Author |
Message |
Stanley Pain
Joined: Sep 02, 2004 Posts: 782 Location: Reading, UK
Audio files: 10
G2 patch files: 35
|
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 12:42 pm Post subject:
when do you know a composition is finished? Subject description: deadlines aside |
|
|
when do you know a composition is finished? (deadlines aside) _________________ there's no I in TEAM, so let's all act as individuals instead |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
blue hell
Site Admin
Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 24079 Location: The Netherlands, Enschede
Audio files: 278
G2 patch files: 320
|
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:55 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
When the previous version was better than the last one the previous one was finished ... that doesn't mean it was good of course _________________ Jan
also .. could someone please turn down the thermostat a bit.
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Low Note
Joined: Jul 20, 2007 Posts: 146 Location: New Jersey
Audio files: 2
|
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:04 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
If I didn't make plans for myself, I'd never accomplish anything.
I normally draw out a roadmap for what I want to do after I figure out whats going into the music. I try to keep myself from re-editing anything out of indecisiveness. That just wastes time.
I've got a handful of things I did a few years ago I want to edit because things came to me after listening to the piece repeatedly for a whilet, but I haven't found the time. |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Acoustic Interloper
Joined: Jul 07, 2007 Posts: 2067 Location: Berks County, PA
Audio files: 89
|
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:58 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
Because I mostly just play, recording only occasionally, and almost never notating, "finished compositions" for me fall into one of two camps:
Pieces where my playing gets stuck in a (sometimes listenable) rut, and I tend to play the piece largely "as is," with some minor variations, almost every time I play it.
Pieces that are more like "generators"' -- themes, fragments, even plain old instrumental licks -- that I string together, play around with, and pretty much never "finish."
I never really decide something's done; it just falls into one of those two patterns. An amateur's perspective. _________________ When the stream is deep
my wild little dog frolics,
when shallow, she drinks. |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
nobody
Joined: Mar 09, 2008 Posts: 1687 Location: Not here
|
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 4:06 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
Yeah, nothing is ever truly "done" for me either.
But for the purpose of producing works of art for the audience, I stop working on it when it just feels right - when what was in my head comes out of my monitors.
Sometimes I'll write something, put it away, and some time later take it out and give it a ginormous, hugantic make-over and it comes out much better.
I find myself constantly re-learning the importance of stepping back from the music, though, and approaching it anew after some time. |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Sam_Zen
Joined: Mar 08, 2008 Posts: 251 Location: NL
|
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:40 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
Right on, audiodef, it's never truly "done". So it's more a choice of publishing some version.
Some stay that way, others not. Maybe after years one decides to increase the playback speed with 1.7 %..
This is an extra aspect electronics have : it's quite easy to change an instrument or phrase, while the score stays the same.
A composition is maybe never finished, as a website is always 'under construction'.
If a score is performed live, there's no finished one either. Every time it will be a bit different, no matter exact logic.
One mark to stop adding anything could be the wondering : - I want more, but am I not repeating an old trick of mine? _________________ 0.618033988 |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
iPassenger
Joined: Jan 27, 2007 Posts: 1067 Location: Sheffield, UK
Audio files: 5
G2 patch files: 78
|
Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 7:26 am Post subject:
|
|
|
One of the following:
