. This is a musical first that she will always remember.

What you need to remember is these things don’t happen to everyone, everyday. They happen to people who are willing to put everything they have, their heart and soul, out there and share their musical ideas for people to enjoy.

Take small steps, list as many firsts that you want to achieve and start working through them.

Sometimes you will be knocked back and find things difficult, but the satisfaction of completing your musical firsts will be something you will truly never forget.

Transcript

All right see if you can guess what that song was. That's by an Australian artist
that you may not know of and I'm going to tell you a bit
of a story about them. So you can try and find out what the
name of the song is if you like. There's a band called Brother Fox
and this is story time with Chris, I'm Chris Richter.
Brother Fox, they're a band that many or not so many years ago, a few years
ago I was actually playing bass guitar for
them and they were writing their own music.
But as what happens with a lot of bands they were doing a lot of cover gigs
and sort of sneaking in some of their original music and I remember one of the
one of the gigs that we did with them with the band with Tim and Jon
and they were playing at a rugby event I believe,
a rugby club and they they get pretty rowdy at least the ones we played
at anyway and that particular night
they decided to do a few of their newer songs and just sort of sneak them in
early before too many people got there and
thought you know it'll be right, we'll just play those then and then we'll
we'll do all the covers that they'd like to sing along with later.
So they did that song and then a few of the people that were there early on
later said can you play that one that you played earlier on that that's
it went like this and they said one of the lines out of the song and the boys
went oh that's one of our original songs, so they thought cool we'll play that again
so they did they played it and as the night went on there these
people came back again and said can you play that song again we really like that
one we want to sing along into that one. By the end of the night they played
it three or four times I think in the the whole event but by the end of that
night there was a whole heap of people standing up singing along to one
of the songs the boys had written and to them that was an amazing
experience. An amazing experience because it wasn't just
people singing along to a song they'd heard on the radio but this was singing
along to a song that the boys had actually written themselves.
And so when we talk about our first times there's all these opportunities
of, or things that you can do that that really are that
the first time you get to do that type of thing or get to experience that
experience. Experience that experience, get to do get
to have that experience for the first time
and with Brother Fox that was something really amazing for them
and when you when you go to to do something especially in music but in
in any career or in any industry there's sort of uncharted territory. There's
things that you've never done before you think oh what's going to happen when I
go and do that and you can get this adrenaline this
excitement out of the whole process and go
wow that was amazing. So you know the first time you drive, the first time
you win a race at school or the first time you you know get in the top three
in an exam or or come first in an exam.
But with music there's a different collection of firsts that you can
experience like that's the first time you perform
there's the first time that you are interviewed on radio and that in itself
is a whole really interesting experience for people
and I've seen some people who are pretty nervous about getting in there and
talking on radio for the first time. The first time you hear yourself on
the radio and I remember a girl called Megan and Megan is
actually known as Hearst, if you look up Hearst
listen to some of her music. I remember we recorded a song of hers called 'Ice
Girl' and when we recorded it, we released
the song and it went up on all the different digital media, we
thought yep that'd be great we've got that up there
and then uh it got picked up by one of the local radio stations
and I was actually going to a shopping centre parking underneath the shopping
centre and as I was parking I had the radio playing
and suddenly this song came on and I sort of had to stop.
I pulled up in the car park and I got my phone out and just recorded
the rest of the song and then the comments by the radio announcer at the
end because this was a you know at the time
it was really unique to hear something like that that you'd written
something you'd you know you'd helped co-write
and recorded as well hearing that on the radio live and it was like oh that's
awesome that's great to to hear that. So that's another first and
then obviously the first time in a recording studio for some musicians,
for most musicians that can be a scary time but also a real exciting
thing to do to have that first experience and obviously the first
time you go touring or the first time you go touring
out of your own town or even further if you go touring overseas all of these
have these amazing exciting experiences that you get to do
and they're all these firsts. So all I can say is get into music because
you know you may not make millions out of it but you will experience some
amazing things, some amazing firsts that you probably never thought you would get
to do. So make sure if you do get involved in
it take opportunities, do what you can and
be involved in as many things as you can because there's a lot you can get out of
it and a lot you can be involved in as well
and there is so many things you can get to do that will be firsts, that are real
exciting that are just fantastic to do so
give it a go, have a go. Now if you don't know how to play music yet
just as a bonus I've got some guitar courses
down the bottom there's a link there there's a couple of free courses there
as well you can grab those. Jump in, learn guitar
that way you can start experiencing some of these first, you can start writing
your own songs or playing guitar to your own songs.
So as I always say don't just listen to your favourite music
create your favourite music. And another thing I want to mention as well
is we have a podcast called Hidden Talent and if you'd like to come and
join Jasmine Aleisha and Peter Caddey. We
interview a whole stack of different Australian artists, Australian
singer-songwriters on the podcast Hidden Talent. I'll put a
link there for you as well so you can check that out.
Have a listen you'll learn heaps out of it and you'll find out so many cool and
interesting stories from some of Australia's up and coming talent
on the Hidden Talent podcast. My name is Chris Richter and this has been story
time with Chris.