nomaniwhatever- YES. I KNOW. That would be the basic idea behind all music in existence. Certain things sound good. The thing is, every time one of us tried to move beyond this and throw out ideas on the theory, structure, and possibilities contained in said music, you popped up and said something like, "just don't think about it, and chances are you'll come up with something original." or "I think you're overanalyzing your situation. Just try different things, and you'll come up with something original- total originality is impossible..." or, alternately, "just make music, and if it's not original enough, try again." We all agree with you. We're just trying to take it FURTHER.

I hope you post again. I'd lose respect for you if you quit just because of arrogant assholes like me. Fuck me. I don't matter. My opinion of you shouldn't matter to you. Think for yourself. Don't let us get to you.

h.r.- I'd like to hear that intro too. I love creative use of feedback. Oh, & I'll keep trying to figure out how to post my stuff so you can get a sample of my singing; see if you want me to contribute. I don't think I'm good enough at drums to help you with that quite yet- all I can handle at this point is Offspring, stuff like that. I'll keep practicing, though.

all right.... i'll face my fears of being ripped off (even though if I were ripped off you couldn't make any profit off of schism aside from doing covers) and post the intro for everyone to see... errr... hear...

http://www.angelfire.com/hiphop3/han...chismfinal.mp3

i screwed up the actual beginnign of the song a little bit, but i didn't feel like redoing it

if you think it blows be nice about saying so lol, i'm sensitive....

That's pretty good hr, I think it has a nice ambient feel to it. I don't have anything of me playing, except for my bands first demo, which is horrible and doesn't have anything fancy on it, and no real expedient way of recording myself right now.

I find I can relate to most of the techniques being discussed here in some form or another.
I usually tend to feel an emotion at a certain time, and try and compose something which reflects that. Sometimes I'm just too angry, sometimes I'm too tired, and sometimes I seem to be able to find the right combination of notes to really make something work. For me song writing is a temperamental thing, and I try not to too be disapointed if I can't always come up with something I am happy with.

I think the idea of not really thinking or analysing can be used to some extent, so as something truly creative can be produced, but at the same time, there must be a degree of thinking involved, or the music you create will merely be average. What I mean by this is that when I play music (particularly improvised) I generally fall back on what I know about the nature of the guitar, such as which note combinations create what emotional mood, and also on which notes are used in the key I'm in.
This may not be the case for everyone, but for me I like to leave a slight link with my mind when I play. Most of this actually requires minimal thought though, because at the stage I am at I have a fair amount of basic knowledge, such as scales. The value of scales can't be discounted at all, even though it is boring most of the time. A good way I found to really cement scales in my head is to play along with a tune in that key, and improvise over the scale... In this way its easy to tell if you've found the scale or not, because a wrong note usually rings with a certain dis-harmony. I simply use this method to familiarise myself with scales, because I find it more enjoyable, and in the long term, just as beneficial as repeating scales in a 1-2-3-4-5 kind of sequence.
As a result of this though, I know mostly only A minor/C Major (relative major - yes), E Minor/G Major, and D minor/F Major scales... These are just the general scales used in contemporary music.
Sometimes using an entirely different scale is a great idea though, because I have to free form my ideas, as against in a better known scale (such as A minor), in which I would have particular patterns which I subconsciously refer back to.
I'm always trying to learn new things (and you've inspired me to learn a bit of Jazz Mr. Zebra), because the more I know, the more options I have in composing music. I like to think I'll never stop reminding myself that I haven't learned everything there is to learn.
Not thinking while playing may work to a certain extent, but if you get to the point where you know enough about the basics (and the not-so-basics), that you don't really need to think about them when you play, you're going to come up with much better music.
Don't stress though, its all a learning experience, and no one ever stops learning unless they convince themselves that they are the best there is.

Just a few thoughts I've come up with based on the discussions of this thread. Feel free to dispute/discuss anything I've said, because I'm not saying "I'm right"... its just my personal reflection on things.

