Re: Improvising vs. composing

["Steve Goodman" <spgoodman@earthlight.net>]

Improvising vs. composingDan Soltzberg asked:

>I've been doing a project, Orange, for a couple years. Tonight, I packed 
>my
gear out of a rehearsal space and turned in my keys after 3 months of
struggling with trying to take this improvisational project and make it 
more
structured- i.e., take stuff we'd made up and recorded at various shows and
sessions and re-learn it and make a bunch of songs out of it. I just found 
I
wasn't enjoying the process of trying to do this.<

Perhaps it's not the song-writing but the compositing process that you're
not enjoying.  Try another project.  Maybe the material will be easier for
you to work with.  I wouldn't just paste the entire process as something 
you
don't like if it's one job that makes one think this.  Um, forgive, no
coffee yet.

>So it seems I'm no longer very interested in writing and playing songs-
what I really get inspired doing is going out on a limb and making the 
music
up as I go. I can't seem to get the kind of spiritual high I get when I'm
improvising if I'm playing stuff that's pre-structured. Not that I don't
like structure- I just like creating it on the fly. <

I concur with Mr. Tobenfield on his other points and won't repeat 'em.  I
didn't quit being a support person because one of the jobs I did (Hughes!
Ugh!) was a Hell-on-Earth.  I just went somewhere else to do my thing.  So
perhaps it's the project you're weary with, not the process itself.  Try
something else, or perhaps put the instrument down for a week, and then 
pick
it up and see what happens.  Things change upon new perspective.  Don't 
give
up for a single excuse.

Steve Goodman
* EarthLight Productions
* http://www.earthlight.net