Posts

Prior Posts

September 5ths

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  9/5/2002 Article in Tribune about 9/11 experiences of journalists (could use as a poem or lyric): “I hear this freight train, look up, this thing coming down, street filled with shoes, people have literally run out of their shoes, I ran into a subway station, ran into a shoe place, asked if I could use the phone, called Dan Rather, he put me live on the air.” Through the AI mill:   9/5/2005 Wynton Marsalis on Nightline talking about the cultural importance of New Orleans on the development of music. We sometimes see it as a strictly American phenomenon, when in fact it is a melange of influences from around the world. It is decidedly American in that it was considered “the sound of democracy—with everyone swinging, drums and bass grooving together."     9/5/2024              Playing versus using music: We don’t “make” AI art or music. We “use” it. When we go to websites to generate it we are not musicians with an instrument; ...

Shafts

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Chord Tones For the Bird Bones

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 AI-generated.    

Expecting the Call (AI Jazz)

A "Mingused" blues, harmonizing a blues scale with extended chords. Amazing how good the AI spins are, even with the free model. It has a hard time sussing the chords, but then learns them.  

Universal Speech Rhythms

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    The rhythmic grouping of eighth-quarter-eighth (or quarter-eighth-eighth or eighth-eighth-quarter) beginning on a downbeat is one of the most common speech rhythms, probably in any language. Displacing them an eighth note in either direction makes the words unintelligible ("ships arrive" becomes "ships A-rrive", "jumbo jet" becomes "jumBO jet"), but there are other words that could be mapped to that rhythm, e.g. "container". Obviously it doesn't matter in instrumental music, but speech rhythms can become rhythmic building blocks. Some words with the 8-4-8 (or 8-8-4) schema: Ships arrive Walk the streets In my youth Got around Thinking that Better than Still alive

Curio No. 103

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  Slippery Slope , based on Dynaxiom 2878. The vibe is Barrett-era Floyd with the characteristic descending chromatic lines. *** How Suno spins it:    

Creative Evolution

I have always worked combinatorially, i.e., each creative act is somehow connected to others, either spontaneously (when I am aware of them) or later when I associate them with existing works. This works the same for my music as well as art projects. I also have always kept lists of ideas, titles, strategies, and so on, which I go back to very often. Electronic notebooks, such as Evernote have made this easier (perhaps too easy), but I used to keep paper journals and sketchbooks. There are two basic ways to add cohesion to creativity: 1) create the work then serialize; 2) create similar pieces in an existing series. This also works in music where you can compose first, then add to a collection (album) or define the framework for the album and fill it in accordingly. I don’t think there’s anything that I do, either through design methodologies, or through improvisation that doesn’t fit with something I’ve done before. I know there are some artists who like to make something they’ve neve...

Base 12 Symmetries in Music

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 From Islamic Design: A Genius For Geometry      

Broken Wing (AI Versions)

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  5/8 Delta Blues     

5/27/2026

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  Buncheong

Be Bach (AI Version)

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Typically I would have transcribed a sax solo and attempt to play it on the bass. In this case I paraphrased a Bach Partita in a Be Bop style and for the bass, but this is a sax version of the head played on the bass.