Wow. What a poem and what a delivery by Amanda Gorman at the inauguration. Greatness on so many different levels. I was touched, impressed and inspired all at the same time. The power of words. The elegance of the wordplay, the diction and drive. The power and commitment.
It makes me want to write better. To put in the work. To write something important, and then rewrite it over and over to make it stronger.
This idiom seems to translate well between different languages and cultures. It’s a simple metaphor with a logic you’d be foolish to argue against. There’s opportunity, and then it’s gone. There’s an urgency. I find that it’s a good analogy for songwriting as well. When the tune comes to you it’s blazingly hot, if not why bother. It’s overwhelming, it fills your mind. It’s the earworm of your creation.
Yet, it can also cool ever so quickly. If I don’t hurry and finish it while I’m in love with it – within days – it will end up in the pile as another cold lump of iron ore. Melodies without lyrics. I have forgotten hundreds by now.
Which is why I’m in a hurry to finish a particular lyric right now.
As if the possibilities weren’t already overwhelming I today got the inspiration to read up on my little Mackie analog mixer. The knobs of a mixerboard may seem a lot in themselves, but what has always tended to confuse me are the various routing possibilities.
Really, I have never had the patience to read the manual. Well, today I had. Turned out it was really friendly and well written with small jokes hidden in the copy. Like make sure to turn off the Hi-pass filter if you want to record earthquakes – and hi-shelving EQ is good for recording frying bacon… oh well, enough for me to smile at someone having fun at work.
Alt 3-4. That will be my new address. Or rather I think my SP-404sx sampler will live there. Allowing me to sample or process anything I route that way. And then bring it back in on a regular stereo channel.
It’s funny with patch cables. No matter how many I buy I always seem to need more. I guess that’s why the copper-prices have risen so drastically in recent years.
This will be my dashboard for the coming weeks. VCV Rack – the free open source, virtual modular synth. It will be the platform for the course I’m taking in Sound Synthesis. I already had it installed but my previous attempt was pretty intimidating.
This time it will be different. I’m looking forward to learning, but I’m not sure I’m looking forward to adding more tools and options for my music making. On the other hand, it might take me in an unexpected direction. Let’s find out.
Once upon a time Morrissey sang “it’s so easy to laugh, it’s so easy to hate, it takes guts to be gentle and kind”. These days I feel a bit unsure of him living up to it, but nevertheless I carried those lines with me. So, when looking for some kind of musical project name, and being from Gothenburg, the capital of puns – I went for The Gentle Kind. I googled it and found it was a song by Aztec Camera. Oh well, fine.
Yesterday Seth Godin wrote about Three types of kindness. He’s not from Gothenburg I presume.
Maslow, the psychologist with the pyramid of needs, is attributed the expression that goes something like this: If all you’ve got is a hammer, it’s tempting to treat everything you see as a nail. It’s a thought I carry with me, but I actually just googled to find it was Maslow, or maybe not only.
Good thing, because I just learnt that it’s called the Law of the instrument. A cognitive bias, that apparently limits our vision and creativity. We do things that are tried and true. We rely on what we know and fail to see possibilities and chances to innovate.
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Austin Kleon is a writer of popular, inspirational self-help books. I have read his first two. In one of them he shows this image, which is sort of the mental journey of any creative project.
This week it has been very true to me as I finished my assignment of creating a track in the French House genre. The idea was to cook with the typical ingredients and see if I could put my twist on it.
Here it is: Right for you.
I lofi-sampled the Chaka Khan-tune Sleep on it on my Boss SP-303 sampler. Cut up some loops. Arranged some DMX-drums. Jammed quite a lot to find basslines, chords and melodies to fit the samples. Many did not. Well, that’s about it. It feels good that it’s finished and that I’ve handed in my last assignments.
Tomorrow I start a new course in Sound Synthesis. It will be done in VCV Rack and my hope is that it will be an opportunity to get deeper knowledge in CV-routing and what’s possible.
Summing week 2 musical achievements:
I finished producing one song.
I made one Microbrute jams – and many more that I didn’t record.
Plans week 3:
Get up earlier (tick more habit-boxes before work)
Start new course
Daily lyrical exercises.
I would like to finish one full song.
2020 was different. 2021 will probably stay different. In the book “Messy – The power of disorder to change our lives” Tim Harford tells the story of a strike on the London Underground. For weeks commuters were forced to find new routes to their jobs instead of taking the tube. Combining busrides, walking, biking etc.
Continue reading” ‘Heart of Gold’ put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch.” – Neil Young
I thought about that quote when I was out running. I enjoy running and try to get out a few times every week, rain or shine, snow or ice. To me running is very much connected to a sense of freedom. Feeling free to move. Even though running in the forest or countryside is a much grander experience I spend a lot of time running on asphalt streets and sidewalks. Simply because I want it to be uncomplicated. I start running outside my door, the idea of taking the car to a forest… well, it just don’t seem to happen.
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It’s Saturday morning and I’m annoyed. At least I was yesterday evening. Now, it’s morning. I awoke early. -10 degrees C, clear sky and the sun has not yet risen over the hill. Everything is possible. I’m optimistic.
Still, I was annoyed going to bed. I’m dragging behind my plan. Making less music than I intend to. I don’t intend to whine, but since I enter this state so often. I need to think about what’s going wrong. What’s the culprit?
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The Gentle Kind 