Yeah, I'm a musician, it's basically the only thing I'm genuinely good at (oh, but I'm certainly adequate at other things, no "poor me" here). I aspire to be a professional one, but it's quite frustrating as how much of what is generally perceived as "success" in music is largely outside of one's control. I suppose, it follows from here that I play in a fairly stagnant band. If you happen to care what we sound like, here is a link to our youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/NZOfficial . I will quickly point out, though, that of the songs on there I only wrote three of them (and one of them I'm not terribly proud of). Also, I'm the energetic one, if that wasn't already obvious from me complaining about the rest of the group being stagnant.
I sing, play guitar and bass, piano, drums, working on violin... someday when the resources are there, I'd love to learn concert harp (those things sound incredible).
In my thoughts, everything ties into music in some way... I'll find beats in most noises I hear and subconsciously start trying to follow this imaginary beat. I have all sorts of annoying music lines that seem to conjure themselves out of my subconcious in accordance to certain things I do on a more or less daily basis (the only non-irratating subconscious jingle I have is associated with smoking, maybe that's why I'm addicted... hmm). Hell, even things I don't subconsciously associate with music I'll make a conscious effort to; here's a relevant (and possibly embarrassing) example: I wanted to turn a TAS into a song, around half a year ago. I took one of the shorter ones (Harmony of Dissonance Maxim) and came up with some arbitrary set of rules as to how input would correspnd to certain notes and rhythms.... it was a disaster, but still oddly satisfying nonetheless.
Lot of you guys are vocal about having trouble composing. I, generally don't find it problematic, so to possibly help you guys out (and also because I'm passionate on the subject), here's my general composing process.
It starts with an Idea. This is the hardest part. At times, I find myself out of ideas (or overflowing with ideas) and it's impossible to start. In these situations, I generally cheat a bit and take a 3 or 4 second passage of a song I find incredible, and tinker with it to the point that it is completely unrecognizeable. This will then serve as my Idea to start with.
From here, it's just writing around the Idea, and expanding as needed. Theory helps, I can usually fire off ten to twenty different voices to add to the Idea through counterpoint, harmonies, synchopation, emphasis etc. When theory doesn't seem to be going anywhere, intuition takes over. Really, the Idea is the hardest part.
When done, I sit back and listen to the "finished" song. I'll write down anything that comes to mind, be it a particular emotion, concept, person, whatever. Then, I'll listen to it again and decide which thing I listed best suits it. That is now what the song's meaning is.
Then, I go back to the tinkering phase, to better emphasize the meaning I decided upon. At this point, it becomes obvious whether or not this is an instrumental piece (in my case it usually is).
If it's not, lyrics come next. I have a notebook I carry around with me and write down any neat metaphor or rhyme, or just any cool sequence of words. I'll pick one of these things out, and build the words around it. For content, I'll defer back to the intended meaning I decided upon, and try to think of someone who's story is a good fit for the meaning. The song then becomes their story. I never write about myself, that's what the instrumentals are for.
Lastly, the song needs a name. This is the second hardest part. It's never as obvious as it should be with lyrics, and I don't like naming instrumental things after their intended meaning.
Then, I privately kiss my own ass if the final product is great, or file it away in the hard drive if it isn't.
What else...
Just listening to music is awesome too. I mean, actual listening, not just background music to a game, the car sterio, background noise at public events. Like, the whole of your being is devoted to the listening of the music. Alcohol can enhance this for me, but I have to be alone- and rarely am, sadly.
Alright, I've rambled enough. This is probably the longest forum post I've typed up anywhere (outside of submission comments), guess that goes to show how passionate I am on the subject.
