The goal: To force myself to produce music instead of just coming up with countless ideas that never see the light of day.
The rules: Songs had to have a beginning, middle, and end. I could not work on a song that I had already put thought into in the past. Sunday at midnight was the latest I could work on a piece.
Things I learned:
- One week to write a song is insane. Don't ever do this. If you do, don't repeat that mistake eleven more times! Yeesh. It did force me to produce something, which was my goal, but unless I had something already in mind (which I purposely tried not to do), it was pretty easy to lose inspiration halfway through.
It was extremely hard to write a piece with depth to it in such a short time and equally hard not to stop and try to make it "better" as I'm composing. In the past, I could normally take a few days to choose between patterns I liked, but with this process I had to just pick one and keep going. Imagine cooking something that way - basil or oregano? Fish or steak? Mustard or sriracha? Sometimes it might turn out tasty, but not always...
- Music first, movement third. I can come up with a rhythm, find complimentary patterns, tie them together, and in the process the instrumentation will come to mind. But make me have to think of a movement first, and it's like running through pudding. Thick pudding. Everything becomes so much more difficult and I lose my desire to continue.
It's one thing to add movement during the composition process; if it pops up and seems good I can incorporate it. As a launching pad for me though, it sucks!
- I don't like to name my songs. I guess I sort of knew this, but now there's no doubt. While I'm composing a song, giving it a name limits it. To some people, giving a song a name from the onset gives it a purpose and I totally get that...for them. All of these songs are "untitled" and probably will be until the liner note deadline.
- My tendencies.
- I like syncopation. No surprise there! Actually, it was hard in some pieces to NOT put in a syncopated pattern.
- I really try to avoid 4 things in a row for the most part. I don't want patterns to be too predictable, but then after a while, that itself becomes predictable.
- Apparently, I'm not a fan of "regular" ji. Straight beat, dongo, horsebeat (don dogo), etc. It's not that I dislike those patterns, but I find them too simple for the songs I want to write. The two songs that have those kind of ji (songs 3 and 6) add accents or use alternating tones.
- My songs tend to be moderate to fast in tempo. I toyed with the idea of a slow, mellow song, but didn't like it. While I did play with tempo in song 10, I generally stayed in a narrow range.
- Songs that have little future:
- Song 4 was an experiment in picking a random song and "taiko-izing" it. This isn't a horrible piece, but I don't see me doing anything with it.
- Song 5 was the martial-art-inspired piece. This was my least favorite piece of all 12 and serves more as a lesson than a song.
- Song 7 was the non-taiko taiko piece. I hate to put it in this category, but realistically I don't think I'll come back to it. I like the idea and what I was trying to do, but it's a super-low priority.
- Song 9 had the hocketed, improv ji. It's quirky but I don't have any real attachment to it. Going to a different meter for the solos was a mistake as well.
- Song 11 was in 5. Too messy, nothing gripping. It's the "kitchen sink" of my 12 songs.
- Song 1 was inspired by East Indian patterns. It's different and there's potential, but it's also fragmented. I might want to make something of it down the road...maybe.
- Song 6 is the katsugi okedo movement-oriented piece. As a song it sounds boring as hell because there's no visuals to go along with it. I might take some of the ideas for a future work even if I don't take the bulk of it.
- Song 8 was videogame-inspired and incorporates moving around the drums. This is sort of my "average" song because I don't hate it, don't love it, it's got some nifty patterns and I could easily develop it but don't have a great desire to at this point. Another day, perhaps?
- Song 2 was inspired by Heavy Metal. This is probably the song I'm happiest with from this experiment and I have ideas for it already. Of all 12 pieces, this will probably be the first one I develop fully.
- Song 3 was an attempt to make a "catchy" melody. I could see this song being taught directly as-is and played on stage with hardly any changes. I wish it was longer, but I still like it.
- Song 10 was the "taikobilly" piece. Lots of fun in this one. Like song 3, I wish it was longer, but I like the structure and potential mood of the piece.
- Song 12 would need the most work of these four, but figuring out what sort of vocals to add should be fun. The descending tones of the drums was a real bonus but came to be a signature part.
Now? I let those last four songs simmer in the back of my brain for a while. Coming out of this with four potentially good works is pretty damned encouraging, but it was exhausting!
I want to develop the song I started chronicling under the "New Song Diary" tag. I feel like I went through so much forced processing during this experiment that it served as a creative detox for me. I feel that I'm much more free to really make this song into the song it should be. Mind you, I don't know what song that is, but I feel like it's ready to be written.
Thanks to those who came along on this process with me. It might have been as boring as watching paint dry for some of you, but this blog is as much for me as it is for you. :) Maybe there's a few people reading my blog who wish they could get their ideas out of their heads and made into real music? If so, I hope writing about this journey of mine helped. I'd be happy to talk in more detail to anyone if they're interested - I'm still no expert on composition, but I'm always willing to talk taiko!
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