General Music Chat

I,LL go along with that source thing, I am a big believer in the ebb and flow of energy. But if I dont get my coffee, thats a headache for sure.

I create my best work when I do not hear any other music for days.
There's a lot of stuff out there that will pollute one's creativity . . .
.
I try not to listen to any music at all, (except here, once in a while).
.
Whatever style of music I hear a lot of, good or bad, - will eventually make it's way to my fingertips - whether I want it to, or not . . .

???

I create my best work when I do not hear any other music for days.
There's a lot of stuff out there that will pollute one's creativity . . .
.
I try not to listen to any music at all, (except here, once in a while).
.
Whatever style of music I hear a lot of, good or bad, - will eventually make it's way to my fingertips - whether I want it to, or not . . .

Interesting that you mention that. There is some truth to it, because when music that you like is in your head, you have the tendency to want to re-render it as something of your own. Which, of course, does get in the way of personal creation.

I pick the times I listen to music very carefully...usually between periods of working on my own material.

I take the opposite approach, I listen to all kinds of music constantly. I listen to classical all day at work, jazz when relaxing and rock when partying, etc. If my brain filters this into my creative process, great. If Beethoven hadn't studied Bach would he have still included a fugue in the Ninth?

I constantly listen as well. It seems to me the stuff I like filters itself in and the stuff I don't I automatically forget. Sounds fine to me.

Im a thief, when I write originals I just ripoff whatever Im listening to at the time.

Like Jimmy I listen to classical and jazz a lot. But so far I havent written a symphony. I was listening to country and recorded a song recently as soon as I get finished with it I'll post it and see if it came out sounding country to you guys.

When I write a new song - if it sounds like something I've heard before, then it's not really new.
I don't want to copy someone else's song, and then pretend it's mine.
.
If find myself playing something I've heard before, then I change a few chords, or maybe boost the tempo and skip a few beats, and then write a better chorus, or I create an unexpect bridge or something . . . .
. . . anything, rather than playing 2 songs that sound the same.

I am with you Paul. If you sh*t out 100, 10 or so will definitely be decent.

Maybe even combine a few to get a few more. 100 crappy ones can spawn a decent album or at least give you enough to go to the studio ready to pump out something worthwhile.

I take the opposite approach, I listen to all kinds of music constantly. I listen to classical all day at work, jazz when relaxing and rock when partying, etc. If my brain filters this into my creative process, great. If Beethoven hadn't studied Bach would he have still included a fugue in the Ninth?

During the time of the penning of his 9th, he was completely deaf. So the idea of him listening to anything at the time is, well, moot.

Irminsul. Do you consider the posability that not only his mentaly being able to "hear" the notes as he wrote but perhaps he was in tune with the vibrations as well?

Irminsul. Do you consider the posability that not only his mentaly being able to "hear" the notes as he wrote but perhaps he was in tune with the vibrations as well?

Good point, just like he could mentally "hear" his own music. Plus couldn't he have listened to Bach before he went deaf and been influenced then.

The point is Beethoven studied Bach as well as Mozart, long before he went deaf. He incorporated these master's ideas into his compositions. Standing on the shoulder's of giants, etc.

Irminsul. Do you consider the posability that not only his mentaly being able to "hear" the notes as he wrote but perhaps he was in tune with the vibrations as well?

Actually historians hold that as a real possibility. There are degrees in deafness, the worst of which is called "profound" deafness (total). It is believed that Beethoven became quite deaf but not completely, because profound deafness is known to mostly happen in people who have been born that way.

As for the 9th symphony, there is a lot of testimony at the time that Beethoven, at that point his health and hygiene greatly declining, was known to walk around the streets loudly bellering out the melody line of his soon to be penned "Chorale" (Ode To Joy) of the 9th. He was obviously quite taken with the melody, but the theory is that he was so loudly "la-la-ing" it out because its the only way he could "hear" it - meaning the vibrations of his own voice produced a semblence of hearing the melody outside of his own "mental" hearing.

Of course, we'll never know exactly how much he could hear at the end of his life. But the point is, I highly doubt that he was sitting in the village square listening to outdoor musicians and getting any sort of inspiration. I'm pretty sure by that time he was composing solely in the sanctum of his quiet mind.