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<Hedewa7@aol.com> put forth: > steve@steve-lawson.co.uk writes: > >- there's > >an element of affectation in there, and some > >silliness, but also the desire in all of us to stand out in some way, which > >nicely brings me onto what SPG said... > > >> >In any event I was looking for something that *I* could get my own > distinct > >> >sound out of, as opposed to attempting to replicate the work of >either > >> >Fripp or Eno. > >> >I threw out or erased more material I'd composed just because > >> >it sounded like someone else's stuff > > >Is it more important to be 'original' or be 'good'? We all love the notion > >that we could be innovators. Some of us (DT being > >a bright shining beacon of innovation in our midst) are, > i consider myself to be 'forward-thinking', but not particularly innovative. I think that one can be quite original and have absolutely no command of their relative instrument. In such a case being "good" (or at least sounding "good") is at best a crap shoot; but on the up side of this (and there is one!) watching someone eke what they want - or what they perceive as good - can be quite entertaining (and I don't mean this in the comedic sense, though I wouldn't rule it out!). I should say though that over the past 25 years of recording my various compositions, I finally learned one important thing once I wasn't so poor that I had to recycle my tapes at least (are you listening?): DON'T THROW OUT *ANYTHING* OF YOURS THAT YOU RECORD OR COMPOSE! Why? In a return to pop-style material several years ago, this musician/composer found himself calling up an old girlfriend from 20 years before, and futilely asking her if she still had that tape I made for her with this "really great song on it". Do I need to tell you she no longer had it? I ended up having to recompose the piece from memory. Strangely enough, it is now intact with the exception of most of the lyrics - but still it would have been far more fun, and far less time-consuming, to just have the @#$% recording that I'd recorded over sometime in 1981. Do I need to repeat it? DON'T THROW OUT *ANYTHING* OF YOURS THAT YOU RECORD OR COMPOSE! > >So is it more important to be original than good? > it's more important to be 'personal', imho. This was the substance of a rampage we had on this list several months ago, I recall. I think it's important to be original - and that's rather crucial unless one's only ambition musically is to play cover songs. At this other end of the spectrum, the more financially-lucrative, popular one, it's more important to be good, isn't it? I find myself completely in the middle on this, I'm afraid, upon introspection - but in essence I prefer to not think about it at all, and instead pursue the "not doing" of being transparent to the music you're doing. In this way one is more honest to oneself, at the very least. Even on a bad day, then, how can one criticize oneself musically? Or, as Frank Zappa put it for all of us, "Shut up and play your guitar!" Stephen Goodman http://www.earthlight.net/Gallery_Front.html - Cartoons & Illustrations http://www.earthlight.net/Studios * The free Loop of the Week! http://www.live365.com/stations/218194 * EarthLight Online / Live!