1. When I can't work out how to improve it further, even after several listens (on various systems) and days off.
2. When I realise it isn't that good an idea. _________________ iP (Ross)
- http://ipassenger.bandcamp.com
- http://soundcloud.com/ipassenger |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
seraph
Editor
Joined: Jun 21, 2003 Posts: 12398 Location: Firenze, Italy
Audio files: 33
G2 patch files: 2
|
Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 1:46 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
when I get sick of it
and I can grow sick in no time
_________________ homepage - blog - forum - youtube
Quote: | Don't die with your music still in you - Wayne Dyer |
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
iPassenger
Joined: Jan 27, 2007 Posts: 1067 Location: Sheffield, UK
Audio files: 5
G2 patch files: 78
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
seraph
Editor
Joined: Jun 21, 2003 Posts: 12398 Location: Firenze, Italy
Audio files: 33
G2 patch files: 2
|
Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:52 am Post subject:
|
|
|
iPassenger wrote: | Seraph,
that was my number 3. reason but i left it out cos i thought it sounded too negative. |
well...it's simply the truth
_________________ homepage - blog - forum - youtube
Quote: | Don't die with your music still in you - Wayne Dyer |
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Acoustic Interloper
Joined: Jul 07, 2007 Posts: 2067 Location: Berks County, PA
Audio files: 89
|
Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 6:26 am Post subject:
|
|
|
Coming back and revisiting a piece some months after it gets stuck certainly helps. Sometimes it overhauls the piece, or sometimes branches off to start a new, related piece.
I have a piece "Lost Soul" that I wrote on acoustic banjo on Halloween evening on the front porch in 2003. I had been trying to write a depressing piece, and the previous piece had started out melancholy, but when that previous piece stalled, I decided to try the blues for sadness, and instead it wound up with this rocking rhythm & blues piece that I called "Not for the Count" because in that one I was down, but not for the count (as they say in boxing).
Anyway, Lost Soul worked out pretty well, some surprising shifting harmonies in it, and it was pretty much "finished." Then, just this January, I started playing around with Max/MSP, and cobbled up some FX that made the banjo sound like playing bed springs, and at times like it was coming apart. I couldn't come up with a new piece for the sound, so I tried some of my old pieces to see what would fit, and "Lost Soul" was a perfect fit. Not only the harmonies, but now also the timbres, sounded like a lost soul.
It was actually too depressing to play, so I let it sit for a few months. Last night I was in a good mood, so I worked with it some more, deciding that I need to back off on the FX somewhat at places, otherwise it gets too muddy. Now it's a work in progress again.
So, it was nicely finished as an acoustic banjo piece, and now it's not finished as a processed banjo piece. Even for pieces that are "done" or "sick of," one can always get inspiration later to go open it up again. _________________ When the stream is deep
my wild little dog frolics,
when shallow, she drinks. |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Sam_Zen
Joined: Mar 08, 2008 Posts: 251 Location: NL
|
Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 6:05 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
One aspect one never can be sure of : the right playback speed of the score.
Listen to it 2 month later and one could think "hmm, maybe a tiny bit slower..". _________________ 0.618033988 |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Wayne Higgins
Joined: Aug 16, 2007 Posts: 270 Location: Greenville, FL
Audio files: 1
|
Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 10:12 am Post subject:
|
|
|
I look at my music as drawings. When I do a drawing, I take a good look at it. I either throw it away, file it away, or add it to the portfolio. Same with the music. Once I'm done with it, I'm done. Time to move on. There usually isn't anything I want to add to how I felt on 11/28/07 (random example). If the drawing is simple, complicated, stressed, complex, abstract, noisey, abrasive, pleasant, ... so be it. Few occaisions, I find that I want to add to the work. (Wake up at 6am thinking "you should redo that one!") More often, I just work on the next one, do something different. It's later when I decide wether or not to file it away, how to enhance (frame/matte) the work. I try not to labor over anything. I have in the past, often with frustrating and undesireable results. |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
kijjaz
Joined: Sep 20, 2004 Posts: 765 Location: bangkok, thailand
Audio files: 4
|
Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:18 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
for me, it finished when the fun of making is starting to decrease.
but actually.. fun is what i usually want to boost all the time whatever kind of music work i'm doing. ^_^"
hmm.. i kinda get lazy too often, that's all.. zzzz |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
nobody
Joined: Mar 09, 2008 Posts: 1687 Location: Not here
|
Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 6:10 am Post subject:
|
|
|
This doesn't say whether the work is "done", but...
