Strategies to Exit Composing and Looping Ruts was, Death to homophonic harmonies!

[Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com>]

On 7/31/12 11:52 AM, Tyler wrote:
> What do you all do to crack yourselves out of making your old familiar 
> type of
> >music?
Change direction:

Write from the percussion/drums up

.....from the bass line up (or down)

.....start with a melody and experiment with how to reharmonize it (or 
add counterpoint)

......start with a chord progression and proceed

......use an instrument that you have very little to know knowledge of

........change your time signature,  or if you want to stay in common 
times,
swing rhythms if you play straight or make your swung rhythms straight

........radically change up your tempi.........right much slower than 
you would normally
or , even harder,  much faster

........create homophonic loops and then reharmonize them, either with 
what you play
chordally or what you play in the bass

.........Paul Simon had a cool strategy he applied to lyric writing that 
you could also use
to write harmonically or melodically
     1)   write a complete cliche and very 'inside' line
     2)   alternate that with a line that is very 
idiosyncratic....perhaps even one that would only
           appeal to you.........continue this strategy with a 50%-50% 
formula........you
           will create music that feels very familiar and yet you feel 
like you've never heard it before.

...........look up Brian Eno's Oblique Strategy Cards (available to 
print out for free on the web)
          Shuffle 'em up, draw one and religiously do exactly what it 
tells you to do.


Simplify

make things much more Complex

good luck,   Rick Walker