Musivation

I haven’t posted in a while, but I’ve recently been thinking a little about the process undertaken in writing music.

I am mainly writing for those who wish to get a glimpse at the answer to the question “How did ________ achieve such a genius song?”

First of all, I’d like to answer by saying that, often, the composer doesn’t knicow where such a genius song came from. It’s really a huge surprise when a song comes together especially when it’s got a certain call. As a composer I sometimes work so hard at finalizing the song that I really am surprised when I like what I hear from the nearly final versions of the song.

There really is no outlined rule-sheet to writing music: there’s only the theory and the composer’s mind, and these two may come together any number of ways, or sometimes clash so much nothing is produced.

Sometimes I get asked “lyrics first, or music first?” or “melody first, or background first?” Truthfully, it really depends on what I think of first. Or, if I’m writing to a theme, or specifically for someone, it depends whether to words or the feeling conveyed through the music arises first.

It’s not my job to make up a rule set for the brainstorm that is writing music, it’s my job to interpret the brainstorm and write the clear parts and save the muddled for later, because, more often than not, they become more clear or useful in transforming the song.

One thing I do to keep it straight is record ideas that may work (on anything, even on the low quality of my phone). Then I listen to them and judge if I like the sound I am hearing, sometimes its there, sometimes it needs a little fine tuning. More than never though the first ideas are springboards to the next idea and the song ends up refining itself into a final form, as long as the composer is willing to capture it.

Once I feel that I have a finished product I get it out there, because, ultimately, it is the audience that has to listen to the music, not just the composer.

As an added responsibility, I think that good composers should always write to educate the audience in some aspect of music without their knowing; not everything has to be a 3 chord pop ballad and there is plenty of innovation to tamper with in music. So go out there and free the songs in your mind and see how far you can stretch their limits to be more than the original idea.

Happy Composing

While I’ll post videos of my music on here, I’ll also like to link you all to my brand new youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMusivation . This will contain all music I write or cover.

I haven’t written here in about a week because I’ve not had too many things to say really and also I’ve been busy. Well today I talk about the plans I’m currently laying out.

1. I’m working on finishing my new song: “March of the Nanites” I just can’t find time to finish the lyrics cause I don’t have the story straight in my head yet. It involves a scientist and nanites that went out of control.

2. My friend Alex and I are starting a (mostly) acoustic musical project. You can call us Ampersand. I hope to work with him constantly and write backing parts for my songs and his songs so we can perform our material together throughout the school year.

So those are the plans. I hope I have time to work on them. My school year never seems to stop, even in summer. I really need to stop being a good student and taking classes. Let’s hope next summer = rest.

Music has to be sincere. An experienced listener can tell when its not. I think that when people complain that a new song is the same old thing its probably because its not sincere. Just completely mass produced and unimaginative.

Yes, the same thematic material shows up in countless songs, so which are the ones that stay? The ones that were truly written with a human feeling to it. Sure there’s a place for small (and I mean very very very small) amounts of consumer Pop music; yes I’m even looking at you, so called “Country Music” of today (this is real Country Music: http://countryandwestern.tumblr.com/ ) and you, so called “Hard Rock” and “Metal” of today. I say very very very small because they all are about the same after the 2nd track. The reason why these bands and groups sound the same every time its because they are a studio product and not a musical project.

Many bands that take themselves seriously are breaking away from the music labels and companies and setting up their own recording equipment and letting the creative process do the talking. I’m mostly aware of the rock scene and these guys are some of my favorite artists that are taking the reins and doing it themselves and writing sincerely: Nine Inch Nails (throughout their career), Thrice (especially Alchemy Index on), Periphery (since their debut album a few months back, they own their own masters).

Today I’m thinking about how music influences other music. Influence here defined as the growth of a musician by way of admiring another musician. Influence in your own music is not blatant copying (there’s a place for that and its covering a song, which is a beautiful way of paying homage to an artist), or using an established song to make a new one (there’s [sometimes] a place for that and its called sampling).

When I write music, it first of all sounds like me. But when I revise it, I think of what artists I like do in their music and I try to refit the parts of my song I still feel are rough. Influences in my music show up in the way a phrase fits with another or maybe the way I fixed the chords I liked by using a rhythm pattern influenced by one I heard previously.

In rock music, I love hearing newer bands take a style further or revive a type of sound. One example in particular is Muse’s “United States of Eurasia”. In this song you can hear Muse bring out a bit of Queen influence in the chorus and the overall rock opera feel of the track, of which Queen are masters and Freddy Mercury a virtuoso. Another example is a bit more general, the way that shred guitar genre has been taken by bands like Protest the Hero and turned into a more melodically accessible, yet still as abrasive and mind-blowing sound, while adding time signature changes and occasional screams.

In Jazz, influence is really a crucial part of the tradition. Specially given the history (though it is a long and wide one which would take too long to go into more than generally here). The 12 bar blues has been turned into countless tunes and then expanded, but always containing the Jazz feeling. Jazz soloists sometimes hearken back to well know tunes (such as Merry had a Little Lamb) to add in some twist into their solos. Some artists even call upon licks established by the greats before them which are their influences. Especially with great traditions left by Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, and Dexter Gordon to name a few among many. Even those who later set new standards, like John Coltrane and Miles Davis, again few among many, where immediately influenced by their peers as they got together at different times to create great Jazz records. Even genre fusion happened and Latin Jazz and more experimental and fusion Jazz started to be created later.

I will stop here on the topic because it is too vast to cover, especially all the deep history in Jazz.

I’m not gonna go into too much specifics here, but I will talk about this little problem I see. People, if you do not like a band or musical group, ignore them and educate people about music. I see lots of people wasting their energy bashing bands they don’t like with arguments that befit playground debates over whose throw was better. Barely any criticism even talks about their musical ability or why they lack it. So please spare me and all true music lovers and keep quiet, it only makes the band you hate get more attention. Instead help change the scope of what the average listener hears on a daily basis by teaching about bands with merit, and why you think they have merit. We may not all agree, but we can agree to disagree. Not all music is for everyone, but last time I checked it was because music was supposed to reflect the ideas of the musician, not those of a money hungry industry who just wants consumer sounds to be eaten as music. Keep the artists in the art.

Rant done.

You thought my first post was gonna just say 1st post! but its not, its gonna go much deeper than that, throw you for a loop, well maybe just explain me a little.

I love to create and music is my main outlet. My posting might not always seem to pertain to music, but music is in everything; you just gotta hear it. I write music and lyrics because I experience life, and insight is what I seek to convey in my music. Sometimes I might write about the things that interest me, the songs that I am listening to at the moment, the things that catch my attention.

So really I want to use this blog to keep a record of things so that I may look back upon them more easily and therefore create better music and in the end, a better life.

Time to start on this new journey.

~A captain at sea…