June 1sts

6/1/1997, Sunday

Dream: A tornado turned into a woman in a blue sequined dress.

[Eventually became a piece of music]

6/1/1998

The act of creating and playing music represents the mysteriousness of being human. Once machines can reproduce a mysterious experience, there’s nothing left to call “soul”—or will there be a distinction between human soul and “machine soul”?

 [6/1/2025: Machines (at least at the moment) can’t listen and react in real time. Improvisation is based on this. AI music is a facsimile or simulant of music].

I think what we’ll see in the future are music mixes that are released like software, or revisions are made and re-released. I think we’re in a situation where the computer metaphor will be heavily applied to music. 

It’s not so much what an individual has abilities in, but rather the state by which abilities can develop. 

6/1/2017

The best way to construct melody (in songwriting) is to sing words (either with existing lyrics, or just random words) over some kind of accompaniment (preferably piano), but a guitar or bass can be used. Sometimes just a beat or loop can work, over which you can improvise a melody. I find melodies easier to write from words, because the melody (prosody) is already there.  

Writing melody in through-composed music (classical) is more “architectural”, using motifs, cells, and other elements to build out larger forms. Melody in that context is reliant on how well you can use the limitations. 

[This is essentially what I’m doing with the Songdays: finding the music in the language and using that to create rhythms. I’m actually more interested in the rhythmic aspects, whereas most people are more sensitive to tone and timbre, but rhythm puts you more in the body, and perhaps more in the right hemisphere.]