Want to write the next great…

 

Can you read? Can you think? Can you imagine? Can you write?

The next Great American Novel is waiting for you to write. If you can make words rhyme you could conceive the next Pulitzer Prize winning poetry. Got a tune in your head? The #1 Billboard Chart is waiting for you.

Being creative is expressing yourself in whatever means, but this is about writing.

There are hundreds of books and websites and videos telling you the ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ of writing, but this is not one of them. If you have read any of the previous post and are half way well read, you know I don’t know jack chit about writing. Though I took English up to my final year in education, I never learned it. Grammar and proper pronunciation has never been my forte. I don’t even know if that is a word.

Yet, we talk (in whatever language we speak) to one another and some how relay thoughts. The same is with writing, except on paper.

A novel, poem, song are nothing but words put together by the writer to convey a thought or idea. The words can be descriptive, educational, fun or thought provoking. The critics make the rules, but no one listens to them.

If you just want to write your thoughts for yourself, a journal is a scrapbook of the mind. It can be a diary locked away from any other eyes as an encyclopedia of your life.

If you want to write your thoughts but not go through the process of getting your ideas published and promoted, you can create a Blog. You can put restrictions on who can read the words and if or if not the reader can comment. If you don’t type well, you can create a video podcast or a YouTube channel?

If you want to play an instrument with your words check out the most popular songs in any genre. Many songs were written by women and performed by men and purchased by women. Love songs are popular and can be interpretive by any gender. Get a hook everyone can sing along with or maybe even a good beat to dance to.

Using familiar words of recognizable cites like New York or Chicago but avoid Fayetteville or Wichita Falls, thought Clarksville did well for the Monkees. Names of people are immediately associated with certain people. If you want to use other names to get attention, try Jesus.

If you handwrite you ideas, you can always tear up the paper and start over again. If you write on the computer, there are all sorts of grammar corrections and spell-checks that can speed you along.

It is probably a good idea for someone else to proofread since you will skip over your own errors. Just like a movie, a publisher will have editors to add comments and maybe suggest a new approach to interpret your thoughts and feelings. Would you consider changing the lead character’s gender? Would you be offended by the request to add more detail or delete characters? Do you need footnotes?

Good luck and start writing.

12-Notes

 

That is all there is. Twelve notes. One octave. All music that we are familiar with and hum along to is created with twelve notes.

If you want to get technical…

In music, an octave (Latin: octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the “basic miracle of music”, the use of which is “common in most musical systems”. The interval between the first and second harmonics of the harmonic series is an octave.

In Western music notation, notes separated by an octave (or multiple octaves) have the same letter name and are of the same pitch class.

To emphasize that it is one of the perfect intervals (including unison, perfect fourth, and perfect fifth), the octave is designated P8. Other interval qualities are also possible, though rare. The octave above or below an indicated note is sometimes abbreviated 8a or 8va (Italian: all’ottava), 8va bassa (Italian: all’ottava bassa, sometimes also 8vb), or simply 8 for the octave in the direction indicated by placing this mark above or below the staff.

An Octave, in music, is an interval whose higher note has a sound-wave frequency of vibration twice that of its lower note. Thus the international standard pitch A above middle C vibrates at 440 hertz (cycles per second); the octave above this A vibrates at 880 hertz, while the octave below it vibrates at 220 hertz.

A standard, full-sized piano has 52 white keys and 36 black keys, 88 keys total, which give us seven full octaves. While playing an octave means playing the white notes, or major keys, it also includes five black keys, which are the minor notes within an octave.

I could delve down into all that musical theory and technical definition of sound and pitch and all that stuff, but the point is all the songs you like are done with 12-notes.

I’m not disregarding the # and ♭ notes but know that an A# is a B♭.

So the next time you sit down to play some music, remember it is just 12-notes.

Spontaneous

 

Here are 15 ways to liven up your life.

Don’t cost nuthin and is fun.

 

1.           Jump in a lake

2.           Talk to a stranger

3.           Build a sandcastle

4.           Take an unplanned road trip

5.           Run through a sprinkler

6.           Donate to charity

7.           Stargaze

8.           Buy yourself flowers

9.           Throw a surprise party

10.       Get dressed up for dinner

11.       Hold someone’s hand

12.       Rearrange your furniture

13.       Dance in the rain

14.       Sing out loud

15.       Volunteer

 

Say, “I love you” to a stranger

 

Drummers

 

Have you ever played with drummers? Not those folks who play in the back of orchestras banging on pipes and cowbells and kettledrums. Those guys are ‘percussionist’. Not the folks who dress up in military knock-offs and walk up and down a football field banging on drums. That is a ‘drum line’.

