Continuing our series of tips for writing quickly.
If decisions slow you down, try taking yourself out of the decision process. Write down your list of options and roll a die or flip a coin to choose among them.
If you think you need to manage every detail and carefully consider every decision, you might be surprised at how well things work out if you loosen your control of the process and let random chance be your collaborator.
Showing posts with label random. Show all posts
Showing posts with label random. Show all posts
Monday, February 13, 2012
Monday, October 24, 2011
Melody tip: Ignore the chords
A pentatonic melody is one that uses the five-note pentatonic scale. In major, the pentatonic scale includes scale notes 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. In C major, those notes are C, D, E, G, A. Notice that there's no F or B in a C pentatonic melody.
Pentatonic minor includes notes 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7. In A minor, those notes are A, C, D, E, G. Aren't those the same notes as C major pentatonic? Indeed they are; the difference lies in whether C or A serves as the tonic (the keynote).
One interesting thing about the pentatonic scale is that it doesn't include any half-step intervals. Half-step intervals are central to musical expressions of personal emotion. Without them, pentatonic melodies have a somewhat detached, universal feel. They're great for a big crowd of people singing together.
And the second interesting thing about the pentatonic scale is that, with one narrow exception, you can use whatever chords you want and it doesn't sound wrong. You can use any of your key's six major and minor chords in combination with any series of notes from the pentatonic scale.
The one exception is that the melody can't sit on the 1 note while playing a [three]m or [five] chord. In C major, you can't stay on the C note in the melody while playing an Em or G chord. The C clashes uncomfortably with the B in those chords. But as long as your melody keeps moving around, you won't run into that problem.
Morrissey, lead singer of The Smiths, and many others in the post-new wave/modern rock world use this trick to craft melodies that show an utter disregard for the accompanying chord line. Perhaps it expresses a personal stubbornness, a defiance of authority and convention. But you can't argue with the musical results, which are often quite powerful.
Give this a try: write a pentatonic melody, and then use some random technique for picking chords from the key's six chords. Then try a different random set of chords. You'll see that the melody fits in with both different chord lines.
Pentatonic minor includes notes 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7. In A minor, those notes are A, C, D, E, G. Aren't those the same notes as C major pentatonic? Indeed they are; the difference lies in whether C or A serves as the tonic (the keynote).
One interesting thing about the pentatonic scale is that it doesn't include any half-step intervals. Half-step intervals are central to musical expressions of personal emotion. Without them, pentatonic melodies have a somewhat detached, universal feel. They're great for a big crowd of people singing together.
And the second interesting thing about the pentatonic scale is that, with one narrow exception, you can use whatever chords you want and it doesn't sound wrong. You can use any of your key's six major and minor chords in combination with any series of notes from the pentatonic scale.
The one exception is that the melody can't sit on the 1 note while playing a [three]m or [five] chord. In C major, you can't stay on the C note in the melody while playing an Em or G chord. The C clashes uncomfortably with the B in those chords. But as long as your melody keeps moving around, you won't run into that problem.
Morrissey, lead singer of The Smiths, and many others in the post-new wave/modern rock world use this trick to craft melodies that show an utter disregard for the accompanying chord line. Perhaps it expresses a personal stubbornness, a defiance of authority and convention. But you can't argue with the musical results, which are often quite powerful.
Give this a try: write a pentatonic melody, and then use some random technique for picking chords from the key's six chords. Then try a different random set of chords. You'll see that the melody fits in with both different chord lines.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Seed your creativity
In computer programming, a seed is a bit of data that you throw into a quasi-random process. If the process is truly random, it shouldn't really matter what your inputs are, but using a new seed is an extra way of making sure that the output you get from the process is different from the output you got the last time.
In the same spirit, I suggest using a seed when you're are brainstorming (or idea grabbing) for new song ideas. The seed can be:
Try any of these random tools, or invent your own:
I also have several decks of cards with words and ideas on them. Some are intended as creativity tools, like the Once Upon a Time storytelling cards. Some of my decks are leftover from word-oriented board games, dream interpretation games, and even song lyrics-oriented games. And some were meant as oracles (fortune-telling tools), but also happen to serve as random content tools. If you happen to come a similar deck of cards at a flea market or garage sale, I recommend buying it and adding it to your collection of creativity tools. It's fun to shuffle the cards and deal out a few seeds of song ideas.
