are there? I realise that I'm no great composer or painter or anything, but I've never been (to the best of my recollection) happy with any piece of art I produced. If I start writing a song, first day I'll be happy with it, if not the next day then the day after I'll find it boring and uninspiring. If I start a drawing I get to a certain point where I stop and throw it away because I am sure I can do better. Eitherway it results in things been started and discarded unfinished and with music and many other concepts, forgotten.
knowing that there are plenty of artists on this site, are you ever happy, whether your art is musical, verbal/written or visual or whatever it is.
I think I'll just have to force myself to finish things, whether I'm happy with them or not, at least I'll have something to show for.
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i think so, here are a couple of Philip ...
i think so, here are a couple of Philip Seymour Hoffman quotes i like:
"Success isn't what makes you happy. It really isn't. Success is doing what makes you happy and doing good work and hopefully having a fruitful life. If I've felt like I've done good work, that makes me happy. The success part of it is all gravy."
and
"Sometimes I'm working on a film and someone will ask me if I'm having fun. And I'm tempted to tell them the truth: No, absolutely not. Having no fun here at all. You know what's going to be fun? When it's done, and I've done a fuckin' good job, and I know people are getting something out of that. I'll have a lot of fun then. A ton of it."
Im always Fucking happy, cant you ...
Im always Fucking happy, cant you tell?
Theirs joy to behold in all parts of the creative process, some may just provide more of a high than others, you just got to find your thing.
As far as finished product and the "quality controls" of finished product, again dont sweat it, if in 6 months your not thinking "I can do better", or "why dont i try this", then you may be doing things for reasons indeciphrable to me.
It'll come, maybe you just need to get shit out their and reflect on the comments it recieves, a little verbal push from unknowns or respected brethren can be just the tonic.
yeah, I guess you're right in some ...
yeah, I guess you're right in some respects. For instance I liked the medium I used for the piece I did last/this morning, I enjoy the message and even the humour, but the finished product is just lacking to me in terms of accuracy and overall look of what was in my head. Its not a failure, but I can't help looking at it and thinking I could of done such a better job if I took the time... next time I'll just have to take the time.
I write songs out, make little Reason ...
I write songs out, make little Reason accompaniments for them, jam along with reason on my guitar, get real cool parts happening and then it's lyrics time and everything goes to shit in a big way. So I start another song, same thing, reason sequence, lots of cool parts, great chords progressions etc etc and then when I have to write lyrics it's too fuckin hard so I work on parts for the first song, maybe get some cool shit going on with the delay pedal.......does this sound familiar? Jesus if I could write lyrics I would have released like eight albums.
i'm hoping this can help, so the ...
i'm hoping this can help,
so the minor stepping stone seems to be the conception of lyrics as a seperate entity within the song,
but usually when we hear music we are not merely attracted to the lyrics themselves but the tonal melodic characteristic in which they are housed.
this means that certain notes, intervals, harmonies or rhythms will naturally/organically lend themselves to certain words/phrases.
i'm assuming you have a melody to sing but no lyrics, but even if you have no melody this technique will work all the same,
simply roll tape and sing, improvise, don't concentrate just "close your eyes relax and float down stream"
probably best/easiest to do sections at a time, divide into verse/chorus or whatever is most comfortable for you,
maybe it will take many takes maybe it will take few, but words will come out, although sometimes in a whole take you may only garner a couple of phrases,
but the trick is, once you are satisfied you have done enough takes,
then you can go back and transcribe what you have sung; ommiting and altering where you see fit,
in this way you will be able to tie these seemingly inconsequential phrases into a more cohesive meaning,
the basic theory behind this is that the song will often have a better idea of what it is about before you do. And that attempting to label meaning or articulation on a song [cold] will never be as musically encompassing as first letting the music speak through you, and hithertoo allowing your linguistic creativity to translate/paraphrase a meaning you which has been organically prescribed.
having said that, i've never achieved a great success working this way,
but the contentment i find in coming up with relevant lyrics with minimal use of brain power is a source of great happiness to my family and I.
Just have to say Rope that your ...
Just have to say Rope that your explaination of your lyric writing method is fantastic! This is the way I often write lyrics when I'm having trouble, it's nice to see it laid out in an understandable way. Well done!
why don't you write a song about how ...
why don't you write a song about how you can't write lyrics? nah, that would suck. Too "ironic". I tried, though.
There must be happy artists out there, the law of averadges!!!
"words like these don't write ...
"words like these don't write themselves! Thats why i write them myself!!!"
yup, mostly i'm happy with the ...
yup, mostly i'm happy with the process, very very happy, and would love to spend all of my time in it, making stuff with a band, writing stuff ...
but now and again i'm also very very happy with the end result. like a little nugget of something has been created out of nothing. and now and again i feel like that little nugget needs no more work done on it.
that's a great feeling - that you've taken a riff into a tune and developed it into something fully formed that stands on its own two feet.
that's one of the best moments, cos at that point you have the luxury of standing back and being a member of the audience and being entertained/moved by your song yourself. that's one of the most annoying things about being in a band, is that you can never be outside of it and just enjoy the music in gluttonous fashion.
but when you make a song and it needs no more done to it (that's kinda a judgement call, but often the song itself finds a place and settles there and doesn't need you anymore), that's the best feeling.
and don't get me started on the joy of the process! the absolute crazy-assed frenzy of getting there, of battling your second-guesses, of crafting, and especially of doing that battle with and against other people who might know more/might know less of where that tune wants to go than you do. yummy.
why did you post that! I'm 16 measures ...
why did you post that! I'm 16 measures in and lost! it works really well untill that point (in my eyes), but it can't loop back to the first 8 measures (not smoothly) and if the next 8 continue it will be to tedium. I need to write something that offers relief in the 17 measure, but I'm just not good enough to uncover it, its going to drive me nuts all night.
then by the time I stumble across it I'll be happy and go to sleep and when I wake up will not remeber it, o i'll go to stick it into GP for safe keeping and won't be able to figure out exact durations, eh. No, positive thoughts, positive thoughts, song will write its self.
geo herriman 1 of the greats pretty ...
geo herriman
1 of the greats
pretty normal happy
guy
There's no release without tension, no ...
There's no release without tension, no tension without release.
The process can take the artist to some pretty grim places sometimes, and to euphoric heights othertimes.
Sometimes it's to the complete exclusion of the world around them.
But that's not to say artists can't be happy- they can just be distant & moody sometimes!
...personally, very rarely am I happy ...
...personally, very rarely am I happy with my completed work.
Usually because by the time it's finally completed, I've had a 100 other better, newer ideas.
I hate to say it, but I've grown a little weary of 'completion' to be honest-
Commiting to that 'snapshot' of where I'm at can so often become irrelevant in only a few months.
I guess that's why I like live music & live improvisation so much.
Writing good songs (by ones own ...
Writing good songs (by ones own standards) is never easy, half the ones i start never get finished and of course once you finally nut out a song there is another one you've written that is better. But that is how you get better by writing songs, some of which are good and some that aren't. Music to me is being in the moment and playing live is the best, there's too much second guessing when we try to write something good, but onstage it doesn't matter as long as the vibe is coming out. That's why i agree with the stream of consciouness way of writing lyrics mentioned above. Just go for it and something will happen.
So am i happy? Yes. Creativity is like a stream, let it flow. It may be fucked at times but it don't matter so long as you are true to yourself in your art. Just look at Neil Young.