I’m talking about the person in the back of a band (dance, rock, heavy metal) with a drum kit.  A drum kit is a big bass drum facing sideways so it can be hit with a foot pedal, a snare drum that is all that is needed to keep the beat, a bunch of tom-toms in various sizes assembled around the bass drum and one or more metal cymbals to accent.

The drummer keeps the beat so the drummer sets the pace for the band to play. This makes drummers necessary because the trumpeter and the violins cannot keep the beat by patting their feet together. A drum beat or drum pattern is a rhythmic pattern, or repeated rhythm establishing the meter and groove through the pulse and subdivision.

While the conductor swings the baton, that is more for direction like a traffic cop. Sometimes the conductor is ahead of the ‘beat’ to bring the attention to the next movement. Sometimes the conductor increase the volume of one section while quieting another then signaling when the chorus should chime in. The conductor has enough to do so it is up to the drummer to keep the beat.

I’ll reference the drummer who gives the dance beat to clubs or festivals. The drum kit hasn’t changed that much since the jazz band days. The different beats are 4/4 or 3/4 or 7/8 and then some. There is a Standard 8th note groove, Four to the floor, Shuffle groove, 16th note groove, 12/8 groove, Motown groove, Half-time groove, Disco groove, Jazz ostinato, Half-time shuffle and many more.

Every dance has a certain beat from Bossa Nova to Disco to Reggae. Drummers can speed it up or slow it down depending on the crowd and the time of night.  Without a drummer keeping the beat, couples would just bounce around bumping into each other randomly.

What makes a drummer so special that they get put up on a riser above the rest of the band? They are the loudest of all the instruments until the amplifiers are turned up. The drummer might be behind everyone else but they get to wave their arms around and create attention-getting antics while making their noise.

The drummer also gets to sit down. All the rest of the band (sans the keyboard player) has to stand up through the entire show. Would you go see a show where AC/DC sat down?

During the quiet ballads the drummer gets to climb down off the throne and take a break. Have a drink, bite to eat, change of clothing (all that twirling sticks works up a sweat) and impress some of the girls before climbing back up and starting the next song with a 1-2-3-4.

The drummer also gets all the girls. The singer and the drummer are chick magnets. While all us string benders and pluckers are out their creating the melody, filling the gaps, and sparking the fireworks with feedback, at the end of the show we get passed by for the folks that hit stuff just like we all did on the kitchen floor with mom’s pots and pans when we were three.

Now I have friends who are drummers. With almost every gig I played, there was a drummer. I’ve even attempted to slap the skins now and then.

My pet peeve with drummers is all their stuff. That pile of drums and sticks and brushes and cases and the list goes on and on. With the anticipation of playing for an audience, the guitarist finds an extension cord and plugs in the guitar and we are ready to go. The drummer has to set up.

Placing all the stands in just the right spot, tightening drum heads with a special key, angling the toms and the cymbals then rearranging everything to find just the perfect position to bang on. The rest of us stand around as if watching a car under construction. We can try to stall by working the crowd with silly stories that only bores everyone or tuning our instruments that will go out of tune as soon as we start strumming.

Once we get the approval from the drummer that everything is just right, we hear the taps of the sticks and the countdown to start the show.

At the end of the show, we plop our axes into road weary cases and unplug the still warm amps and toss everything in the trunk while the drummer has some little girl sitting behind his kit letting her get the thrill of beating on a drum. Hope he has his own ride for it will take another hour to tear down and disassemble his stuff.

A ‘drummer’ used to be a masculine macho position but anyone with rhythm can keep the beat. It doesn’t matter if you are tall or short, black or white or male or female or any variation, a drummer can play soft with microphones picking up every flick of the wrist or electronic pads than can make any sound imaginable.

Everyone should have the opportunity to sit behind a drum kit and take a whack at it. It will release inner emotions and is good exercise.

I have a full drum kit upstairs. Everyone boy needs a drum kit.

