Happy Friday Music Appreciation!
This week we are continuing down the road to producing a song (using my creative process).
Last week, was PHASE ONE which is gathering ingredients. My analog for anything creative is it’s kind of like cooking. Before you create a dish, you need to gather the necessary ingredients. For something like music - the FIRST ingredient is always inspiration. Music is inherently a derivative art form. Not all music is necessarily derivative, because innovation can occur and ultimately what inspires something might be taken out by the final draft version of it - but within the process - there is always some golden through line of inspiration. Inspiration can come from anywhere.
Sometimes it is life experiences that need to be expressed via music. Other times it is artists doing “their version” of stuff that moves them.
For this song, my inspiration was the vocals/chords of Strange Froot by Tokimonsta, the rhythmic style/groove of DJO, and the R&B meets indie rock of Rachel Chinouriri.
For reference, this is what the process looks like:
Creative Process (for Writing)
Gather IngredientsExperimentation
Composition
Sharing
Reflection
Edit
Release
Last week we did the first step, now we’re onto the second.
Music, as well as any art form, exists to convey some kind of emotion or idea. The best music is the music that moves us. In order to make something *that good* it’s very important to experiment first. It’s a trial and error process where you throw things at a wall and you have to open yourself to the feelings that may arise during that process.
I like to think of the “experimentation” process as looking for the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Before they landed on that GOLDEN, DELICIOUS, PERFECT combo of chocolate and peanut butter, I’m sure they tried a bunch of different combinations that simply did not work.
It’s a call back to the famous Thomas Edison anecdote of 1000 ways to NOT light a light bulb.
As people get better at their craft and they have a better understanding of their own style, that’s when you can make better first guesses. But until that point, you truly don’t know what works. And in the absence of conventional wisdom, you MUST experiment to earn some of that information of whether it worked or not.
I’ll share the songs again (on this article) so that you all may have some kind of reference point and then I’ll insert the *extremely rough* draft/demo I made that I want to work on.
The Songs (Reference / Inspiration)
The DEMO draft
It’s highly repetitive and simple, but please listen to this while singing (in your head or aloud) the lyrics to Strange Froot.
Next WEEK
We’re going to be looking at COMPOSITION.
In total honesty, I am unsure if I’ll be able to meet up with my singer in time in order to actually compose a real draft . . . so it MIGHT be just a more fleshed out version of this track. Either way, I’ll be talking about the process in regards toward the “song.”
If anyone has any questions about this section or the previous one, please let me know! I will be more than happy to talk about some of the intention with each section and the process going forward.
BONUS
I recorded a version where I *attempt* singing at the lyrics, but I am far too shy to post as I am a bad singer. If you’d like to hear that one, please lmk and I’ll send it over to you directly.