Note: I apologize that my own Songwriting Assignment Generator is offline. I think it's just that my web host changed the PHP configuration, but I haven't had time to troubleshoot it.
My suggestion for how to get the most out of your brainstorming:
In the same spirit, I suggest using a seed when you're are brainstorming (or idea grabbing) for new song ideas. The seed can be:
- something that's on your mind, that you know you'd like to write about
- something that's literally right in front of you, a random object in your environment
- a word or phrase from any available random generator
Try any of these random tools, or invent your own:
- The Random Word Generator at watchout4snakes.com.
- The Random Logline (story idea) Generator at lifeformz.com.
- LyriCloud at fawm.org.
- Cams Song Idea Generator at translunarwagontrain.com.
- The Random Word Generator at creativitygames.net.
- Flip through a dictionary or thesaurus without looking, and put your finger on a random word.
- Jump to a random Wikipedia article.
- Read a random page of quotations.
- Find inspiration in this constantly-changing page of recent pictures at Flickr.
I also have several decks of cards with words and ideas on them. Some are intended as creativity tools, like the Once Upon a Time storytelling cards. Some of my decks are leftover from word-oriented board games, dream interpretation games, and even song lyrics-oriented games. And some were meant as oracles (fortune-telling tools), but also happen to serve as random content tools. If you happen to come a similar deck of cards at a flea market or garage sale, I recommend buying it and adding it to your collection of creativity tools. It's fun to shuffle the cards and deal out a few seeds of song ideas.
Note: I apologize that my own Songwriting Assignment Generator is offline. I think it's just that my web host changed the PHP configuration, but I haven't had time to troubleshoot it.
My suggestion for how to get the most out of your brainstorming:
- Pick a seed at random from any of these sources
- Start a timer or stopwatch for a short period of time (3 minutes at most), and race to write down as many possible song ideas as you can, based on the seed idea
- When the time is up, pick a different random seed and start the timer again.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
5♠ Garbage in, beauty out
5♠ Five of Spades in The Rock Songwriter’s Deck: 52 Ways to Write a Song
The Five of Spades believes you can make a beautiful song out of any set of materials, even garbage. You can take your inspiration from the visual artists who create unique sculptures out of things that they find in the trash.
You don't have to actually go dumpster diving, but find some way to gather a collection of random or happenstance element, just a pile of unrelated bits. (One quick, simple technique is to flip through books, drop your finger on a page, and take whatever phrase or sentence you happen to hit. Another technique is to do Google searches for a group of four or five randomly-chosen words, and use whatever happens to be in the middle of the page on the website that you find through your search.)
Once you've gathered your "pile of junk," start working with the pieces. Play with them, rearrange them, sort them, shuffle them. Eventually you will find them starting to fall into meaningful and interesting patterns. Keep working with your materials until you've molded them into a coherent song.
Believe it or not, this is the final card in The Rock Songwriter's Deck! I hope these exercises have helped you shake up your songwriting process and create some interesting new songs. You can review the entire deck by clicking the link for the "deck" tag on this blog.
The Five of Spades believes you can make a beautiful song out of any set of materials, even garbage. You can take your inspiration from the visual artists who create unique sculptures out of things that they find in the trash.
You don't have to actually go dumpster diving, but find some way to gather a collection of random or happenstance element, just a pile of unrelated bits. (One quick, simple technique is to flip through books, drop your finger on a page, and take whatever phrase or sentence you happen to hit. Another technique is to do Google searches for a group of four or five randomly-chosen words, and use whatever happens to be in the middle of the page on the website that you find through your search.)
Once you've gathered your "pile of junk," start working with the pieces. Play with them, rearrange them, sort them, shuffle them. Eventually you will find them starting to fall into meaningful and interesting patterns. Keep working with your materials until you've molded them into a coherent song.
Believe it or not, this is the final card in The Rock Songwriter's Deck! I hope these exercises have helped you shake up your songwriting process and create some interesting new songs. You can review the entire deck by clicking the link for the "deck" tag on this blog.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sobering Truth: Computers will write songs by the billions
As far as I know, no one has built a computer program that writes ordinary rock songs from scratch, but it's bound to come. There are no technical barriers; and eventually someone will be willing to spend a few months writing it. Consider these examples of computer-generated material:
When computers are writing songs, will that make songwriters obsolete? Not at all! But it will make it even clearer than the value of your songwriting doesn't come just from creating stuff. It comes from what you have to say. Art is different from manufacturing; it's about expressing something.