Breaking Up The Band

 

I’ve been working on a book about being in a band for years. I start down one direction and then think I’d take a different tack and start over. I remember a different aspect and start all over again. I write it as if a movie with camera angles and positions of actors then rewrite as a stage presentation with a script.

The actual memories have become clouded and embellished through the years. Most of the characters are either lost or dead so checking references is difficult.

Going through my notes I found this gem.

A rock band (especially garage bands) are usually friends and schoolmates who can’t make the football team or have fancy cars so to attract the girls decided to make loud noises. Everyone wants to have the adulation of the Beatles, but no one wants to do the work.

Sooner or later, one of the members of the band decides he wants out. (Note: band members are ‘he’s. Bringing a female into a band is a sure way to break up).

Some get tired of the music, some get bored with constant rehearsals and few gigs, some want more money, some fall in love and some just don’t show up anymore.

Read on…

 

“Playing in a band is an exciting adventure at times. You can see the backs of a thousand shitty dives up and down the coast, learn more about the inner working of cargo vans than you ever thought possible and find out just how long you can go without a shower. You'll learn new meanings for the word “drama”; find out just how much money can be sunk into studio time and equipment you don't need.

There’s playing music sometimes, and that’s nice.

Being in a band is like having an intimate relationship with a whole group of people at the same time. There’s passion and heartbreak, fights and passive-aggressive notes being left, smiles and laughing and sometimes things just fall apart completely. Breaking up with someone you’re seeing is hard but breaking up with your band is harder, you have to split up with a whole bunch of people at the same time.

Bands fall apart for all kinds of reasons. These are just a few:

Clashing styles:

·       You’re a tango accordion player in a metal hardcore band.

·       The drummer is convinced that 7/3/16 is the only tempo for dance music.

·       You wanted to play in a punk band and you find yourself covering the Lord Of The Rings score on modified Gameboys.

Pure boredom:

·       It’s 2009 and the lead guitarist thinks that Oasis covers are still your best material.

·       You’ve been practicing regularly for three years and you’ve almost finished your first song.

·       The set list you wrote up in high school is still taped to your pedal board because it’s never been updated. You’re now 47 years old.

Personality Conflicts:

·       You’re a conservative Christian in a satanic black metal band.

·       No matter what you say about lyrics, you’re always wrong.

·       You’ve been shot at, more than once, during arguments with the bass player.

Crazy Motherfuckers:

·       Your drummer recently changed his name to “Sir Pants” and has taken to carving his initials on people in the band with flatware.

·       Animal sacrifice has become a regular part of the practice routine in your pop act.

·       There are three dogs that have been added as “Band Managers” to your lineup. You’ve never seen these dogs before.

Drug use:

·       The needles littering the practice space are so thick you need armored boots to walk through it. So do the dogs.

·       Your band mates are injecting Drano into their veins. Drug use is one thing, but come on people. That’s not even a drug.

·       The rest of the band has freebased every piece of equipment you own.

As you can see, it’s time to quit the band.

There are good and bad ways to quit a band.

You can force the issue and get kicked out! It’s a bad way to get out of the situation but if you never want to speak to these people ever again it can be very effective. Now I don’t recommend it, but punching everyone in the face will generally see you out the door of the practice space with a minimum of discussion. Other ways to get booted include stabbing a band member in the head, pawning all the gear, deleting the bands Myspace page, getting drunk and burning down the practice space or having sex with every single member’s beau in a giant orgy.

Less extreme ways of quitting, but still bad include quitting by Myspace, Facebook, text message, phone or e-mail. Honestly, it’s a dick move and it will leave a lot of bad feelings behind. It’s far better to be face to face and be honest with the other folks in the group. I recommend inviting everyone to a dinner, a bar or your house to discuss the issues. Be calm and honest, tell everyone exactly why you need to go and please, don’t cry. If you’re unsure of your reasons or you’re not completely convinced that you need to leave then you need to rethink why you’re here in the first place. Don't use leaving the band as an attention getting mechanism or as the only way you can talk about tough issues that arise.

Yelling at your band mates won’t help the situation at all. Give them your reasons for leaving and be very clear about what led you to this decision. If there is commonly owned equipment or financial issues to be resolved, leave that for a later time. It’s a tough situation and it requires dealing with some very angry emotions but if you ever want to patch it up later or interact with these musicians on a social level on it’s best not to leave them standing in a pile of shitty feelings and broken equipment.

