February 16ths

2/16/1998

A statement that sounds good, but needs to be proven: “As long as the rhythmic structure supports it, music can be built in many layers, but only to the point where the music disintegrates, and the many parts have nothing in common.” (A good example of complexity is African music where each player and rhythm dovetails with every other player.)  

Excerpt Library (Music I):  

"Discuss the 'rhythmic mesh' of African music"

Excerpt Library (Art Philosophy and Aesthetics): 

"Discuss the effect density has on the coherence of an artwork"

2/16/2004

Idea: rearrange cover songs and turn choruses into versus, or vice versa, or otherwise rearrange sections. 

[2/16/2025: AI-generated music does this automatically and is either annoying or really interesting].

2/16/2021

Typically, what happens when pieces start bottom-up is that I never use the bass part that I originally conceived. Once you start tracking a song and layering other instruments in the presence of lyrics, everything supports the vocal. In my opinion, the best way to write a pop song is singing against a drum part or a groove and then adding the other parts. This way, the syllabic structure of the lyrics is perfectly married to the other parts. Good singers can finesse the prosody in the lyrics so they can use more lyrics. I tend to be a plain-song singer with one note per syllable–probably the result of my focus on the bass. But obviously, there are other players that finesse it in different ways: Geddy Lee has his own way of finessing Neil Peart’s lyrics. I prefer economy, and I’m not too concerned about the lyrics meaning something specific. I don't have a story to tell all the time. I’m sort of like Todd Rundgren, who is primarily an instrumental songwriter and adds lyrics later. The words are more of a percussion instrument in some ways, based on the consonant and vowel structure. It’s a way to fill the space of the lyric with a sound as a placeholder, as opposed to trying to write something that's more prose-like–which is not my style. I have written songs based on the lyrics of others, or existing poetry, and I enjoy that because there’s a different music in it, just based on the rhythms in the words. I’ve always been more of an instrumental player anyway, coming from jazz, so it’s not where my focus naturally is, although I have written lots of lyrics. I don’t use them because I’m not a singer. I’m essentially one side of the songwriting duo of the past.

[2/16/2026: AI-generated music has become my way of getting vocal demos for my lyric ideas–by way of music I would not write or produce myself, and has allowed me to be more active as a lyricist–which I like]. 

2/16/2024

I was experimenting with some of my bass tunings, which I hadn’t done in a while. Typically, what happens is that it becomes immediately innovative. It’s very strange, and it doesn’t fit into traditional harmony, although I’ve caught myself trying to do that. After I’ve captured an idea I bring it to the piano and I have to figure out what the harmony is, and it doesn’t fit into traditional harmony at all, so it sounds pretty strange. If you want to innovate in music, alternate tunings are the way to go.