Studying jazz and popular music was an incredibly valuable experience. I started from zero, not knowing anything about the genre or its artists. This is what frightened me the most as I had no clear idea of what might happen or how difficult it will be. But after witnessing a few breath-taking moments on the beauty of real-time improvisation and the richness of jazz harmony, a big enough interested had awakened in me, one that ultimately led to my decision to study at Jazeps Medins Riga Music Secondary school. ​

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  Starting off, even though I understood in my mind the basics that were being taught, I was slow at making them manifest in actual practice. What did not help either was comparing myself to my peers, some who had many years of experience beforehand. This made me lose motivation many times and I  developed quite the inferiority complex when it came to being a musician. Nevertheless, with every little concert or rehearsal I had learned at least one new thing – a chord, a scale, a rhythmic concept. And slowly but surely, all these things started to add up. Learning from my mistakes and the mistakes of others also played a big role in my development, such as the importance of listening to another’s solo or keeping visual contact with your band mates. The highlight of all this experience and my biggest "work" was the final qualification exam, which, weirdly enough, instead of the usual worrying and stressing about how I'll perform, was the first time I felt truly free sitting at the piano and actually enjoyed creating something special and unheard before.

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  Looking back at it now, I've actually learned so much more than I had initially set out in the beginning and have also developed my own opinion and taste in music. I do acknowledge that I should have put more time and effort into my practice and cut out unnecessary things that wasted time and energy, that includes even some non-priority subjects. But the most valuable lesson I take away is to not compare myself to others but only to the man that I was yesterday, and if I can say that my present self is more developed than my past self, then I take that as a win. 

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  The parallels between my time studying jazz and now audio production are crystal clear. It's a whole new world, one I have little knowledge of and it's very easy to become overwhelmed. But instead, my past experience has taught me not only the practical knowledge of performance, music harmony and theory (which is all necessary for a producer) but also how I should react when faced with a large unknown. Now I know for sure, that if I put in the hard work and face my challenges step-by-step, I'll end up much further than I could previously imagine.