Ways of Working

Vellum Prints: Reality Frames

My composition techniques are derived more from general creative strategies, or borrowed from other domains: 

• Frameworks/Concepts. This is my favorite way of being productive. Typically when I sit down to create, my intention is to work on something in progress, but I keep an ear open for little “happy accidents” and record them right away. I have hundreds of these little snippets. Eventually I go back and put them into the existing frameworks or concepts.
• Composition Strategies. I have been keeping a running list of Strategies since the early 90s, some of which I made into decks of playing cards. I made some other “virtual” decks that I use for the concepts. I have subsets just for jazz, that only use flat keys for example, and other attributes idiomatic of jazz. Feel free to use them and/or contribute to
• Cycles and Symmetries. What I call “cycles” are repeating symmetries in the harmony, rhythm or melody to create an armature from which to compose and/or improvise. Harmonic cycles include minor chords a major third apart, or dominant seventh chords cycling around the circle of fifths or fourths, or rhythmic cycles containing the harmonic cycles, such as a repeating compound meter on dominant 7th chords a minor third apart. Melodic cycles, such as isomeolody (the same melody) mapped across a rhythm. Music seems to “break” evenly in 2s, 3s, 4s and 6s (all divisors of 12), so you can have lots of fun with this.
• Titles. I used to work from titles, now I just use working titles, then re-title things based on the larger frameworks. When you get title ideas, add them to a running list, and you can draw from it when you need a title.
• Working Visually. If you have the framework or concept, start making mock-ups for the album art. This will inform what the music “looks” like.
• Keeping Notes. I keep copious notes on every piece I work on, which makes it easy to restart something that’s been backburnered. I recommend Evernote for this but there are other note-keeping apps.
• Serialization/Remix. Very often after I finish a mix, I’ll start re-combining individual tracks and save them as new pieces. Sometimes they are completely unique, bearing no resemblance to the “parent” work.
• Dummy Lyrics. These are great because it pulls the rhythm out of the words and into the music. Then go back and fill-in or replace with a more meaningful lyric.
• Alternate Tunings. I like to experiment with different tunings on guitar, and bass as well. It remaps the fingerboard so that you can discover new chords and melodies that you wouldn’t find in standard tunings.

3/2017