I’ll be honest: no-one reads this blog. Maybe you are, right now, reading these words. But I have access to the numbers, and I can tell you: no-one is reading this blog.

Or at least, that’s how it feels. Because of course, some people read this blog: just not many, not many at all. Less than a handful read each post. So it is easy to be pessimistic; to say that no-one is reading (which diminishes those few that are: if you’re still reading, thank you).

With that in mind, an obvious question is why write at all? Why spend approximately 30 minutes each week typing something that barely anyone will read? I have a few reasons, which I’ll outline now.

Blogging for practice

For me, writing these posts is a form of weekly practice. A chance to sit down each week and write something; to try out new ideas; a testing ground for new articles or works. As I write, I may find something doesn’t quite work, or there’s something there but more questions arise from it that need answering. These can then form the basis of my professional work in academic articles or more polished pieces that may appear on other sites down the track.

Writing weekly is also a good chance to practice and work through writer’s block. By writing something, I keep my skills active and the brain flowing, rather than getting stuck and bogged down by something else I’m working on. I also think the process of doing is how we get better: by writing more, I am working on it as a skill and it will inevitably get better. For both of these reasons alone, it’s worth it for me to keep going even if no-one reads it.

Blogging for the audience

Of course, I do write with some kind of audience in mind, although at the moment I haven’t built enough of one to really know what people enjoy reading here. That’s why I try a range of things: of course, there’s my music work, but I also have reviews, productivity posts, travel diaries and so on. I don’t really know what my audience prefers, but I assume you come from a range of backgrounds and are not necessarily music specialists. I hope one day to have exciting research and compositions that people want to know more about, and that this could be a place you come to to find out more about my practice and process, get insights into my work, and learn more about me.

Blogging for fun

Of course, there is also just something fun to me about blogging and writing. When I was younger, I had a gaming review blog that I enjoyed writing, and that same fun still persists with this blog. I’ve always enjoyed the idea of content calendars and developing things (that is part of my role as an artist too: finding the best ways to connect with people and giving them things that challenge them as well as things they enjoy). Sometimes, it’s not always fun, but most of the time it is.

If there’s any posts that you would specifically like to see, please get in touch! I would love to write more towards my mythical audience.