Whose music do you play?

[Tom]

This is a discussion I would like to have because it bugs me. You know, except for 1 dumb song, I only play other people’s music.

Disclaimer: No judgement here, I think it’s fine to play other people’s music. There is plenty of opportunity for creativity and expression (or not) with ANY music you decide to play. My thoughts are ONLY about my own journey.

But here’s the thing. I make pottery and other artwork. I love, for example, the pottery of Karen Karnes, but I would NEVER make one myself (even though I could). Same with paintings by Van Gogh, etc. So why, when I am looking for 2 hours of new music for this summer, I go about putting together a list of other people’s songs that I think would be fun to play? Why not take that time to make my own songs?

Answer: Because I am afraid to. “No one will like them.” “I can’t come up with good ideas.” “It would take too long.” “No one would like them.” “I have never done that before.” “No one would like them.” Notice a trend here?

How about this one? “I have been playing other people’s songs for 15 years and I still suck.” Omg, that’s bold. Do I want to do that for the next 15 years? Wouldn’t it be better to suck at my own songs?

What do you have to say about it? I really, really want to know.

 

[Tom]

Btw: It was this video just popped up in my stream, and got me thinking about this (again).

 

[debra]

It's hard to answer the question because different people may have a different opinion on what "my music" actually means. Is "music I bought", or "music I arranged" or "music I composed"... I only have a few compositions which of course I play. But my favorite music is baroque music and obviously none of that was written for the accordion, so I make and play my own arrangements. But I'm also playing in ensembles and some of the music we play is not arranged by me, so I consider it to be "not my music".

 

[Tom]

Music I composed.

Of course you’re right as usual Paul. You could also include “music I improvised the heck out of.”

For the purpose of this poll, though, let’s stick with “music I composed.”

 

[Ventura]

some people can compose, some can't

it is to a great extent a gift

it CAN also be learned.. Billy Joel largely learned how
to write songs in music school according to formula's
and he used that with great success.. if you analyze his
early songs for common musical cliche's you can see that..

later, he also showed he was better than that as a composer..

Bob Dylan will tell you straight up he doesn't know
where the hell some of his songs came from

some people get one "Misty" in their entire lives. and that is
still way more than most people ever get

some people like Elton John were incredibly prolific composers, but he
had a Muse who wrote incredible stories/lyrics (Bernie Taupin)
to lead him down the path

i cannot compose anything even close to being a "hit" though
i have tried and have scads of handwritten small tablets from
when i was a kid

i am content playing everyone else's hits, so long as i can
play them well (own arrangement) or correctly (like an
iconic Glenn Miller number simply done right)

 

[Tom]

In another group we’re doing an exercise from The Artist’s Way where you have to write 3 pages every day, which is supposed to lead to insights. What if the exercise instead was to compose every day? I’m going to try it right now.

 

[Tom]

some people can compose, some can't

it is to a great extent a gift

it CAN also be learned.. Billy Joel largely learned how
to write songs in music school according to formula's
and he used that with great success.. if you analyze his
early songs for common musical cliche's you can see that..

later, he also showed he was better than that as a composer..

Bob Dylan will tell you straight up he doesn't know
where the hell some of his songs came from

some people get one "Misty" in their entire lives. and that is
still way more than most people ever get

some people like Elton John were incredibly prolific composers, but he
had a Muse who wrote incredible stories/lyrics (Bernie Taupin)
to lead him down the path

i cannot compose anything even close to being a "hit" though
i have tried and have scads of handwritten small tablets from
when i was a kid

i am content playing everyone else's hits, so long as i can
play them well (own arrangement) or correctly (like an
iconic Glenn Miller number simply done right)

You the man Ventura! The best part of your response is “It CAN also be learned.” So I’m gonna try it.

 

[Frank Barocco]

Great question!
Most of the time I play standards, but throughout the years I have composed around 5 tunes...
More recent ones tend to make a bit more sense and have a nice form, as in recent years I am more informed about music theory, chord progressions that work, etc.

