General Music Chat

Someone mentioned to me to 'stay creative.'
Yes!
That is what it is all about, for me.
I do all original music, but recently I hadn’t had time to work on new material.
I'd been hearing waaaay too much of 'other people's music,' and not enough of my own.
And, hearing too many 'other peoples songs' - had buried all my creativity. All I’d been hearing (in my background thoughts) was the same old cover songs.
I need to hear MY songs!
I needed to unleash some brand new music . . . couldn’t find it under all the cover songs bouncing around my head.
So, I took some active steps.
I had a rehearsal of all instrumentals (all new material), cancelled another rehearsal, turned down invitations to 4 open mikes, skipped yet another local blues jam, turned down an invitation to a house party (with 2 dozen other musicians) . . . been muting every song I hear on TV (is everything on TV heavy metal?) . . .
. . . breath of fresh air . . .
. . . like I've had a load of rocks on my shoulders, and the weight is gone, and I can stand straight - and run again.
Once the echos died out (takes about 3 days), I was able to compose brand new songs, brand new sounds . . .
.
So now I've taken a full week to work exclusively on new material, and the things that are coming out have been blowing me away . . . what a torrent of new music, all new sounds, all completely different.
It's wonderful to unleash my creativity - I have so many new songs and song ideas that I can't believe it . . .
I've been recording everything right away; I hadn't always done that before.
So now I have a bunch of new songs and song-ideas recorded as rough versions.
I won’t be fully developing any of them right away, though.
There are tons of new ideas still freely pouring out, and I want to record them while they're still flowing . . .
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If you want to write new songs - stop listening to ALL cover songs for 3 days, and see what happens . . .

Stop listening to cover tunes for three days? That means locking yourself in a sound proof room for three days. Cover tunes are like advertisements, we get hit by hundreds every day. I know what you mean by songs running through your head, it constantly drives me crazy. And I know what you mean by cover tunes screwing up your thought process, it does the same for me. Usually the last song I hear in a day is running through my head until I hear the next song. It's a curse of being a musician...

Best post in two days.
Hayden would agree, you agree, Bob agrees, I agree.

I don't know though? I'm listening to a lot of local stuff now and more beyond (Thanks for the kick JW). Masses of talent and some good tribes playing Musak there is too.

I find that the early hours, when I'm just waking I'll have an idea, a tune, something. Then low and behold and just as you say.

Turn something on and that moment has gone.

Good for you, Alan. I had a similar experience lately. After quitting the cover band, I hadn't played for over a month-nothing. Then, one day, I plugged in my bass and began going over some old basslines I'd come up with during my "progressive" phase-pretty complicated stuff.
All I can say is that I was amazed. My hands felt like they were in the best shape of my life, my mind was sharp (in recalling some pretty extensive changes and some fast licks). The best part of it was being drawn back into the passion that hooked me on music in the first place. These were MY original ideas, flowing out of me. Sure beats the heck out of playing "Chicken Fried" 20 times a week.
At this point, I've started playing with another cover band, but these guys are original-oriented, so there is hope. The experience has also helped me to re-focus on the reasons why I do this.

Maybe brains are like computers, they need to de-fragment once in a while...

I liken it to us being like a clear glass of fresh water. Cover songs are like dumping ink in the glass. You can't see anything . . .
.
BTW - since my original post, a few hours ago, I composed (and recorded) "Finger Blender," a finger-picking song similar to my "Jaunty Boy," or Frolicking Fingers."
Fast, complicated, melodic, painful to play . . .
My fingertips look like they've been in a blender, now, but it was worth it . . .

Not if its a Linux brain it don't

Maybe brains are like computers, they need to de-fragment once in a while...

Ok, so here's what's happened for me:
All my practice in the last 10 days has been to compose all new songs.
I have not played even one song which I already knew.
Counting new song-ideas (nearly complete songs), I composed about 20 new songs in the last 10 days or so. Many of them are extremely difficult, and will take me months to master.
All of them are different styles of music.
.
I've been composing and playing all new songs, every night, til my fingers hurt, then I have to stop.
I have song ideas recorded on tape.
And I still have about 100 latent brand new songs on my tapes, which I've never heard.
I was able to go through about 15 minutes of song-ideas on tape, which resulted in about 7-8 new songs, right there.
I recorded about 5 of them on computer, and put the rest back onto a new tape, for perusal/developement later.
At least one new song per every 3 minutes of tape. I have 17 hours of unheard recordings, spanning the last 3 years. So, actually, that works out to over 300 songs I have to learn, right now.
That's if I never write a new song for the rest of my life.
At this stage, I have worked my way up to listening to song ideas recorded in July, of 2006.
The ideas on the tapes - recorded every few days or so - span from July 2006 to yesterday.
.
I burned 16 new recordings tonight.
11 of them are brand new songs, or song ideas - all rough versions.
.
Now, if anyone in my group askes me to learn some new cover songs - I'm going to strangle them . . .

Good advice in here. I haven't had a radio in my car for over a year, & when I get into my wife's car, I turn it off, preferring to listen to the music in my head. I just can't seem to retain it long enough to play it, but I must admit that with the hectic goings on of the season, I haven't been playing as much as I was a cpl weeks ago. There have been some lil gems I quite liked in there, though, & I simply must make the time to work on them. I really need to make some $ so's I can get the recording equipment I need to retain stuff.

Sounds great Alan!

As for me sometimes I just need to take a total break from playing and come back fresh. Ive been doing this for years. I dont play as technical music as you, but what I do works for me.

Whenever i get an idea I do try to capture it somehow. Either with my cell phone voice deal or write out a lyric.

I can do what you talk about and really force music out of me, but if I let it rest and listen later it ussually doesnt have the fire that Im after.

Keep On Rockin and Written My Friend!

My break has been long enough. Even though the "partial" rehearsals have produced some new tunes. I am ready for the boys to be healthy and ready to RECORD GRRRRRRRR

I think this is pretty creative -

http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs13/f/2007/ ... becker.swf