Unicorn Dream Attack kind of used to be one to me back in the 8BC era, over MSN Messenger. You generally want, as Jellica pointed out, to start by making songs for you.

Yeah, i see what your saying. So just invest myself in the community.

I was saying we can't really just hand you a friend. I mean, if you just want some one to review your music, TheBitMan is a cool guy who is pretty good at it.

So just keep making music I like and practicing; connect with the community, and I shouldn't want/need a mentor.

No one can really refer you to any one specific, if i gave you the name of a guy who is a friend who reviews my music he wont give 2 craps about you. You really have to spend some time mongering to find one of these guys. I know in my last year on this website, i would just get pm's from people just asking whats up. Im sure if you spend some time on this website or others you will find some people.

On another note, you can always talk to phone prostitutes.

When you go into your studio/bathroom, don't go in with any expectations, that's the only way you will be happy with  your music, enless your music is making you money, then you're doing something right.

Don't try.
I did.
And look where i am now.
Oh and future advice, don't ever, ever, ever make a "chiptune essential crisis" thread.
Follow these rules and you'll have all the personal connections you want.

I feel that you should start making music that you want to hear first. If you dont like your own music then what is the point? Practice more.

Also if you want constructive cliticism then you should at least ask people who have a similar taste in music to yourself, there is no point in asking someone who likes whatever genres EDM wants to consume next for criticism on an alice coltraine song that just goes waldldlaooowaaaaworrlalalwaddlwaloopwlaooopwaldldlaooowaaaaworrlalalwaddlwaloopwlaooopwaldldlaooowaaaaworrlalalwaddlwaloopwlaooopwaldldlaooowaaaaworrlalalwaddlwaloopwlaooopwaldldlaooowaaaaworrlalalwaddlwaloopwlaooopwaldldlaooowaaaaworrlalalwaddlwaloopwlaooop for 9 minutes is there?

It's not always easy, possible, or necessary, to find someone who can give the right tips to help you improve. Consider noobstar's last line, if you're going to ask for help, are you going to practice the techniques and obey the advice, or are you just going to do whatever?

I don't remember if you were around for the "foot is on the coffin" thread, the main point of debate I wanted to raise was, are the main artists of this board a patrician class of sorts, where by the time a novice is good enough to deserve recognition, this whole chipmusic thing will be a stone dead pile of nobody cares? If you like making your music enough that it doesn't matter where you share it, carry on, and don't worry, you won't need a mentor for most of your trip.

Why would you do that

There are a LOT of free resources online for you to learn from. From youtube tutorials to blogs to websites entirely dedicated to composition, or mixing, or technology etc. The thing that stops most people from using them is the will to do so. Sit down and soak up the material.

As for the mentor system, it's better done in person. Jamming with friends, both better than me or less so, improved my guitar playing a whole lot. You are presented with different ideas, different ways to do things and you can experiment with them right away and you challenge each other constantly. Who can come up with the best riff for next week? Who can juggle the most instruments in four channels? Who is game to try to take pictures of his sister in the shower and put them online? Online mentoring has the disadvantage of usually not being in real time, so exchange of ideas is very slow.

And most important of all.. just do it. Practice, practice, practice. And when you get tired of practice, practice some more.  As for criticism, I don't believe in it. In most cases people are going to ignore it. A guy once asked me for criticism on a piece of music he wrote. When I listened to it, music cried a little. Yes. Music, the intangible concept, IT WEPT. When I told him his stuff was discordant as all hell and gave him some pointers to fix it, he told me "but that's the way I want it to sound". So y'know.. fuck him.

I'm a little ways out from Memphis, Tennessee; a town near there not well known.

well, i wouldnt exactly call this place mature...
honestly think itd be best to find someone local, if possible... somehow feels like less work to help someone out in person than online, from my experience...
where are you located? maybe someone on here is nearby and would grab some food/show some techniques

Alright, I see your point. So, how exactly does an amateur contribute to an already mature community such as chipmusic.org?

Oh Yeah.
I can criticize the hell out of you.
JK, I'm only an asshole roughly 19.3% of the time.