This is the first time I haven't actually recorded something new.  Instead I decided to see what would happen if I reversed my reverse-talking video.  Then I layered the non-reverse video over the top and did some video editing as my creativity for the day.  So although I didn't record anything new I still created a new piece of art.

I was quite busy with a show last week, so stretched for ideas I decided to write the text of the previous day's song out backwards and use that for a little improvisation.  Hence Scuffle Reverse.

From scuff to scuffle, to looking out my window and noticing the leaves blowing down the street.

My theme from the previous song was swell.  I did some word fishing from the book I'm reading at the moment (The Master and Margarita in case you're interested), picking the first word on random pages starting with each letter of the word swell.  I did this a couple of times and then mixed up the results, and the phrase little white embroidered eyebrows was the one that resonated.  I turned that line into this song about a childhood doll.

A proper update on this project is well overdue.  I think I have quite seriously contemplated giving up every day for the past couple of weeks.  I've been trying to put my finger on what the real issue is, and it seems to be a number of things compounding.  The most perplexing problem seems to be a loss of confidence in myself.  I have managed to make over 100 pieces of music in as many days, and many of them I'm really proud of, yet I have lost faith in my ability to continue.  What if I've exhausted all I had in me?  What if I've just proved my mediocrity 100 times over?  What if I just repeat the same ideas for the next 100 and become a broken record?  These fears are ridiculous, but I'm finding it hard to switch them off.

Letting go, I can create anything.  Some notes generated from the word SPIDER, and an imagined soundscape of a spider working away.

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.

The second in my series of spider-themed improvisations.  I have been working on a series of performance pieces for this opera, which is debuting on Thursday, so most of my music and lyrical creative energy over the past week has gone into that project.  I have been indulging my cinematographic creativity as part of this project instead.

A spider mind map, and some writing exercises, which I divided up to form a trio of improvisations.  This is the first.

This one came out easily, unlike most of my recent attempts.  My starting prompt was venetian blinds.

I reached 100, though only just.  This was some rejected text from number 99, what I lacked in creative songwriting energy I made up for in creative visuals.

Back at home, Monday.  Following on from the shell-on-the-windowsill theme of the previous day with trinket on a shelf.

A second song written and recorded while camping, my starting prompt was brittle.

A continuation on the hailstones theme, written and recorded while camping in Marlo, which is a ridiculously gorgeous part of Victoria.  I'm blaming the distraction of bird calls for my terrible attempt at bossa nova guitar. This one needs a little more practice.

Hailstones was my starting prompt, but this was just a small snippet of text from some writing exercises that went on to inform the next day's song.

From Thursday 13th, the starting prompt was lace curtains.

Not many words today, just a backlog of songs.  From Wednesday 12th, the starting prompt was nonsense.

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.

I started with the word draught from the previous piece, and then opened the book The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (highly recommended by the way) to random pages and chose the first word on the pages starting with each letter of draught.  The words led me here, and I let myself just hit random keys on the piano for part of the accompaniment as I'd run out of energy to nut out something more functional.

My starting prompt doorway led me to this ghost story, which formed the basis of my writing exercises.  I eventually gave up trying to turn my scribblings into some kind of traditional song and just had fun with my effects pedals instead.