Members LeonardScaper Posted March 17, 2011 Members Share Posted March 17, 2011 .......that's not the phenomenon in which original music gets created. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Oswlek Posted March 17, 2011 Members Share Posted March 17, 2011 I personally do not go very far in that direction. But then I am after a particular vibe that is a bit more spontaneous and natural. I suspect that I am a bit of an anomaly inthe songwriting realm. I don't think you are anomaly. You are just better at it than most. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Matximus Posted March 17, 2011 Members Share Posted March 17, 2011 Silly for me... because I'm really not that good at music and don't pretend to be. I take a mercenary approach to the whole thing... or I'm like a cuckoo or some other creature that gets by through crass means like deception or blunt force... You guys are probably more talented and focused then me on so many different levels. I know I can't write {censored} for melodies but I'm pretty good with words but overall a hack musician, not that smart with coming up with fresh chord changes and arrangements, which leaves very few tools for making something interesting. So I steal good basic ideas from other people to compensate for what I'm not good at and try and use them as a platform to showcase my strengths.... That's the nut of it. IF I left it all up to intuition I'd be singing the same tired melody over the same three chord progression all the time...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Oswlek Posted March 17, 2011 Members Share Posted March 17, 2011 Silly for me... because I'm really not that good at music and don't pretend to be. I take a mercenary approach to the whole thing... or I'm like a cuckoo or some other creature that gets by through crass means like deception or blunt force... You guys are probably more talented and focused then me on so many different levels. I know I can't write {censored} for melodies but I'm pretty good with words but overall a hack musician, not that smart with coming up with fresh chord changes and arrangements, which leaves very few tools for making something interesting. So I steal good basic ideas from other people to compensate for what I'm not good at and try and use them as a platform to showcase my strengths.... That's the nut of it. IF I left it all up to intuition I'd be singing the same tired melody over the same three chord progression all the time...... {Scratches head} Was this directed at me? My compliment of Len was not related in any way towards the rest of the conversation. As for songwriting, I say do whatever you need to do to be as good as you want to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members richardmac Posted March 17, 2011 Author Members Share Posted March 17, 2011 On a side note, I have a sort of musical generator method that I sometimes use for fun... 1. take out a piece of paper and write out the alphabet. Below that write it again with just letters A-G so you will have this.A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZA B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C E D2. Take a word or a phase and pick out the corresponding note beneath the letter. So for example "PICKER" would be BBCDED3. Use these notes as the melody and work out chords, phrasing, etc that fit the notes.Share and enjoy Hey, that's pretty cool! I'm going to play with that idea. Neat trick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Matximus Posted March 18, 2011 Members Share Posted March 18, 2011 {Scratches head} Was this directed at me? My compliment of Len was not related in any way towards the rest of the conversation.As for songwriting, I say do whatever you need to do to be as good as you want to be. No. It wasn't. And I totally agree with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted March 18, 2011 Members Share Posted March 18, 2011 I don't think you are anomaly. You are just better at it than most. I wrote a Lenny song and, you're right. He's much better at it than I am. But it did have that Lenny feel, with all the wide open syncopations... unfortunately, the thing about syncopation is that the rhythm/timing has to be pretty good or it sucks and my Lenny song sucked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cliftonb Posted March 18, 2011 Members Share Posted March 18, 2011 I'm probably weird in this regard, but melodically I tend to try to emulate composers like Satie, Poulenc, Koechlin, Bartok, and 8 and 16-bit era video game composers. I have my favorite moments from these guys but I don't keep a scrapbook of particular phrases handy to base any of my stuff on. After many years of listening and playing piano, my melodic/harmonic sense just sort of organically developed without much thought or labor on my part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sventvkg Posted March 18, 2011 Members Share Posted March 18, 2011 I never want my melodies to be like another song including one of mine. That said, sometimes they are similar to something else..That's life and there's nothing new under the Sun, so it happens. I get a general idea for melodies and they come so fast, easy and in such abundance that it's almost overwhelming. This is my HUGE gift as a songwriter. I can come up with 100 variations on a melody for any given phrase if I want. It's craft, sure but it comes easy. That said, I like to use what feels right using Richard's option 2 for the most part, then I will tweak it a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members richardmac Posted March 18, 2011 Author Members Share Posted March 18, 2011 I'm probably weird in this regard, but melodically I tend to try to emulate composers like Satie, Poulenc, Koechlin, Bartok, and 8 and 16-bit era video game composers. I have my favorite moments from these guys but I don't keep a scrapbook of particular phrases handy to base any of my stuff on. After many years of listening and playing piano, my melodic/harmonic sense just sort of organically developed without much thought or labor on my part. Bartok! OMG. I took piano lessons at Eastman when I was in high school and I had a hip young grad student have me play some Bartok. It was very very difficult for me and I found the music to be very confusing to listen to! When I went to college and had to do choral conducting I chose a Bartok piece specifically because it was extremely challenging for people to sing... to compensate for the fact that I couldn't conduct it worth a damn. Bach was always more fun for me to play, because I'm a pretty concrete-sequential guy. SIDE NOTE - Eastman taught me the difference between good and great. I was good. Everyone else was great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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