But still I realize that the way my process works is this: I have a idea for a small melody, then I try to find a nice chord progression that works in conjunction with it, either based on music theory or by trial and error, or both. Most of the time it involves some trial and error until I find in the instrument the progression that I hear inside my head.
Then I repeat the process for a new verse/chorus, etc.
Then finally I try to polish it and add details (some counterpoint, some frills, etc.)

Maybe I only composed around 5 so far because most of the time this process becomes a headache and as I am not a professional musician with loads of free time dedicated to music, so I move on to other daily activities and I am left with only a brief sketch of what could be...

I don't think I fear that others won't like the piece, I think I fear that I myself won't like it and will be disappointed with my skill level Usually that fear it unfounded or exaggerated though.

 

[Rosie C]

What do you have to say about it? I really, really want to know.

It can be learned. I wrote my first song just over 2 years ago, and I've written another dozen since. They're not amazing, but I've performed them publicly and got a good reaction, so they're not awful either. As @Ventura says to a certain extent composing can be learned. Skills like understanding chord progressions and cadence can give structure to your tune and help the audience feel where it's heading. But there's as many ways of writing tunes as there are people writing them. I write with my mandolin in hand, and enter notes into a music editor on my computer. My friend Dave comes up with a tune and somehow just remembers it, and he has no formal music theory - but instinctively knows what will work, from 40+ years of playing.

 

[brna]

A few years ago, I composed a short song that was (surprisingly ) very similar in structure and rhythm to the Irish two-part reels I was playing back in those days. And with a chord sequence that was (surprisingly ) very similar to the Klezmer song I was practicing at the time.

My wife liked the song itself, but she harshly criticized the title of my masterpiece: "The Joyful Squirrel". Maybe the title should have been "Opus No. 1, Composition No. 1, Allegro in D minor".

 

[murathan]

Sometimes people ask me why I dont compose my own songs yet. I say to them while there is a huge collection of good songs, why do I compose myself. But I actually made videos of 2 amateur composers (multiple) works in my channel. From Poland and Hungary. I enhanced them in some ways but they were good tunes. Wojciech Kosowski, an online friend and amateur accordion player from Poland, composed some Poland folk dances. Other friend is a farmer from Hungary (Istvan Gattyan) but I liked their simple music. I took the music from their videos and written them (sent) in sheet music too.





Composing is a deep subject, this exercise is done in solfeggio lessons in music schools. To compose something. You do simple (maybe) bad things at first, then maybe you make better and better but you see many knowledge needed later.

 

[Rosie C]

Sometimes people ask me why I dont compose my own songs yet. I say to them while there is a huge collection of good songs, why do I compose myself.

It's a fair point. Personally I get a lot out of writing music. For example, my father is in his 80s and he and my grandfather worked at a large steelworks in the 1940s-1960s. My dad has many memories of making steel - some amusing, others very grim, and I've spent the last couple of years capturing them and turning them into songs. I'm also very much into renaissance-era folk music, and as you say there are [already] huge numbers of good tunes by people such as Telemann and Playford. So for some songs I've harmonised an [existing] 17th century tune and created my own lyric - which in a way is more authentic than creating something entirely new 'in the style of'.

 

[jozz]

if you take a one-row harmonica you can compose all these simple folk tunes so easily
I play mainly covers/tributes but I have a lot of my own 'immersive' soundscape stuff that I fit to poetry and other spoken word

 

[niels]

I don't think i have it in me to compose my own tunes. Only thing vaguely related is noodling and stumbling upon pleasing chord progressions. But those disappear from memory as fast as they came.

 

[Rosie C]

I don't think i have it in me to compose my own tunes. Only thing vaguely related is noodling and stumbling upon pleasing chord progressions. But those disappear from memory as fast as they came.

