Re: Chord connection

Yes, maybe better than meditate is sort of what I meant by palate cleansing.
I've found I never come up with anything new or exciting (to me) when I sit
down and play guitar. I have to play like an hour or hour and a half before
I've sort of worked out all my anxiety by playing this that and the other,
and - it sounds funny - I arrive at a state where I'm no longer worried
about trying to play this scale, or work on this part of a song, or worried
that this sounds like that and so on. I do the same thing when composing -
sometimes I sit down and play through a couple of pieces and then my mind
starts to wander (which is why I could never "practice") and ideas start to
flow. A lot of this happens when I'm driving, or walking along or
something - like when I don't have somewhere to be (which is rare) and I can
just wlak without worrying about getting somewhere I'll come up with ideas.
Also, going to concerts seems to put me in a state of mind of "gee, I'd like
to try something like that".

Yup, absolutely. I identify with just about all of that, except perhaps
the playing for an hour or so before I get ideas. I've found that
usually if I write the first thing that comes into my head and then try
and make it work (rather than trying to cast around looking for
something I can believe in before I try to make it work) I end up
getting further. If I do the 'I must write something I like' thing I
tend to spend an hour or so getting more and more frustrated until I'm
so wound up I can't write at all. Still - different strokes, different
folks, eh?


I'd prefer to be able to work on a piece until I complete it, but I've come
to realize that my mind just won't work that way and I have to do what I can
when I can. This results in thousands of little snippets, hundreds of nice
little unfinished things, a couple of things I'm happy with every now and
again, and so on. But I do find that being in the right mindset is more
conducive to getting things done (now if I could just exist in that mindset,
I'd be happy).

*smug* Meditation, Steve, meditation */smug*

Nah, I'm only kidding: I spend more time outside the meditative state
than in it - at present a moment's meditative calm would be blessed
relief. It doesn't matter how many times I read stuff about 'Every
action being a meditation' - it still doesn't make it seem like a
meditation.

I know what you mean about having lots of unfinished stuff kicking
around the place. To be honest I got fed up with that a couple of years
ago and started throwing unfinished stuff away because no matter how
many times I told myself I'd revisit it I always ended up just writing
something new. These days I tend to try and cobble two or three
unfinished pieces together to make a finished piece than just writing
ad-hoc. It's a bit more frustrating because forcing myself to write
coherently is very much an uphill struggle to start with, but I think
(well, I hope, actually) it'll pay dividends in the end.


Well, you could post here and see what kind of feedback you get. Tough skin
of course.

I have considered it, and when I get to the point of writing a
2-reprise form piece I'll probably do that as I'd value some feedback
when it comes to longer pieces. At the moment though I'm still on
chapter 4 of Gauldin and it's all short blasted modulation exercises at
the moment - can you tell how much I'm enjoying them? ; )


Yes. Just kidding :-) But I don't put in the same level as I am the Walrus.

Actually I'm not mad keen on She Loves You either and prefer the
slightly more random stuff they wrote later on! Still, 'Revolver' is a
good study in verse / chorus / M8 writing, and even Sgt. Pepper has
plenty of fairly standard-form songs which are given an interesting
harmonic and/or instrumental twist by Mr. Martin & co.


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.

I would say that contrast is not necessary, but certainly too much of "the
same" can lose people's interest. I would say Jon, the less contrast there
is over time, the more "surprises" you need to hold the listener's
attention. Obviusly you always want a balance between unity and contrast.

Steve

Fair comment.

.

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