I've found that my musical "first instincts" are usually the best, and that if I do more than expand upon that instinct, such as try to add new ideas, well, it's just not as good. |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Veil
Joined: Mar 24, 2008 Posts: 24 Location: Taunton SW UK
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
anigbrowl
Joined: Jan 21, 2008 Posts: 116 Location: San Francisco, USA
G2 patch files: 5
|
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 12:30 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
When I start putting it on just for the pleasure of hearing it rather than because I want to edit it further. |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Acoustic Interloper
Joined: Jul 07, 2007 Posts: 2067 Location: Berks County, PA
Audio files: 89
|
Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 3:38 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
anigbrowl wrote: | When I start putting it on just for the pleasure of hearing it rather than because I want to edit it further. |
That's a good answer! Me, too. _________________ When the stream is deep
my wild little dog frolics,
when shallow, she drinks. |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Sam_Zen
Joined: Mar 08, 2008 Posts: 251 Location: NL
|
Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 5:07 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
A clever expression indeed. _________________ 0.618033988 |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Acoustic Interloper
Joined: Jul 07, 2007 Posts: 2067 Location: Berks County, PA
Audio files: 89
|
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 11:13 am Post subject:
|
|
|
"How do you know when a composition is started?" is an equally interesting question. Over the last few weeks one of my banjos has started whispering what I think of as an "overlaid harmony" -- two (in this case) disjoint harmonies that flicker back and forth -- mostly caused by a finger picking style I've been developing, where the right hand picks a rhythmic pattern that normally requires harmonic stability in the left (fretting) hand, but the left hand changes back and forth between the two harmonic sequences in tight synchronization with the right hand's picking -- it can be a little tough to coordinate -- and you get this sense of flashing back and forth between two pieces.
Anyway, I have a new seed for a composition that I need to nurture, based on a more intensive use of this picking technique than I have tried before, so the problem now is how to start a full composition without falling into any existing ruts. The answer for me is to work on it slowly, a little at a time, but not so infrequently that I lose it. _________________ When the stream is deep
my wild little dog frolics,
when shallow, she drinks. |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Per
Joined: Jun 09, 2004 Posts: 165 Location: Sweden
Audio files: 7
G2 patch files: 3
|
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 1:10 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
I have spent some time in the old electronica area where there never where talk about "compositions" or "concerts". Instead, it was "realizations", a moment of music that where recorded or played in front of an audience.
And there is something reliving in that word, "realization". We have got thing far with this music and our equipment and our s´kills, let us realise it, and it becomes a piece of music. Next time we do it, the basic things can have changed, and it becames a different piece of music.
It is a good attitude that take away a lot of the mental pressure of composing and preforming.
So. adding new things to a composition is not a question of finished or not, it more of adding more things to the next "realization".
I have used the metod myself for a 20 minute live act with G2´, drum machines and other gear. Each time it expands in time and varitation. I hope it never will be "finished". On the same time, every live act is a "realization", a finished piece of music.
Per |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Sam_Zen
Joined: Mar 08, 2008 Posts: 251 Location: NL
|
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:09 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
Right on. _________________ 0.618033988 |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Wayne Higgins
Joined: Aug 16, 2007 Posts: 270 Location: Greenville, FL
Audio files: 1
|
Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 6:03 am Post subject:
|
|
|
I was going to add that I let a disc sit for a month (more or less) after I have finished it, then listen to it to see if I should add or take away.
Per WELCOME
I really like the fact that someone else uses the term "realiztion" when refering to electronic music.
Please look at my site.
http://www.oenyaw.com
Where is your music? _________________ http://www.virb.com/waynehiggins
http://www.myspace.com/waynehiggins |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Per
Joined: Jun 09, 2004 Posts: 165 Location: Sweden
Audio files: 7
G2 patch files: 3
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
blue hell
Site Admin
Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 24079 Location: The Netherlands, Enschede
Audio files: 278
G2 patch files: 320
|
Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:28 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
Nice track per !
And next time please complain that you have no room enough before you delete ... we can't have stuff like this deleted _________________ Jan
also .. could someone please turn down the thermostat a bit.
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
|