working knowledge
-
Song Structures Versus Sound Sculptures
One key to electronic music production is learning to devise ways to expand what you happen to have right now into something something you can’t yet hear. What you have right now might be a rhythm, a bass line, a sequence of chords, a burst of noise, a loop, or ten minutes of field recordings Continue reading
-
An Attentional Arc Of Working: Compressing Beats and Focusing Energy
9:30 Breakfast. 9:40 Watch some tennis and consider working. 10:02 I’m still watching tennis. 10:10 I open up the music file, listen for five seconds, and realize it isn’t happening— the beat is plodding (my enthusiasm is low). I consider going back to watching tennis. (Are mornings even optimal for making music?) Almost anything could Continue reading
-
Musical Failure
failure – a lack or deficiency of a desirable quality I’m listening through an almost finished piece, trying to get a sense of how the music moves. There’s a lot I like: the mix is clear (the music has only four parts), the effects and EQing are minimal, the tempo is unrushed, and some kind Continue reading
-
Musical Mindsets
When I think about strategies for composing music, I often think in terms of problem-solving within the process of doing whatever I’m doing. Most often it’s as simple as hearing what I don’t like, then trying out various solutions for fixing it. (Deleting notes is by far my favorite solution.) Other times it’s a little Continue reading
-
Timbrebuilding
“The power of art objects stems from the technical processes they objectively embody: the technology of enchantment is founded on the enchantment of technology. The enchantment of technology is the power that technical processes have of casting a spell over us so that we see the real world in an enchanted form.” -Alfred Gell, “The Continue reading
-
On Being Fluid And Deliberate
A fair many years ago at one of my music lessons my teacher, Russell, suggested that I make my body movements more fluid, more deliberate. I was playing a multi-percussion piece for marimba and some tom-toms, moving from one instrument group to another, probably rather abruptly. Russell suggested making the tempo of my gestures match the Continue reading
-
Musical Decision-Making Under Conditions Of Opacity and Serendipity
I begin composing by improvising, and there are three elements that make up this process: opacity, decision-making, and serendipity. First, some definitions: something that is opaque lacks transparency; decision-making is reaching a resolution after consideration; and serendipity is the occurrence of events by chance in a beneficial way. These ideas capture the flow of the Continue reading
-
Things Not In The Mix
“Pay attention. Focus on your surroundings, physical and psychological. Notice something that bothers you, that concerns you, that will not let you be, which you could fix, that you would fix. You can find such somethings by asking yourself (as if you genuinely want to know) three questions: ‘What is it that is bothering me?’ Continue reading
-
Working Knowledge: Performing, Tinkering, Composing
“Think dynamically.” – Nassim Taleb, Skin in the Game (2018) Somewhere around 2002 I began making electronic music on a computer in a kind of old-fashioned way because I didn’t know any better: using a MIDI keyboard, my goal was to physically play every sound myself, one part at a time. There were a few Continue reading
-
Musical Doubt
doubt – a feeling of uncertainty or lack of conviction “While the theories come and go, the phenomenologies stay.” – Nassim Taleb, Antifragile (2014) When I’m playing music, composing it, or writing about it, a feeling of doubt repeatedly presents itself. Do I really buy what I’m doing? Whether we’re talking about making sounds or Continue reading
brettworks 
You must be logged in to post a comment.