Take3

I started over for a second time... Take 3... and lo and behold, I like it!

My mistake was focusing too much on the minutia early on without an idea of structure. As much as I'd like to think the music can just come easily, I believe brilliant work is definitely a calculated effort.

I tell my students this who are working on writing or personal statements. Great writing is when someone reads it and says "Boy, I wish I was as talented of a writer as _____. The writing just comes so easily to him/her." It's when everything flows so easily that the reader cannot tell that painstaking effort went into making that work fantastic.

Same goes for music I suppose. Songs on the radio that sound so simple or cheesy probably had teams of sound engineers, composers, lyricists, and more -- just so we'd think that song was 'so simple'.. yet for some reason we can't stop listening to it....

Take 3 will be posted here. As soon as I finish it.

Day Something...

So I continued to get sucked into Max/MSP/Jitter... It's a musical computer programmer's dream. No longer bound by silly semi colon or parentheses mistakes, debugging goes much faster.

But unfortunately, it's taken me away from my original goal, the techno pop song.

So starting over. My goal for today: getting through the chorus.

Edit 4:45: Must stop for the day. I'm reaching a point where I can't tell if something sounds good or bad. i.e. it all sounds bad. Finished up until the chorus.

Day 36: Max/MSP/Jitter is awesome.

I've become slightly distracted from my goal due to spending most of my time in the electronic music lab designing Max/MSP patches. For those who are unfamiliar with it, it's a musician's guide to programming - i.e. a visual representation to map object oriented programming. In this program itself, however, there are tons of pre-designed objects that offer limitless function.

In short, it's programming with ten times less hassle. Granted, I cannot write my own objects as easily, but at this point I have yet to see the need to.

I spent a few afternoons last week just playing guitar trying to figure out the lyrics, the progression, and general pattern of this song that I was writing... But was struggling. Then in class one day, my Electronic Music professor made a comment about how music is so subjective, explain how through time, some musical trends become stale while others become popular. It was then that I understood that it was a futile effort trying to not sound like someone else's work in the current present, past, or future. Instead I should just create music as the thoughts exit my mind. If it just so happens that it sounds trite, then so be it. My music, as everything else about me, is shaped by my experiences. For this first song, I want to make sure the creativity remains unhindered by an all too logical reasoning process.

And finally, after one sitting and impromptu singing through the song, I have an outline.

Thus, I've begun the process of developing, tweaking, and honing the exact sounds I want. Effects processing, minor velocity changes, flourishes here and there -- you name it. It should sound professional... although it'll take time...