Carrott Top is to comedy as Brien is to music
Well my fellow rockers have had infinite success in their musical endeavours I've been getting my ass kicked every where I turn. Part of my problem is when I get frustrated and annoyed I end up finding myself working on an idea for another song. It leaves me with countless ideas for songs but no finished products. It made me want to stop working on "Wednesday" and start working on my backhanded love song, but I refocused. I'm determined to not let my horrible attention-lacking issues derail this song.
I'm trying to open the song up, slow it down some. I have a tendancy to raise the tempo to ridiculous levels and I'm working against that. In essence, I tend to rock even when I do not wish to rock, and when rocking is something for which no call has been made. Also the song is choking on minor chords, I need to find some opportunities to brighten it up a bit without letting that get out of hand. On second though maybe I don't want to brighten it up. Maybe leaving it heavy on minor chords is what I want. The minor chords do help with the concept I'm expressing when I say I want to open the song up some, give myself some space in the verses and chorus and allow me to play with the vocals more therein.
I do need to just put it away for the evening. I won't get getting any more done tonight, but overall I need to refocus on paying more attention to the music I listen to and start picking it apart more to help build up ideas and concepts. There are a couple songs I've been listening to on my lunch break that have that open feeling I'm talking about. One exemplar if you care to listen is "The Tourist" off of OK Computer. I'm not looking to rewrite that song so much as I'm looking for that openness that you can feel in the music. Thats what I want to capture.
Well, we'll see. I'm trying to get myself to accept that I'm just slow at this and to be content plodding along and not worrying about how long it takes me, just worrying about doing it the best way I can and liking it. Some days thats easy, other days, like today when I'm playing a chord that I know is a chord but I can't name it because I am horribly ignorant, its harder.
One aspect that I am contiually find frustrating is that my ear is ahead of my brain. I can hear a sound and I can know a sound is right or wrong,what I want or what I don't want, but completely lack the ability to voice it. I know that something is in the wrong key, but I lack the language or the technical skills to say that it is. I can only say "something is not right". Its the differnce between detection and explanation, and its infuriating. Its best exemplified by the Bizzarre Love Triangle situation, in which JJ pointed out to Nate and I that we had it in the wrong key.I always knew it was in the wrong key, but I didn't know how to explain it, it was just "off". I eventually came to accept it as a flaw in my perception, figuring my ear didn't know what it was hearing. Then JJ comes in and puts a word to it, because he actually knows about that which he is speaking.
So I've come to the conclusion that I have a good ear, I just lack any ability whatsoever to explain what I'm hearing or harness that good ear, at least until I get my act together and learn more theory.