BINGO!!! With me- I never stop learning, and, of course, I think/analyze while I learn, but I don't really think the same way when I play/write. Those are two different modes for me.

h.r.- that was spiffy. I loved the improvised feel; the way you took your time and toyed with the melody- those heavy pauses, and the pick screeches, etc. I'd love to run some production on that- maybe some background ambiance- like, overdub another guitar doing a wicked fast, screechy solo in the background, but VERY quietly and kind of echo-y. Maybe even some random, echoing drum beats and rolls building towards the end, like in Dire Straits' "Money For Nothin'" intro...sorry. I get a little carried away, creatively speaking. But I see possibilities everywhere. You could do more/better with that guitarwise, though; build the tension even more than you did, and maybe pull some trickier fingering; mess around even more and repeat a little less- but I'm sure you realize that already. And I thought it rocked.

well thanks for the positive feedback....

my "song" is coming along a little bit, but... the heavy part I wrote for it sounds too much like 46 and 2... sort of... it has to because that's the key I put it in, but.... it uses higher up notes for the most part..... so it doesn't sound too much like it.... but the "intro" or whatever the hell it is... I'm not sure how the hell I'd transition from that, to the intro riff, to the heavy part... and dammit the intro riff sounds good with and without wah and with and without PMing, but if I do both it'll be really repetetive...

I don't know if someone mentioned this or not already, but improvising brings out your true originality. Playing music that is completely caught in the moment will help you to find your own unique sound. What my band does a lot, is we'll do structured improvs, where you have certain riffs you jam on at a show or something. That way, it's completely different everytime you play it, and you can adapt it however you want. And when you jam on something, trust me, it will goes places that you would not expect. But it helps to somewhat musically educated. That will open new doors of creativity. Hope this helps.



chad

Not to be a dick, but it's a total joke holy reality is acting like people are going to rip off his music.

damn thread bumping.

you are right, it's highly unlikely someone would rip me off given how much i suck, how i never manage to FINISH my songs in the first place, and well... that i suck.

but damn why the hell was this bumped?

I have had the same problem. And I've asked countless people for advice, but nobody I know has had any advice even close to as good as wonko's. But the unfortunate thing for me is that I have no band members to jam with or rely on for a beat. I don't know anyone who plays any instruments, I've always had a hard time meeting people in real life, and if I did meet someone who played drums or bass, I'd feel uncomfortable asking them to play, or I'd feel uncomfortable sitting there with them. I think music is a lot more of a personal thing than meeting some people and jamming with them. I think you need to be friends with the people, comfortable with the people. Well I gotta go, but there's my thoughts.

So your basically playing the theme a fourth away, and calling it something different?

Good Topic

I wonder if Vanilla Ice had ever had this conversation

if nothing helps, listen to less music, and when you do listen to some music, dont listen closely. Listen to less music and spend more time creating music instead. The more you create, the more you come to find what you like and dislike and what is to similar to something else. Just fuck around without really thinking about it, and then you might create something on accident. And then take that Accidental riff and progress it into something that is on purpose. find something else besides music that can be inspirational. Movies, pictures, art, anything you find that suits you. Sometime try by putting on a effect, then playing something that works well with that riff. For instances just take a flanger and put it up all the way till it sounds like an airplane, and then just hit a certain note or chord, and that can be really cool, especially if you have a band you can spice it up with a really nice drum riff and a bass riff.
Thats how some famous riffs can be. They sound cool o nthe recrding, but some stuff by themselves just dont sound as cool.

if you play something on the guitar while fiddling around, its less likely to be subliminally ripping off, than if you hear something in your head then play it.

Don't worry about the slight ripping off factor, even the Beatles had to pay royalties to a few people they accidently ripped off in a few songs. If you identify that you've accidently ripped someone off, then do something crazy with the riff to make it sound better.

Ultimately all music is a mixture of music thats been done before, purely original music is impossible for anyone who's heard music before. The more original music just homoginises influence better...