Thanks for listening!
Eriq Nelson”

 

Most garage bands last for a summer. Some bands get some management and might play dark cloudy bars for gas money and a few free beers. Some bands get local recording contracts but can’t get any radio play.

If a member of the band decides to leave, replacements can be found, until they leave. If the star of the band leaves, say the singer joins another band or worst-case scenario dies, the band breaks up.

Like athletes who hang jerseys on the wall or insurance hawkers who have plaques announcing ‘Best in Sales 1978’; old bald garage band members will stack their guitars in the corner up next to the broken amps and tell tales about the times of being in the ‘Sonics’. Or was it ‘The Essentials’? 

Home for the Holidays

The refrigerator is stuffed with Thanksgiving leftovers since no one came over. Cyber Monday will be here soon so heat up your credit cards. The tree and lights and ornaments need to be put up out of tradition but now it is just a chore. Streaming the same old Christmas carols just seems like Groundhog Day all over again.

You are Home for the Holidays.

With all the same folks you have been quarantined for months and no end in sight this is the end of the year. The time for good cheer with the same people you’ve been stranded with.

There is a month before the five presents under the tree are unwrapped, so what do you do?

You’ve put together all the puzzles. You’ve read every book. You’ve streamed every movie. Your kids are either taking college classes or rudimentary reading. All your favorite snacks taste like cardboard. If you had to go outside you couldn’t wear anything with a belt. The furniture is covered in blankets and animal hair. The sink is full of dirty dishes. You’ve forgotten where the deodorant is.

A Zoom session with family just wasn’t the same as dressing up, filling the car with people and dishes, remembering to lock the back door and turn off the stove, weaving in and out of traffic of other families avoiding scientific directions to stay home, spilling gravy on your new jacket, sweating in the kitchen, all talking and laughing at the same time when not filling your mouth with all manner of food your doctor recommends you not eat, retiring to the television to watch a virtual parade or a football game with empty stands before the tryptophan knocks you out. There is a reason why you only see these people once a year.

This year might be a good time to start a new holiday tradition.

Instead of feasting with the Indigenous people one could take the family to the local soup kitchen and work a food line spooning out powdered mashed potatoes and runny gravy to people who have no other place to eat. If adventurous go to an encampment of homeless to expose your children (and yourself) how the other half live.

Closer to home you could start raking the leaves in your yard, then offer to help a neighbor to help with their chores. A little stretching and bending over is called exercise.

When the weather gets bad, throw a tarp on the floor, hand everyone a paintbrush and refurbish a room. If you decide to be creative let the kids draw decorations on the walls. It may give a bit of personal spice to the room. It can be painted over later (or not).

Gather the family around the dining room table and pull out some old family pictures. Make a picture album while teaching your kids their ancestry.

If anyone has a musical flair, move the furniture back and create a stage. Play some instruments of Christmas carols or old songs that were important in the past. These moments can be a good teaching experience full of laughter and dancing. Don’t worry about filming it for an upload on social media. This is a moment your kids can tell their kids without a video documentary.

After spending months of complaining and wishing it would become normal again, it is time to realize what this time is giving us.

You are spending time with the person you vowed to spend the rest of you life with. You are spending time with the people you created. You are in the place you selected to live with all the collections you’ve gathered.

This shape shifting is presenting you with an opportunity only fantasized before.

Put down the remote, turn off the phone, shutdown the screens and revel in the new reality.

No one knows how long this adventure into the unknown will last; so make the best of it. Create memories that will be worth telling stories about. Great books are written about times like these. The museums are full of artistic documentations of event interpretations.

This is a moment in history to be remembered. Don’t waste your time.

Make a list

 

Were you creative today? Did you look at a blank canvas or piece of paper? Did you sit down at the piano? Did you hold a camera?

Here is an idea to spur your creativity.

Make a list.

Just write down words (or phrases).

Words that you hear that you connect with. Words that is unfamiliar. Words in a song on a radio or read in a book. Words you have to research. Words that redefine previous thoughts or understanding.

At the end of the day, read all the words.

Does a word or a group of words inspire a thought?

A title for a story or a book? A vision of a painting or idea for a piece of art? Does a tune come to mind or a poem or an idea for a movie? Can you dance to a word that creates a dream in your mind?

Creative inspiration comes from many places.

Give it a try.