This means, more than ever, you'll want to find the value in who you are. Think about what's unique about yourself. Learn to love your imperfections -- those are now assets!
Don't try to write perfect songs; we can let the computers have that niche. Aim to write your songs.
- My Songwriting Assignment Generator combines randomly selected words and phrases in a limited set of formulas to create a nearly infinite set of songwriting suggestions.
- Wolfram Tones generates actual musical compositions in real time. The resulting music doesn't quite sound like the music we're familiar with, but it doesn't sound like it's from another planet either.
When computers are writing songs, will that make songwriters obsolete? Not at all! But it will make it even clearer than the value of your songwriting doesn't come just from creating stuff. It comes from what you have to say. Art is different from manufacturing; it's about expressing something.
This means, more than ever, you'll want to find the value in who you are. Think about what's unique about yourself. Learn to love your imperfections -- those are now assets!
Don't try to write perfect songs; we can let the computers have that niche. Aim to write your songs.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
10♠ Roll the dice
10♠ Ten of Spades in The Rock Songwriter’s Deck: 52 Ways to Write a Song
Write by dice. For every artistic choice, list six possible options, and let a random roll of a die decide which option you choose.
Dice are the embodiment of randomness, and randomness is a great tool for creativity. Random choices create artistic challenges that are more interesting and rewarding than any that you could purposefully invent for yourself.
It's not that randomness per se is good. Randomness by itself is just noise. Randomly-generated computer music, for example, is not very interesting.
The value of randomness comes from its interaction with your artistic process. Your creative mind can't help but organize things into meaningful structures, even when some of your input is random. So if you work with random materials, you can bet that the song as a whole will make artistic sense by the time you're finished, whether your even trying.
Using random elements is a good way to interrupt your creative habits so that your artistry can find interesting, surprising new shapes.
A single 6-sided die is all you really need for this exercise, but you can have a lot more fun if you get yourself a whole set of dice with different numbers of sides. I have a beautiful set of dice designed for use with role-playing games. In addition to the standard 6-sided die, my set includes 4-, 8-, 10-, 12-, 20-, 30- and 100-sided dice. You can buy your own set at any well-stocked game store or comic book shop.
With more dice, you're better equipped for more kinds of random choices. For example, since there are 12 different keys, you can use a 12-sided die to decide what key to write in.
I recommend getting a set of dice for your songwriting toolbox. You say you don't have a songwriting toolbox? Well then — it's time to get started! Just pick a nice-looking small box and start to collect fun and inspiring tools (or toys) that you can use during your songwriting sessions. Then get yourself some dice, and let them help you write a song.
Write by dice. For every artistic choice, list six possible options, and let a random roll of a die decide which option you choose.
Dice are the embodiment of randomness, and randomness is a great tool for creativity. Random choices create artistic challenges that are more interesting and rewarding than any that you could purposefully invent for yourself.
It's not that randomness per se is good. Randomness by itself is just noise. Randomly-generated computer music, for example, is not very interesting.
The value of randomness comes from its interaction with your artistic process. Your creative mind can't help but organize things into meaningful structures, even when some of your input is random. So if you work with random materials, you can bet that the song as a whole will make artistic sense by the time you're finished, whether your even trying.
Using random elements is a good way to interrupt your creative habits so that your artistry can find interesting, surprising new shapes.
A single 6-sided die is all you really need for this exercise, but you can have a lot more fun if you get yourself a whole set of dice with different numbers of sides. I have a beautiful set of dice designed for use with role-playing games. In addition to the standard 6-sided die, my set includes 4-, 8-, 10-, 12-, 20-, 30- and 100-sided dice. You can buy your own set at any well-stocked game store or comic book shop.
With more dice, you're better equipped for more kinds of random choices. For example, since there are 12 different keys, you can use a 12-sided die to decide what key to write in.
I recommend getting a set of dice for your songwriting toolbox. You say you don't have a songwriting toolbox? Well then — it's time to get started! Just pick a nice-looking small box and start to collect fun and inspiring tools (or toys) that you can use during your songwriting sessions. Then get yourself some dice, and let them help you write a song.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Create something unexpected!
