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GENERATORS

                                             October 29, 2014

So, I find myself thinking about writing a song--
maybe it's The Song, my song, the one I keep
thinking I might be listening to, but never really am.

I've got a few pieces of words I can start fitting
to a melody.  I know enough to know there's theory
to writing songs, as there is to everything,
but I know that I don't know any music theory well
tnough to use it, and so I won't.

I feel like it's a problem that there's usually
a song running through my head at any given moment--
right now it's something by Brilliant Green
(or is it Tommy Heavenly 6?), before that it was
a Cloud Cult song-- and if I start trying to
piece the existing phrases I have into singable
lines, I'm afraid I'll end up re-using the tune
in my head.

I could just charge ahead with that, and rely
on my general sloppy grasp of music to tweak
the melody into something else-- using my incompetence
as a generator of creativity-- a common strategy
with me (you work with what you've got).

Alternately, I could write to a given melody
just as a way of getting an even meter, and
then try to force the words to a different
melody later.

Or, it might be a good idea to start doing
some instrumental noodling... get something
like "original" melodies running through my
head to work with.

The next question is one of Paul Goodman's conundrums:
how much do I want to worry about accidental
plagarism?

Do I "trick it out" to stay away from that.

    And one might remember John Lennon's
    experience: the songs that work best
    are the ones that just come together
    without a lot of agonizing.

    But if agony is what you've got, then...

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