I have a little Tascam audio recorder. I have it with me in this sort of situation and record the snippets - both playing them, and playing them while calling out the chord names. I sometimes use the voice recorder on my 'phone too, if I'm out and about when an idea occurs to me.

 

[Tom]

Sometimes people ask me why I dont compose my own songs yet. I say to them while there is a huge collection of good songs, why do I compose myself. But I actually made videos of 2 amateur composers (multiple) works in my channel. From Poland and Hungary. I enhanced them in some ways but they were good tunes. Wojciech Kosowski, an online friend and amateur accordion player from Poland, composed some Poland folk dances. Other friend is a farmer from Hungary (Istvan Gattyan) but I liked their simple music. I took the music from their videos and written them (sent) in sheet music too.





Composing is a deep subject, this exercise is done in solfeggio lessons in music schools. To compose something. You do simple (maybe) bad things at first, then maybe you make better and better but you see many knowledge needed later.

Very cool Murathan, good story. I love especially like the waltz.

 

[Tom]

Wow, great discussion going. Interesting that of today no one plays only their own music and about half have composed something that they play. Of course I’d like to hear more of what people have composed but I am impressed nonetheless.

 

[Tom]

It's a fair point. Personally I get a lot out of writing music. For example, my father is in his 80s and he and my grandfather worked at a large steelworks in the 1940s-1960s. My dad has many memories of making steel - some amusing, others very grim, and I've spent the last couple of years capturing them and turning them into songs. I'm also very much into renaissance-era folk music, and as you say there are [already] huge numbers of good tunes by people such as Telemann and Playford. So for some songs I've harmonised an [existing] 17th century tune and created my own lyric - which in a way is more authentic than creating something entirely new 'in the style of'.

Great story Rosie! Do the steel mill stories have lyrics too?

 

[Ventura]

My dad has many memories of making steel - some amusing, others very grim, and I've spent the last couple of years capturing them and turning them into songs.

that is certainly one of the most endearing things a Songwriter
can do for their fellow Humans.. commemorate those simple
stories from everyday people

whether it is the Bee Gees recognizing and channeling
the New York Mining Disaster of 1941 or Hank Williams
immortalizing the feelings of plain folk living their hardscrabble
lives or Paul Simon steeping himself in the culture of the
streets of South Africa, then interpreting and bringing it
so musically to the rest of us that we can't help but be
moved by the shared story, shared memory

yeah That's what i'm talkin' about.. wish i could do that..

i tried, i really did.. i mean i knew right off i needed help..
my friends could always get me with the rumor of some
Hippie girl they "saw" down at the Point sittin' on the
wall and letting her poems flow over the 3 rivers..
i would be down there the next heartbeat searching everywhere
for my own personal please be in my band be my lover
Stevie Nicks / Joni Mitchell / Carole King / Anne Wilson

yeah i wanted to write songs..

 

[Tom]

that is certainly one of the most endearing things a Songwriter
can do for their fellow Humans.. commemorate those simple
stories from everyday people

whether it is the Bee Gees recognizing and channeling
the New York Mining Disaster of 1941 or Hank Williams
immortalizing the feelings of plain folk living their hardscrabble
lives or Paul Simon steeping himself in the culture of the
streets of South Africa, then interpreting and bringing it
so musically to the rest of us that we can't help but be
moved by the shared story, shared memory

yeah That's what i'm talkin' about.. wish i could do that..

i tried, i really did.. i mean i knew right off i needed help..
my friends could always get me with the rumor of some
Hippie girl they "saw" down at the Point sittin' on the
wall and letting her poems flow over the 3 rivers..
i would be down there the next heartbeat searching everywhere
for my own personal please be in my band be my lover
Stevie Nicks / Joni Mitchell / Carole King / Anne Wilson

yeah i wanted to write songs..

You still could! If fact you got the lyrics right there. You got mega experience in the accordion world Ventura. Maybe you’re just trying too hard? Take your love and let it grow, let it blossom let it flow (as they say).