I hope you'll create something unexpected. Not formulaic — although you might use formulas along the way. Not predictable — although it might seem obvious and inevitable after the fact. And not based on what you think your audience wants — although there's nothing wrong with seeking out audience feedback and taking it to heart.
Something unexpected. But I'm not asking you to surprise or shock people. Think of the artists who strive with all their might to surprise and shock. They're as boring as anyone. Am I right? After the first or second roadside explosion, it's obvious what they're trying to do. Even when they succeed in catching you off guard, it only cuts your flesh; it doesn't stir your soul. So don't make white bread stuffed with the occasional jalapeno. That's not inventive cooking; it's just culinary abuse.
And let me be clear, I'm not asking you to do things randomly. You might happen to know that I'm fond of using random techniques, but randomness is never the point of any creation. Randomness is mathematically the same as noise, and noise is exactly as meaningful as silence. Randomness is a means to an end, a quick way to take dimensions out of play, to push attention to other dimensions that carry the real message.
I hope you will create something that can't be expected, something so freshly invented that no one ever had a chance to imagine it before. Something that makes people say "Wow! Where did that come from?" And you might have to honestly answer, if pressed, "Don't ask me. I'm just the artist."
Be willing to create something that might not quite make sense, something that you might not be able to fully explain or defend, something that might be misunderstood or even ridiculed. Go out on a limb and trust your aesthetic senses when they tell you it's right.
And you get the "Unexpected" gold medal if you create something so one-of-a-kind that you can't repeat the feat even if someone is willing to pay you good money.
This is what happens when you find a perfect and powerful expression of who you are in one completely transparent moment. Paradoxically, this ultimate creative moment permanently changes you, heals you, transforms you. Remember Heisenberg's principle: he showed that you fundamentally can't observe certain things without changing them. It's as though your act of asking who won the ball game changes the score and possibly changes the outcome of the game. It doesn't seem to make sense, but that's the way it works. You can't just be a spectator; you are inescapably in the game.
Having created from the depths of your soul, you are already a different person from the one who performed that daring creative act. You can't create again; you can only create anew.
So create something unexpected. Something that falls to pieces when we try in vain to analyze it, that inexplicably changes form when we try to photocopy it. Create something that fundamentally can't be reduced to simple prime factors, because its recipe includes that unique irrational number that is you.
Something unexpected. But I'm not asking you to surprise or shock people. Think of the artists who strive with all their might to surprise and shock. They're as boring as anyone. Am I right? After the first or second roadside explosion, it's obvious what they're trying to do. Even when they succeed in catching you off guard, it only cuts your flesh; it doesn't stir your soul. So don't make white bread stuffed with the occasional jalapeno. That's not inventive cooking; it's just culinary abuse.
And let me be clear, I'm not asking you to do things randomly. You might happen to know that I'm fond of using random techniques, but randomness is never the point of any creation. Randomness is mathematically the same as noise, and noise is exactly as meaningful as silence. Randomness is a means to an end, a quick way to take dimensions out of play, to push attention to other dimensions that carry the real message.
I hope you will create something that can't be expected, something so freshly invented that no one ever had a chance to imagine it before. Something that makes people say "Wow! Where did that come from?" And you might have to honestly answer, if pressed, "Don't ask me. I'm just the artist."
Be willing to create something that might not quite make sense, something that you might not be able to fully explain or defend, something that might be misunderstood or even ridiculed. Go out on a limb and trust your aesthetic senses when they tell you it's right.
And you get the "Unexpected" gold medal if you create something so one-of-a-kind that you can't repeat the feat even if someone is willing to pay you good money.
This is what happens when you find a perfect and powerful expression of who you are in one completely transparent moment. Paradoxically, this ultimate creative moment permanently changes you, heals you, transforms you. Remember Heisenberg's principle: he showed that you fundamentally can't observe certain things without changing them. It's as though your act of asking who won the ball game changes the score and possibly changes the outcome of the game. It doesn't seem to make sense, but that's the way it works. You can't just be a spectator; you are inescapably in the game.
Having created from the depths of your soul, you are already a different person from the one who performed that daring creative act. You can't create again; you can only create anew.
So create something unexpected. Something that falls to pieces when we try in vain to analyze it, that inexplicably changes form when we try to photocopy it. Create something that fundamentally can't be reduced to simple prime factors, because its recipe includes that unique irrational number that is you.
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