Crafting: Getting Back Into Music
Written and Produced by: Daniel Angustia
College is hard for every student. Trying to balance class, with class work, having a job, and doing extracurricular activities like clubs is too difficult to handle. My friends and I have come to a realization that since after high school, it’s been hard to keep up with personal passions. Coming to college I realized that I have lost touch with my personal craft. Before college music was the most important thing in my life. I listened to music, made music, and judged music. This was my craft, something I enjoyed and loved but was robbed by life. In my current life, the only way I am exposed to music is by listening to it in the morning on the way to class. This needed to change for my mental and for the good of my passion and talent. It was finally time to get back to my craft and not allow my current lifestyle to change what I love to do. This change was going to happen through one simple step: just making music.
One easy way to get back into the music scene is to do it through social media. TikTok is a social media platform for creating, sharing, and discovering short videos. The app is used by young people as an outlet to express themselves through singing, dancing, comedy, and lip-syncing, and allows users to create videos and share them across a community. This app is used for sports content, funny content, music content, and more. Being able to go and post on TikTok allowed me to get back to my craft of singing day by day. Not only did I just sing but I also took time to edit it to get the best TikTok I can actually make.
I did my first TikTok of trying to get back into singing by going to the stairway in my building and I stood there and sang. I put a karaoke song on and I sang my heart out. This helped me realize that in order to get back to my craft all I needed to do was sing. It never mattered the song, the environment never mattered, and how I was recording never mattered the only thing that mattered was what I was doing. A craft is an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. If my craft was singing all I needed to do was sing
As well as making my own music, I learned how to enjoy music to a whole other level. Me and my friend from college are very close, and one reason we are so close is because of our connection to music. One thing me and my friends love listening to is Drake. Drake is one of the best artists of my generation. One thing me and my friend love about Drake is how inspiring he can be to all of us. During my video production class, I learned how to record using advanced cameras while shooting different angles. I took this teaching from class and used it to make a short music video. In this music video, I crafted a script that will allow my friends to get the full Drake experience. While I played Drake’s song I had my friend reenact as Drake to get the music clip.
As a broadcasting major, I get to utilize my crafts a lot due to having many creative projects. One of them is being able to make music videos with my friends. This is helping me get back into music because although I am not making music like I was before, I am still making music. I have allowed myself to experience music through a whole new lens I am behind a camera trying to illustrate the songs
As I get older I realize how much little to no time I have to do things that I actually enjoy. While I took time out of my day to create TikToks and edit them I realized how essential one’s craft is for life. Life is full of challenges and problems but the only time you are allowed to forget about them is when you put set time aside to prioritize yourself. The great thing about you’re craft is that it is yours, and no one else. I then encourage college student to not forget about their talents or crafts.
