Re: Chord connection

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yeah. I'm trying ;/

Aw fella - I feel like I was a bit harsh on you there - I didn't mean
it that way : (

I guess I was just trying to offer little encouragement and try to get
across that there are probably going to be a few bumps and knocks along
the way, but just to have confidence in yourself and you'll get there
in the end.

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Sure. I think its a delicate balance and if you off either way then you
suffer. I've just always been one of those overanalyzing types ;/

Sure, I understand. I'm of a similar bent and it drives me absolutely
crackers sometimes, especially when I'm trying to be creative in a
free-flowing kind of way - trying to hear a melody in my head, or
trying to drift and see what noises I can make that grab my attention.
On that front the only practical advice I can offer (though it might
sound a little bizarre) is to meditate. Don't worry - I'm not about to
suggest you shave your head and run off screaming to a monastery in the
Tibetan foothills. It's just that the very state of being uptight about
something (I don't know about you but over-analysis tends to make me
uptight) makes it very difficult to concentrate on what's important, so
anything which helps you relax also helps you to get your focus back -
to realise what's actually important. Sometimes it can be something as
simple as saying: OK, I'm going to have to stop concentrating on this
for a little bit.


For me though that probably would have been much easier. I have don't have a
problem with the learn the language as long as I can put it to use. I
cannot memorize *** unless I use it and then I have no problem. For me,
since I am self taught, I cannot get any feedback so I cannot learn in the
way that is best for me. (I do get feedback thanks to Steve and this NG...
but mostly Steve ;)

I've always been a doer and thats how I've learned but it doesn't seem to
work for me with music.

Again I understand. I'm also self-taught when it comes to writing and
lack of feedback is a real killer, especially when it could be as
simple as "Yes, but if you write that line out a third lower you won't
get that horrible leap of a 7th in bar 3". It's frustrating for sure.


I'm sorta like that to a degree. I don't mind using templates and such but
ultimately I think to much of it will influence me on a degree that I don't
want to be.

Songs by The Beatles are often quite formulaic. Does that mean 'She
Loves You' is a rubbish song? How's about Handel - he'd write his music
in bits - a bit of Template #63, couple of bars of Template #21 and
conclude with a touch of Template #105 - formula city, man! But do you
still like 'Water Music'?

I agree that formulaic music is, on the whole, dreadful, but just
because you're writing a minuet and trio in an 18th century style
doesn't mean it has to be formulaic. Musical forms can be really quite
flexible - just look at the development of the Symphony from Haydn
through Shostakovich. You don't need to make a complete break with
every rule in order to do something astonishing - it can sometimes just
be your take on the rules that makes your piece shine out above all the
other ploddy nonsense.


Sure. But unlike building a bridge music is much much harder ;) I have,
say, a very clear idea about how to build a bridge. I know the purpose of it
and I can learn from experience the intricacies to make it a good bridge.
With music it seems that I don't have a clear idea or some "map" about what
to do to make a piece... or maybe I do but the map always seems to lead to
something bad and I'm expecting to much. Hell, maybe its the same thing ;/

Sure, it's difficult to learn from your mistakes if you're not sure if
they are mistakes or if what you think are the good bits are actually
the mistakes and the bad bits are right! In which case, hear ye some
advice from my guitar teacher: You can practice for hours on a piece of
music and at the end of it all you can still not know if it's any
better or worse than it was in the first place. (I.e. every musician
feels the same about practice and writing - did I do it right? If I do
it this way is it any better? Is anyone other than me actually noticing
I've made some changes here or not!?)

Have you got an example or two you want to discuss / work-through /
chat about?


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I think it is simple and thats why I don't see why I can't do it well ;/ I
look at some pieces that I think sound quite good and they are quite
simple(or seem that way) yet when I try to do similar stuff mine doens't
sound good. This kinda goes back to thinking that there must be something
more going on than I realize and thats why its bad.

Again, if you've got an example or two you want to go through it will
be better than any generalisations I can come up with.

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I like to improvise much more than compose because it seems more natural to
much... but the music is so disorganized and structuraless that no one could
problem make sense of it. Many people in the know would say it sucks but
there are probably some avg people out there that would think its ok.

for example, this is something I recorded while I was just playing a couple
of months ago(I tend to just record things incase I get something cool).

http://www.geocities.com/abstract_dissonance/Untitled.mp3

For me its good in the sense of feeling. Its not necessarily technically
great or perfect but it expresses moods that I seem to feel inside. I can
relate to the "idea". Maybe its not structured very good or doesn't make
much sense musically to most but it makes sense to me. Since it was just
improvising I did make some mistakes(specially at the end) where it was
really just hitting the wrong note or something like that... but luckily I
think it turned out quite well since to me there are no obivous
mistakes(like blatent wrong notes).

But again, its the mood that I like and not the specific notes or
harmonies(which though have almost everything to do with it). But I think
most people woudln't like it because it makes no sense to them.. So what I
try to do is take those feelings and wrap them up in something that is more
structured and such but I can't do it. It always sounds bad or contrived...
so maybe I just have very wierd tastes or I don't know what I'm doing (or
both) ;/

Thanks,
Jon

It's good! Pat yourself on the back!

Don't worry about the technical aspects. Not all great pieces of music
require you to be able to play like Afred Brendle so don't worry that
there aren't enough notes or it's not hard enough - it doesn't need to
be hard, it just needs to be you.

It makes perfect sense musically and you don't have very weird tastes.
It's kinda melancholy (so I see what you mean when you talk about going
to a sad place - it's a sad piece of music), and it's kinda reflective.

It doesn't sound contrived - you keep coming back to the same rhythmic
figures, the accompaniment isn't over-busy and stays more or less the
same throughout (this helps give the piece cohesion), and the whole
thing flows naturally from the opening notes without trying to get
over-adventurous.

Great stuff!

Points to note.

1. The piece doesn't sound like it concludes at the moment because the
last note you play is a B (dominant) and you're writing in e (tonic).
Either replace the B with an E, or just add a low E to the end and it
will sound great (i.e. the last thing you hear will be dominant ->
tonic).

2. The piece is quite short. THIS IS NOT A BAD THING. However, at the
moment the piece isn't contrasting with anything. What you need to do
is generate some contrast by writing another couple of short but
sprightlier pieces and put them either side of this one to make a
three-movement work. Or you could do the same thing, but join all the
pieces together by writing transition sections and have one work with 3
moods. If you wanted you could use the ideas in this piece as the
starting point for other pieces. To do that change the meter, the tempo
or the key, then transpose and augment / diminsh the ideas you've
already got to make them fit the new tempo, key or meter then go off
and improvise some more around those ideas until you've got a new
piece. Re-using familiar ideas across 2 or 3 pieces helps to give them
cohesion, using new material helps to generate contrast.

.

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