Tonight's Poet Corner: Introspection
Apart from my teaching jobs and my freelance writing, I am also an independent musician.
You probably haven't noticed, but in the contact section, I did add a new link. It's to my fairly recent Myspace page, where I have audaciously uploaded some of my demo songs. I've sent the tracks to a very good friend of mine - who also happened to be a bandmate of mine in a band known as the Castle Town Convicts - so he can add some more parts to them and polish them up a bit. The tracks, either way, are rough, first draft, and daring. That aside, I'm happy I put them up.
The thing that strikes me the most is that unlike other forms of writing, musical composition for me has always been more sporadic. I tend to have much longer lapses with my songwriting than my writing not only because I've forced myself to make my creative writing more routine, but also because I find it more difficult to write songs than poems, stories, and scripts. And why not? Music is an entirely different medium. It demands attention to more than one facet of art.
Not that writing doesn't connect to other media, but the art of writing itself is more direct. However, unlike me with my writing, the music I think of in my head doesn't also translate when I actually try playing it. Sure, I've had moments in which I've written slews of songs - my stint in Ireland is a great example of such a time, in which I wrote songs such as "Our Own Personal System" and "Yellow Roses" (the latter of which has been called a favorite by friends). A couple of days ago, well...that was a different story. I thought of some lyrics - light and sappy ones, somewhat similar to that of "Yellow Roses," and drew up a melody in my head. It seemed fine enough with my mental articulations and embellishments. But once I started playing, it struck too many familiar chords, sounded like way too many other songs, and just stunk of contriteness and lack of originality.
And you know what? I'm not angry about that. My musical lapses don't faze me, instead challenging me to work at any music regardless of how much of it gets discarded. Without the bold attempts to write anything and most likely coming up with duds, we wouldn't be able to tell the gold nuggets apart from the dirt they were dug up from. That's why my writing here may seem more forced and stale some weeks and may seem pretty fresh and creative another - when you make it a routine, you end up with good and bad. To only try to write good stuff will not allow you to write anything.
I do intend to continue with my music, and I love what my friend is coming up with concerning my tracks so far. Let's just say I love being able to be part of multiple arts rather than just one.
Writer's Quotation of the Night:
Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very;" your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
- Mark Twain
Have a great night and a great weekend, everyone.
You probably haven't noticed, but in the contact section, I did add a new link. It's to my fairly recent Myspace page, where I have audaciously uploaded some of my demo songs. I've sent the tracks to a very good friend of mine - who also happened to be a bandmate of mine in a band known as the Castle Town Convicts - so he can add some more parts to them and polish them up a bit. The tracks, either way, are rough, first draft, and daring. That aside, I'm happy I put them up.
The thing that strikes me the most is that unlike other forms of writing, musical composition for me has always been more sporadic. I tend to have much longer lapses with my songwriting than my writing not only because I've forced myself to make my creative writing more routine, but also because I find it more difficult to write songs than poems, stories, and scripts. And why not? Music is an entirely different medium. It demands attention to more than one facet of art.
Not that writing doesn't connect to other media, but the art of writing itself is more direct. However, unlike me with my writing, the music I think of in my head doesn't also translate when I actually try playing it. Sure, I've had moments in which I've written slews of songs - my stint in Ireland is a great example of such a time, in which I wrote songs such as "Our Own Personal System" and "Yellow Roses" (the latter of which has been called a favorite by friends). A couple of days ago, well...that was a different story. I thought of some lyrics - light and sappy ones, somewhat similar to that of "Yellow Roses," and drew up a melody in my head. It seemed fine enough with my mental articulations and embellishments. But once I started playing, it struck too many familiar chords, sounded like way too many other songs, and just stunk of contriteness and lack of originality.
And you know what? I'm not angry about that. My musical lapses don't faze me, instead challenging me to work at any music regardless of how much of it gets discarded. Without the bold attempts to write anything and most likely coming up with duds, we wouldn't be able to tell the gold nuggets apart from the dirt they were dug up from. That's why my writing here may seem more forced and stale some weeks and may seem pretty fresh and creative another - when you make it a routine, you end up with good and bad. To only try to write good stuff will not allow you to write anything.
I do intend to continue with my music, and I love what my friend is coming up with concerning my tracks so far. Let's just say I love being able to be part of multiple arts rather than just one.
Writer's Quotation of the Night:
Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very;" your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
- Mark Twain
Have a great night and a great weekend, everyone.
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