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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
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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
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Composing By Playing
I want to begin the piece carefully, by considering my options and plotting a sensible route. But I can’t design from the top down, only from the ground up, so I begin playing to hear where that takes me. Whenever you’re in doubt about what to do or how to proceed, just start playing. By… Continue reading
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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
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How Do You Listen To Music?
How do you listen to music? Do you listen analytically, trying to dissect it into its component parts? Do you listen impressionistically, letting it roll over you like waves? Do you lock into the beat or sing along to the melody? What in the sounds draws you in and keeps you there? Is this where… Continue reading
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Resonant Thoughts: George Coleman Gow’s “Rhythm: The Life Of Music” (1915)
“At the outset we have to remind ourselves that rhythm is not a factor essentially musical. Psychologically it is the apotheosis of the act of attention— attention at its greatest tension.” – George Coleman Gow, “Rhythm: The Life of Music,” in The Musical Quarterly, vol. 1, no. 4 (October 1915), pp. 637. Continue reading
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