Ivan Garkusha “Practice makes music perfect”

Dear friends, in this article we would love to continue a tradition of sharing personal experiences of our heroes and to narrate to you a story of courage, passion, and self-dedication. This story is dedicated to our talented friend, Ivan Garkusha, and to his way of expressing himself through music.

Music is a very diverse environment and unites a colossal variation of ideas, attitudes, and styles. And most important, music unites people and gives them limitless space to reveal themselves in the best fusion of sounds. How do people find the way to music? How do they leave everything behind and show 100% dedication? How do they develop and change themselves through music? These questions we will try to answer by talking to Ivan and sharing his personal experience.

Love for music was infused into Ivan as he was a teenager. Back then, he was a huge fan of electro music. World-wide known DJs as Armin van Buren and Tiesto were music icons for him and made a huge first impression on Ivan. Their music energized and inspired him. “These two guys were idols for millions of young guys like me.

Tiesto and Armin achieved everything on their own by learning, trying, and practicing. They still remain exemplars of self-dedication and believing in yourself. These pushed me to try myself in music production”, says our hero. For Ivan, it was not just enough to admire his idols and to enjoy their music. He wanted to try himself in music production and to add something new, something which would show his own touch.

“I remember when I opened Google and downloaded my first digital audio workstation FL studio. I started to create, and I felt electricity going through my body when the sound was coming out. That moment is unforgettable”.

After Ivan installed a digital audio workstation the very first time, he started step by step learning on his own how to produce music.

Ivan was reading a lot of articles and guidelines on the Internet about digital tools for making music, watching tutorials on YouTube, searching for answers to new occurring questions on the web. “In our age, basically all the information is digitalized and available 24/7 without even a need to leave the living room. What is required from everyone who wants to learn is to be motivated, eager, and persistent. In Ukraine, we often use the proverb “Water dripping day by day wears the hardest rock away”. It perfectly describes the way how to achieve everything we want”, says our hero.

Nowadays, Ivan is actively learning and practicing playing the piano, and again he is not attending any music school or using the tutor’s help. Everything he learns and each skill he acquires go through plodding, self-dedication, and readiness to try again regardless of the number of failures he faced.

About Ivan’s first tries in music production, he says:

“They were terrible. After hours spent working with FL studio, the result was just bad. It frustrated me so much that I deleted maybe 5 times the digital audio workstation. However, my wish to create was enormous. It forced me, again and again, to install FL Studio on my PC and to start from an empty page”, says our hero. After many failures, Ivan did not give up. He analyzed his mistakes, learned from them, and eventually figured out a way, how to develop himself and to improve the music he was aiming to create.

“In my life, I always stick to the principle that if something I feel passionate about does not work out, this something automatically gets to my priorities. I learn this on my own and practice it as much as it is needed to achieve an envisaged result.

And how was actually transformed a hobby into professional ambitions passing?

Our friend explains: “I was just a teenager when I started. Back then, I was not thinking that much about what I would like to do professionally in the future. Moreover, my family and friends were always talking about conventional jobs like salesperson, craftsman, etc, and did not consider art and music as something serious. But as I grew up and reached the point of 23 years, I already had quite solid groundwork in music. I decided to change my environment and move to a city, where I can find more opportunities to develop myself and to determine a goal I would love to chase all my life. The city I moved to was the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. There I met many like-minded people and found a lot of opportunities to grow and to become successful in music production”, says Ivan. At the beginning of his living in Kyiv, Ivan was working as a barkeeper to cover his cost of living in the capital. All the money left he spent on buying necessary music equipment to produce music.

“My free time after work and on weekends I spent working on music and mastering my skills. I got to know many talented people, particularly in the music and ballet industry, who made a huge impact on me and forged my determination to fully dedicate myself to music.

Then I was convinced that I must concentrate on the thing I love and not waste my time on work which is no use. That was a turning moment for me when I got a clear vision of my way in life”, says our hero.

Ivan’s music style changed over time.

“At the beginning of my way, I was trying myself in making electro music. I really liked that genre and still listen to progressive trance and house.

But while working with a sound, an artist keeps himself in constant searching and analyzing the music of other producers, whose music he admires. By listening to the music of different artists, I point out the moments and techniques which I like the most.

Afterwards, I try to interpret them and apply them to my own tune. This led me to a genre I am working in nowadays. This genre is very specific and combines contemporary classical, ambient, electronic neo-classical styles.

I am aiming to combine sounds of different instruments like Piano, Violoncello, mixing them with electronic sound. It takes a really long time, but the result is amazing”.

Nowadays, Ivan is closely cooperating with ballets. He writes music for their plays and performances and supports them on their tours. Many concerts were canceled, due to pandemic restrictions like a tour through European countries originally planned to take place in August 2020. Our friend is actively working on producing new soundtracks. He plans to include these soundtracks to an album he plans to release in spring this year.

Ivan sets ambitious plans for the next 3 years.

He is pursuing to release at least 3 albums with his own soundtracks and to make a concert tour at first in European countries. He is a fan of Berlin-based musician and composer Nils Frahm and aims to collaborate with him on making new soundtracks. “Overall, my plan is further to develop myself and to make great music people admire. If it works out, the rest will come”, says Ivan.

The final accord of this story is Ivan’s piece of advice for guys who want to start producing music:

“First of all, do not be afraid to try, everybody must start somehow, without it you will never know what would happen if you did it. Do the thing you love; life is too short and precious to waste it on things that do not make us happy. Be ready to fail, everybody fails, and to stand up, always stand up and try again. This is the best way to learn and to get better. Practice makes perfect, so dedicate yourself, try hard, and I promise you, the time will come when you will make it!”.

Do you have things you like, but always find excuses to not try them?

Are you ready to overcome your laziness and skepticism and to give it a try?

We think you are.

Personal experiences and stories of many people like Ivan are the biggest proof for that.

Stay motivated and hungry for new challenges.