Impossible Acoustic

    I have a lot of friends who date or marry people with whom they share a passion.  Since most of my friends are musicians, this means musicians dating and marrying other musicians.  My wife however doesn’t play any instruments, doesn’t have any musical training, and can’t even really carry a tune.

This actually makes her opinions all the more valuable to me.  

    It’s very easy for musicians, especially electronic musicians, to become enamored with certain conceptual aspects of the music they make and lose track of the overall impact.  It’s not uncommon for me to put a lot of energy into an effect for example, or the design of a particular instrument, or some clever harmonic device.  I might then write a song that features whatever concept or device it is that I’ve fallen in love with.  Being really excited about my new song I’ll play it for my wife who will say as nicely as she possibly can “it sounds like a bunch of random noise.”  Then I’ll get really indignant and say “but you don’t understand, you don’t appreciate all the work that went into this, you just don’t get it?”  To which she’ll respond “You’re right, I don’t get it.”  Then I’ll get annoyed and ask her to leave the room and sit and sulk for a while but eventually I have to admit to myself that she is right.  

    It all depends on who your intended audience is.  If you’re making music for other musicians who can appreciate the hours it took to make that crazy noise or your impressive mastery of 12 tone composition then have at it.  For me though, music is a form of communication and I hope to be as widely understood as possible.  Utilizing the technical elements of music theory and music production in a way that is emotionally accessible is at the core of what I’m trying to accomplish and having someone close to me who can provide me with a layman’s perspective is often annoying but absolutely essential.  

    I bring this up now because I just spent the better part of last week building an instrument that ended up sounding like crap.  I knew there were problems early on, but I convinced myself I could save it with processing and some clever scripting.  The more hours I invested in it, the less I wanted to admit to myself just how bad it was.  Once again, it was my wife who had to deliver the reality check.  

    Normally I wouldn’t mention this publicly.  Normally my motto is “If you want to write a good song, write five songs, pick the best one, and don’t tell anyone about the other four.”  However, since this is a blog about the creative process, and failure is a huge part of the process, it seems appropriate to share.  I think a big part of being a more efficient creator is being able to recognize early on which ideas are going to pan out and which are dead ends.  Then again, sometimes I abandon ideas too easily.  Sometimes the roads with giant dead end signs at their entrance can lead to some pretty cool places all the same.  

    So, no instrument or song for this post but look for a new post soon.  Very soon.