Category Archives: thought - Page 14

sitting

Posted by on March 23, 2010 No comments

pipes
Most nights when I’m in the studio I have the laptop open and everything gets recorded. I’ve been pretty successful with that approach for some time now and it’s a great way to capture things that I don’t necessarily want to take the time to write down. It also creates a lot of scrap files that I can play with later. It’s a great habit and maybe the only one that I would wholeheartedly recommend to any musician or composer. Just record it all. The flubs and everything. It works.

But sometimes I’m not in that head space. Last night was one of those. Instead, I sat on the floor of my room with a guitar and noodled. The room was lit by a nifty little nightlight. I learned years ago that practicing in the dark is good for the hands and ears. It’s still true today.

I picked and strummed for just under an hour. Long enough to get my fingers moving but not long enough to engage anything serious. Like meditation, I left the room feeling lighter and more focused. When I record tonight I’m sure the work will be better for it.

focus

Posted by on March 22, 2010 No comments

There is something very therapeutic in working on a very specific and detailed task for a period of time. My example is any kind of woodworking that involves carving or a hand plane. I spent some time this weekend working on my new guitar. I made a mistake in the second step of the entire instrument building process and it has taken about three weeks to unscrew it. In any case, I got back to some forward motion on Sunday and noticed how good it felt to sit on the floor of my studio and carve while my son made crazy noises with my synthesizers.

The immediacy of a very sharp blade under pressure in close proximity to one’s flesh conjures a different state of mind. Thoughts wander less and I wonder if extreme focus like this doesn’t actually give us more rest than it burns. Of course since I’m not getting paid to do it, it’s recreation instead of “work” so it must be restful! Right. Anyway, the nuanced tasks are the ones I hate and love the most. And it’s in the middle of them that I feel most like the fairy tale definition of a craftsman. Whether it’s removing small amounts of material from a guitar or practicing a phrase until it flows, the details make it fun.

I’m thinking about details more and more as I get ready to start the next big project. There are a few ideas that are very nuanced that I might finally take the time to explore. With two weeks left in the first quarter of the year and my major quarterly goal taken care of (Thought Music) I feel like I can take some time to really think about what’s next. And that feels great!

something cool

Posted by on March 19, 2010 No comments

So yesterday as I was pimping my new collection I heard about a really cool new project from some friends of mine. They’re using Kickstarter to get funding for a project. I’m intrigued by Kickstarter in that I’ve seen it work for a novel in progress by my buddy Johnny. Anyway, this Kickstarter thing is pretty cool but what’s cooler is that it provides a framework for people to do things like this:

The new face of Canadian Science Fiction!

You have to check out their video and premise. You can hit their Kickstarter page and follow them on Twitter.

I’m not going to lie. I love science fiction and I have a bit of a crush on Canada. Growing up in Ohio and having lived in Minnesota means spending some time with our neighbors to the north and their quirks. But that’s not what I’m talking about here. What I’m talking about is the chance to help a project with a lot of promise get off the ground. I’ve known two of these folks for a long, long time and even collaborated with Duff on a project or two. He provides lyrics for Jason and me on a semi-regular basis and we turn them into tunes. These are good writers with a lot of drive. I’d be quite excited if I could get a the couple of people who read this blog to click on over and at least check out the project. It’s good stuff! Even if you can’t toss ’em a couple of bones you can always retweet their stuff or pass on a link, right?

It’s nice to know people who are taking risks and, better yet, putting some muscle behind their passion. Thus endeth the promotion.

By the by, is there some new law that says that every time I talk about something cool on my blog I have to say that I’m not getting paid for it? Screw that! People know better than to think I get paid for anything on this site.

discovery through ignorance

Posted by on March 15, 2010 No comments

On “Ask This Old House” there is a semi-regular segment where one of the hosts brings in an odd looking tool and has the others guess what it is. The first is always the joke option. The second is something closer to useful. When the intended use is revealed it’s usually pretty cool but the other ideas, including the ones we armchair contractors come up with, were pretty neat too. When the question isn’t “how do I use this?” and is restated as “how might I use this?” everything changes. It gets interesting.

When digital audio first became available to me I had a great time opening up an editor and beating up sounds. Playing them backwards. Speeding them up. Slowing them down well below their sample rate. Running a reverb and removing the source (dry) component from the output. In all of these operations there were unpredictable outcomes. While one might guess that forcing the program to stretch a sample out would distort it, the way in which it was finally broken and sounded was up to the combination of the signal itself and other factors that weren’t easy to chart – especially for me at that time. In each session I found something new.

As my understanding increased and I had a chance to write some software of my own, I noticed that I was less and less excited. I knew how things were “supposed” to be used and as a result I started only using them in that way. But every now and then, something happens that illuminates that path of blissfully ignorant discovery again.

Over the weekend I used my iPhone to capture a video of my son playing in the water at the beach. It was just over a minute long. I tossed it into iMovie and put a song I just finished over top of it. The song was about 3:30. So I told iMovie to make the video as long as the audio. Then I told it to stabilize the picture. I had no idea what that would do. It turns out that it analyzes the video and drops out frames where the camera jerks around in an effort to make things appear smoother. With the video already slowed, these dropped frames stylized the movie in a beautiful way. Having clicked my way around an application I’ve used maybe five times, I sat back and watched my work in action. The way that the picture lined up with the music was wonderful. The simple actions and the tension of the music seemed to blend and almost look as though it had been choreographed.

The point? Had I really wanted to stabilize the video, I’m sure I would have felt that it didn’t quite do the job. I might have reshot it entirely. I might have edited it in some way. I certainly would have redone the music to match better with the action. But because none of it was intended and I wasn’t predicting an output, I got something that was aesthetically pleasing.

Ignorance is usually a bad or dangerous thing. Yet being able to access that part of the mind that is a novice filled with curiosity and the willingness to play is essential. I’m anxious to beat up some sounds. To plan a little less. To play a lot more.

reading

Posted by on March 8, 2010 No comments

We gave up cable years ago. We tallied it up and realized that the only shows we watched were on the weekend, on PBS, and came in nicely with rabbit ears. The exception was BSG but that was available on iTunes and was all good. When we removed TV, there was more time for other stuff. That other stuff led to productivity and more enjoyment. But perhaps strangely, it led to less reading for me. Which is odd.

The nook has cured this. In a big way.

I notice when I’m not reading something. I’m not as rested and I get edgy. My mind needs input of all kinds and books are as necessary as sunshine. Though I’m a big non-fiction reader, I’ve been putting in a lot of time with literary fiction lately. Well, I would say that it’s a 4:1 ratio of memoir/biography/manifesto/non-fiction to fiction anyway. The difference is clear.

Reading has an effect on the lens. Ideas that weren’t there before twist the light and change the angles. Things that were certain, or unexamined, take on new meaning. Reading leads to illumination. Illumination that guides the way we live.

I don’t go a day without reading something. Along those lines I’d wager that perhaps the eReader is the first piece of technology in a long, long while that has changed the life I live for the better. Being able to carry all of the books I’m reading with me and having them in a form that enables me to read as much as I like within the lifestyle I lead is brilliant. The increased reading is showing up in my music and creative work. It’s inspiring. What I would have given for this piece of tech in college!

Speaking of improvements in creative output, I think that an EP will be out in short order. Things took a seriously sharp turn and I’m not making what I thought I was making, but that’s OK. Snippets and sketches soon!