try everything

[oblioblioblio]

It's not something that gets mentioned that often, but for me it's at the centre of all creative work. For me 99% of creative work is not about inspiration or destiny or being a genius artist or whatever. It's just about fucking around and trying every possible combination. Every note, every combination, every setting, every accident. In all those moments of trying things out, you find out what works and what doesn't and you select the ones that sound best to your ear. The more you do this the more you build an understanding and a repertoire of skills and sound. No glamour, no mystery. Just simple fun work.

[thasim1]

ive heard 'expert' defined as one who has made every possible mistake and learned a valuable lesson each time. i kind of like your idea of possibilities and exhausting all permutations better however. to me its more productive to think of mistakes as opportunities rather than something to be avoided (:

so yeah on the whole i would agree. fck around and try everything! even if the session gets you no where, perhaps it will at least give you some idea of what you don't like and want to avoid in the future

[thasim1]

i would also agree that 'genius', 'talent', 'gifted' and so on are quite misleading when it comes to describing skillful musicians. even if you have a natural flare for production, i think it all comes down to how willing you are to work - to a large extent this means how willing you are to spend hours and hours experimenting. word.

[mr lee]

I agree with tweaking and turning knobs, and trying multiple combinations. The only thing I'd add is to RECORD IT. There are so many times where jam sessions have really great moments and get lost due to not being recorded. You may not have to record every track at all times, but if you're tweaking a lead or jamming different chords, it's always good to capture those moments.

[steevio]

yes, in total agreement.

and yes record absolutely everything !!!!

[Ingemar]

RECORD

this could almost go in the "electronic soul departement", but you know that feeling of "but I do exactly what I did before, only I am recording it now, why doesn't it sound as good this time?" - THAT feeling must be connected to spirits in the room and what not.

[AK]

Yes, hit the red button. That's rule number one. Amongst the sh!t you just recorded, there's often awesome moments that will never be captured again.

Thinking outside the box is always a good thing, I'm not the best at that but even musically, it can develop interesting results. You can for example, play an interesting chord on a synth and then sample it off, then load the sample and apply an envelope and play it chromatically. You might find 3 root positions or something, say C/Ab/G where it sounds good but the notes that make up the chord don't fit diatonically in any scale. So in order to harmonize a bass with it, you seek out root notes and 8ve's and maybe a 5fth here and there.

I'm a little drunk tonight but I guess me little input to this 'try everything' thread was to emphasize the fact that any musical passage can be changed at any given moment. So often I hear music in say a minor mode and the artist comes across as 'musically scared' to use anything outside of that set of diatonic notes.

That's my drunken rant for the 'try everything' thread lol

[AK]

Thanks for all the kind words from before by the way. I can't remember the thread but it was very touching. I love you guys.