In addition to writing about forests, my student and I were also working on the theme growing up. This was my little musing, filmed in the reflection of a photograph of myself taken right before I detoured into music.
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The second between improvisation.
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Before I was interrupted with Migraine+Hives I had been working with the theme between, which I think came from piece #136. I never managed to work my research/writing up into a song, so I used that text for a series of improvisations. This is the first.
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This one is something of a merrythought, and definitely a wish I would have made if I'd cooked a roast chicken and won the wish-end of the wishbone.
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From the previous day's gelatin to wishbone, dug out of a hot roast chicken. In my bone-related research I discovered that the wishbone used to be called a "merrythought", which is kind of nice.
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For the next small set of pieces I worked with the theme vista. To help the difficulties I've been having motivating myself to write I decided to implement some rigour to my process. I adopted the pomodoro technique, and chunked my work into 25 minute blocks, both songwriting and all the other tasks I have on my plate at the moment. I have literally been carrying a kitchen timer around the house with me so that I can set it when I get started on something. This has made the last few days fairly manageable, and I have been able to maintain my focus for the short blocks of time.
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The third in my series of spider-themed improvisations. This piece is a little mantra to myself to simply let go of all the music I've made so far, and to not get caught up in trying to music that will equal or better it. Just keep making.
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From Thursday 13th, the starting prompt was lace curtains.
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Not many words today, just a backlog of songs. From Wednesday 12th, the starting prompt was nonsense.
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These are the words from the previous day's random word selection exercise, strung together into nonsense, recorded right before I crashed onto the couch in my pyjamas for the rest of the evening.
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Part III in a mini series, an actual dream. I've been having lots of bizarre ones lately, I think my imagination is on overdrive.
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This piece follows on from the previous day's Whisper mind map, and the word ear lobe that appeared on it. I did a three minute writing exercise using that prompt, and then took the nouns, verbs and adjectives from the result and paired them. Morning stirs and shake off the lamp light were the two pairs that prompted this piece. I tried to set the text to music without much success, so instead of getting frustrated I let myself record it as a spoken word piece.
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Tuesday's piece, with a whisper following on from the hush of a lullaby.
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I delved into my experimental self for this piece, but unfortunately my audio recorder didn't pick up much of the water sounds. I was pretty exhausted yesterday, and so I allocated myself a half hour window in which to get the piece done. I used ink from the previous day as a starting theme, and a mind map led me to cobalt blue. Some internet wandering brought up Renoir's painting The Umbrellas, which was painted using two different shades of blue: the first stages of the painting done using cobalt, and later stages with ultramarine. This idea of an umbrella in two shades of blue inspired the text, and my kitchen provided the props.
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I concluded yesterday's blog post by saying that I would let interest and enjoyment be my guide, and I think that's something that deserves a little exploration. It's not quite as simple as just doing what you are enjoying, especially if you want to develop your skills at something. What is good for you may not necessarily be enjoyable, and it is easy to become bored or to feel like your practice is stagnating if you don't work outside of your comfort zone every now and then.
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This piece is improvised, following on from yesterday's themes of transport and rain. Yesterday it was a car, today a train. I wrote the text first, then freely improvised with it and recorded only one take. While I like spending time crafting and perfecting a piece of music, I also love improvising freely, and there is something particularly interesting about the very first performance of an idea. My composition process involves recording improvisations like this and then listening back to them for ideas to expand upon, but those improvisations rarely make it past a voice memo on my phone. This project gives them a reason to exist as compositions in their own right, and I am excited to develop this part of my practice as the year progresses.
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I have two younger sisters, and we are close in age and in friendship. My middle sister moved to New York last year, and although the internet makes it easy for us to send little messages back and forth throughout our respective days, it's not the same as having her here in Melbourne. I worked with the theme of distance from yesterday's piece, and wrote this for her. Recording it made me a little emotional, because I miss her, and reminds me of the power music has to move and change us, and make us think. Songwriting, for me it seems, is a balancing act between keeping unhelpful emotions out of the process, while allowing helpful emotions to flow freely through the composition and the performance.
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Today was a can't-be-bothered kind of day, thanks to a very early start, awfully muggy weather and playing four sets of music at a wedding fair with the entertainment agency I run. It was still about 30℃ when I got home, and melting into the furniture was about all I wanted to do. I gave in to that impulse for a few hours, but eventually the nagging feeling of not having done today's song got the better of me.
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I won't write too much tonight, instead I'll direct you over to Rehearsal Magazine, who have just published an interview I did with them this week. I will say that today life took over, and I was left with only a small window of time for today's composition. That window didn't coincide with my feeling particularly creative or inspired, so I forced myself through a few 90 second lyric writing exercises and then improvised with results.
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Just a quick post today, before I go and get a decent night's sleep. I kept on with the sea theme, and this piece is a kind of continuation of yesterday's story. Sonically it's structured in three sections: the sound of the waves above water, then the sound in your ears when you plunge under the water, and finally the sound of bubbles as they rush from your mouth.
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