One tail at a time

So I finished my last blog with the idea that if I homed in on just one genre, it would give me focus to build a project on. In the end I decided to learn how to make music in the style of old video game music, or chiptune as it's sometimes known. I attempted this genre before but didn't get the hang of the programs used to make this style of music, but I found a new one called Famitracker that works quite well. I think I'll have a lot of fun with this program! So here's how things are sounding so far -

Pinning the tail on the music donkey

 
  A friend at church recently asked me, "So, what do you like listening to?" Ummmm...! I've found it increasingly difficult to answer this. Usually I change the question to "What are you listening to now" because that's a far easier question to answer, as it stands to reason that you like the music you're listening to at the moment sufficiently enough to talk about. So for instance, I recently discovered a whole load of bands that would probably fit in the ambient-postrock-metalgaze-drone scene (don't worry, you don't have to listen to carry on reading this blog, that just wouldn't be fair :p). I like categories so its annoying that when I try to think about what defines the music that I like, I can't put a finger on where it all fits.

  I have been trying to rack my brain over what I like in general about the music that I like rather than just genres, and I just can't pin it down. This becomes an issue when I think about creating music, which I don't really do anymore. I used to make music and just got on with it, but the more I question what kind of music I like, it puts a block on what I create. I find it a lot easier to be given a genre or a backdrop to make music to. Working with bands is helpful, because it gives a focus usually on one or two genres. Studying music at secondary school was helpful too, because all the compositions had a purpose or a setting in mind. When it is musical self-expression it is so much harder.

Where do you start?

  I understand now why there are artists in bands that feel the need to create something different than what they have done. They usually generate scorn because it wasn't what perhaps got them popular in the first place, and if you are popular in a music scene it is difficult to then steer any audience to start liking another kind of music that you want to create. But I understand the tension musicians have, of not wanting to just do the same music. Its not about recognition as such, more of a personal need to do it. I guess that's why some musicians can have such varied music careers.

  At the moment I've been thinking about composing some music again - but with a thought towards whether it is worth doing. One of the things that stops me is production - by this I mean, recording or noting down something, and it ending up sounding not as you wish not because of the proficiency with instruments but of editing and production effects (or lack of) etc. There are bands that I love that write simple music but have amazing ways of producing a sound. Then there are others that have incredible skill in their instruments and so the production doesn't have to be as good if the music is able to pull it through. Then there's other music I like because it sounds lo-fi, as in, almost devoid of good production. Its a real confusion. Every band I end up liking only adds to the confusion! Songwriting has different elements to it really, and even splitting it down to instruments and production is enough to be mystified about. Composition can give you pride in what you have created but also disappointment in the knowledge of what you can never create.

Software such as Guitar Pro doesn't lend itself to 'atmospherics' per se.

  Perhaps it would just be easier if I set a goal to try and make a song in a certain genre and stick with it for as long as I possibly can.