musical inquisition

[Reeducation]

this is a question i've been meaning to ask somebody for a while. i don't very often IRL because people think it's a stupid question or something. but, this is the internets, and all questions here are stupid.

musicians write/perform music, usually. but do you think that sometimes, like with truly great pieces of musical art, musicians aren't writing the music so much as like accidentally stumbling across the songs?

I have to say stumbling. But, it's not accidentally stumbling. It's planned.

[Sister_Gothique]

this is a question i've been meaning to ask somebody for a while. i don't very often IRL because people think it's a stupid question or something. but, this is the internets, and all questions here are stupid.

musicians write/perform music, usually. but do you think that sometimes, like with truly great pieces of musical art, musicians aren't writing the music so much as like accidentally stumbling across the songs?

I have to say stumbling. But, it's not accidentally stumbling. It's planned.

This sounds about right...It's how it works for me, anyhow. heh...
No good forcing anything, it sounds all wonky.

[Malcoid the Malcontent]

Perhaps. A lot of the creative process isn't necessarily intentional, so much as it's stumbling across something interesting in the subconscious/collective unconscious/whatever.

I would tend to agree. All of my best songs seem to jump out at me from the ether.

Often at really strange times too... the last song I wrote came to me whilst eating a bowl of brocolli and watching Family Guy re-runs.

[Sister_Gothique]

Perhaps. A lot of the creative process isn't necessarily intentional, so much as it's stumbling across something interesting in the subconscious/collective unconscious/whatever.

I would tend to agree. All of my best songs seem to jump out at me from the ether.

Often at really strange times too... the last song I wrote came to me whilst eating a bowl of brocolli and watching Family Guy re-runs.

Heh, I know what you mean. Last one came to me while stocking the shoe aisles at Target (wtf?)...embarrassing, but true.

[Bu🤠ns]

this is a question i've been meaning to ask somebody for a while. i don't very often IRL because people think it's a stupid question or something. but, this is the internets, and all questions here are stupid.

musicians write/perform music, usually. but do you think that sometimes, like with truly great pieces of musical art, musicians aren't writing the music so much as like accidentally stumbling across the songs?

i think the idea here, inspiration, comes from a sort of openness to spontaneity.  if you're playing a musical instrument and remember to play each and every note while totally focusing on those little details the piece comes out sounding mechanistic and a bit contrived.  when the musician lets go and plays .... is natural without trying to be natural i think that one could 'accidentally' stumble across songs. 

like when trying to make a basket, if you think too hard about it you'll miss.  if you just shoot the damn ball without trying too much it tends to just flow a bit.

i dunno, its kind of hard to describe right now.

[hashishi]

I dont have a set way to write my music. Sometimes I will sit down and the track will be complete in an hour or two, other times it can take weeks. I also start a lot more tracks than I finish.

I have had a few tracks just land in my lap though (or brain), fully formed... Just had to figure out how to make it real. Write it down, feed it into an electronic sequencer... whatever...

I like improvising the best though. I put together loops and use them for a basis, then I can drop them in and cut them out at will, I use the BPM controller to speed up, slow down the music and play a keyboard over the top. The band just knows the key changes and all improvise their way through the soundscape. We started as a joke in the local university band comp, but were so popular that we got gigs out of it and found ourselves in like a real band.

[Brotep]

I have it on good authority that this sort of thing takes fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, and nice red uniforms.

[LMNO]

You forgot "a fanatical devotion to the Pope."



FAIL.

[Brotep]

OK I'll come in again.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

i find that writing music is fun, but it's hard to do by myself. plus, if there's a collaborator or 3 involved, the finished project is always a lot more rewarding.

btw, i'm in the process of joining a band now, it's called "Key of Anger," but later when I show the noobs in the band that they can't live without me, I'll change its name to "Enrico and the Three Muffdumplings."

[Brotep]

It is half by accident, half by design.

Practice prepares you for spontaneity.

[Bu🤠ns]

It is half by accident, half by design.

Practice prepares you for spontaneity.

mmm  i like this

[3D3N]

It is half by accident, half by design.

Practice prepares you for spontaneity.

I would have to agree wholeheartedly. Without good technique it is impossible to express yourself to the maximum. After that, there is no 'best', just a bunch of people saying exactly what they mean. Mechanical only really happens when you're not feeling what you're playing. You can have complete control over what you're doing and still infuse it with your entire soul, and I think it's then true spontaneity occurs. Know thyself?

[AFK]

Depending on what you definition of "good technique" is I wouldn't say it is impossible.  I spent 4 years in an Improv band back headed up by my college music professor.  It was also a course a student could take for credit.  There wasn't any actual instruction except for the first class where he basically just laid out the idea of improvisation which was to listen to what everyone else was doing and then making what you do fit.  but you make it fit your way.  Anyway, you had a range of people from experienced musicians to complete novices and I found that the novices could be just as expressive as trained musicians.  In fact, I dare say some of the novices were in my mind more expressive in that they were not chained by convention. 

[LMNO]

It really depends on your definition of "technique" and as to what your sonic intentions are.

For example, D. Boon of the Minutemen had a sloppy technique, but his solos were fucking genius, because he was looking for the sound when what you're playing is almost but not quite overwhelming your ability to play it, which resulted in an edge-of-your-seat vibrancy and desperation to it.  So, for his intentions, his technique was perfect.