A Look Under The Hood (1)
A majority of my blog entries to date have been more about my personal experiences laced with philosophical themes about creativity.
When I first started publishing these blog entries, part of my intent was to share some behind-the-scenes goings-on of my creative process(es): what I have been and/or what I’m currently working on.
Today is the first of my “A Look Under The Hood” series, in which I focus more on WHAT I’m doing and less on HOW I’m doing. So without further ado…
In writing and releasing L’esprit Perdu, I’ve learned a lot about my own creative process in writing music. My initial plan for April was to write three lo-fi jazz pieces, using the lessons I’ve learned. However, I wrote the first tune and, while I like it for what it is, I realized my heart isn’t in it to start and finish the other two pieces. Not right now anyway, and that’s okay.
It was a tough decision to make, but I’m not upset about my choice - it was actually a blessing in disguise.
Graphic score for Projection 1 by Morton Feldman.
There’s an avant-garde practice in music called graphic notation, which I’ve been interested in since about 2013. Graphic notation is essentially a non-standard way of notating music, and it can be as simple as changing the shapes of noteheads to triangles or hexagons, or it can be as abstract as looking like something out of “A Beautiful Mind.”
Typically, graphic notation scores include instructions from the composer about how to read the score. While I’ve always liked the experimentation of these methods, I myself have been struggling - since 2013 - to find or create a graphic system that is useful, teachable, and pleasant to look at.
Part of my decision to shelf those three jazzy pieces was because I finally created a graphic notation system that meets all of my requirements! And I thought it would be more important to explore the new idea than write a couple jazz charts that only had half of my interest, at best.
THE INSPIRATION
One of Bob Graettinger’s composition graphs. Be still my heart.
The idea for my system came about after spending several days looking at a dozen or so graphic composition plans written by Bob Greattinger, listing extensively to various ambient instrumental tracks, and in reflecting on what I had learned while writing L’esprit Perdu.
I love graph paper and I love colors. Graettinger’s composition plans are fascinating to look at, and I wanted to use both graph paper and colored pencil in my system. This much was certain.
While listening to a variety of ambient and instrumental soundscapes, I paid close attention to melodies and other musical ideas, how they were presented over time, and which instruments played which musical idea(s). This was critical, because…
One of my biggest missteps with L’esprit Perdu, in terms of my process, was not having a stronger grasp of my sketches or the orchestration. It could have been planned far better.
And thus I found my own problem: not having a system to plan out each musical piece. This has been a blatant part of my process since I first started composing over 15 years ago.
THE ITERATION
An example of my Grid Guide system. The colors denote the instrument families in orchestral order (woodwinds, brass, etc.).
I’ll be honest: the idea for this graphic system wasn’t forced. I didn’t sit at my desk and will it into existence on the spot. No, I was lounging on the couch at about 10:30 pm, either streaming a show or playing video games when the idea found its way into my mind. Minutes later I’m at my desk, writing down the first iteration of this new system.
Right now, I refer to it as the Grid Guide. It’s a way of planning the order in which musical ideas occur throughout a piece and gives a broad idea of the orchestration for a piece (the woodwinds and the strings play through the end of Melody A, then the piano and the timpani play Melody B, and so on). I’ve also included in my iterations thus far, methods to indicate meter, meter changes, and tonal keys. Tempo is marked as well, and by determining the correct number of measures and beats, the estimated length of a piece can be calculated.
Super friggin neat, right? It gets better!
I can also use the Grid Guide to analyze most existing music, no matter if the music in question is orchestral, jazz, baroque, top 40, or grunge. All that would need to be done to make the Grid Guide work across genres would be to include the right instrumentation. The rest of the system’s features - meter, key, tempo, etc. - (should) work without issue.
LOOKING AHEAD
The Grid Guide is still experimental. I have a few projects sprinkled throughout this year in which I’ll be using this system in practice. There are features I want to add and play around with until it feels “complete” and versatile in the way I want it to be, so it’s still a work-in-progress.
If you’ve read this far, thank you. I hope you found this topic interesting. Right now, there are at least a couple of other behind-the-scenes glimpses I want to share in upcoming blog entries. Please look forward to them!
