Composition and music list?

["Jonathan@full-moon.com" <Jonathan@full-moon.com>]

As I was browsing the Namm sites last night, I came to an epiphany. I'm 
rarely making music these days, and rarely discussing it in real terms 
with 
my peers and putting myself in places that motivate me to create.

I want to start a new mailing list dedicated to the discussion of 
contemporary techniques of music composition and expression - minimal gear 
discussion, minimal computer talk, nothing that wasn't focused on the 
techniques of actually >making< of music, and of achieving those 
techniques 
- melody writing, drum programming, playing over chord changes, 
structuring 
songs, looping and effects techniques, and whatever it is that you do to 
>make< your music.

I want this to be a place where people
        - can post unfinished/half finished musical ideas and receive 
feedback.
        - discuss the actual creation of melodies/harmonies and sounds; 
the noise 
you make and the techniques that make it.
        - ask questions like:
                I want to be able to do XXX. Can you? How?
                I don't know what I want to do with all this cool gear. 
How should I 
start to find out what I really want to do? What are >you< doing?
                How do you write your songs? What comes first for you? Got 
any ideas on 
how to finish this one?


I'd also like to know if anyone would be interested in a small, somewhat 
structured group of people, dedicated to improving their craft; a sort of 
online musical support group :>. I think that it would be best to keep 
such 
a group smaller, perhaps four or five people at the most, all dedicated to 
improving a particular aspect of their musical abilities. It wouldn't 
matter completely if the goals of the members weren't related - it's 
foremost a support/motivation group. Ideally the group would be of people 
at similar stages of experience in music making, and it would be an added 
bonus if the members were involved in similar types of music, but neither 
would be really necessary if the commitment from the members was there.

The group would be more structured than just a mailing list, with everyone 
committing to an specific individual short-term goal. The goals committed 
to would be results oriented (not just 'I want to be a better musician'), 
be feasibly achieved in a 3(?) month period and worked on throughout the 
period. Each member would be required to keep the rest of the group 
updated 
weekly on their progress, perhaps via audio clips and provide feedback on 
audio and music that the others in the group for the others in the group.

Every three months, the group would disband, and reform, maybe with a new 
set of members, and everyone could work on something else. Perhaps a 
moderator could update a web page of the groups member's weekly progress. 
(more to strengthen the feeling of commitment and progress than for anyone 
else's use).

Since the people involved would be sharing works in progress and/or parts 
of the musicality that they aren't comfortable with, they would need to be 
non-threatening, results oriented with a 'we're all in this together, and 
you don't need to hide the crappy stuff from us' focus. The bluntness that 
has been surfacing on the Looper's Delight mailing list lately would 
need... rephrasing...

Members would have to be able to commit to keeping the group updated on 
their progress each week, commit to provide feedback to the others: on the 
other groups weekly progress, and to other questions they posed to the 
group in their pursuit of excellence. While what you would receive from 
such group would probably correlate to what you were able to put in, 
flakiness would create a detrimental environment for others so it's really 
important that if you decide to join, you know you have the time and 
motivation to see it through to the end.

I have worked in online collaborative groups before (I've even produced a 
retail market video game this way), so I'm aware how flakiness can reduce 
the usefulness of such an exercise, but I've also seen it blossom, and be 
very profitable (in all senses of the word). I think that a support group 
like this would work pretty well, if committed members could be found. 
Besides, I know I need one, to combat my inherent flakiness :>

If you could use either of these mailing lists like this, and (for the 
second one) can really, really commit to being involved for 3 months, let 
me know privately : jonathan@full-moon.com If there's enough interest, 
I'll 
set them up, and announce it.

bIz