Sometimes I feel like my composition process is a bit stilted, as if I have two separate processes running at the same time.
The first is my left brain process. That process involves sitting down at my computer, away from the piano, and sketching out ideas right onto the sheet music. These ideas are based on chord progressions that I assume will sound nice together, and melodies built around those chords (or based on shapes that I assume will sound pleasing). It’s a somewhat mathematical process; less about passion pouring from my fingertips, and more about a system I have learned to manipulate. I use trial and error to compile ideas into coherent musical thoughts, create variations of themes, and tinker with various types of accompaniment. I try various ideas until something sounds right, almost like experimenting with a recipe. This is where most of my seedlings originate.
This process is how I took the original theme of the Polish national anthem “Mazurek Dąbrowskiego” (which can be heard here) and morphed it into this new theme:
It has the same melodic contour as the original, but with a different vibe. It mixes major and minor with a touch of syncopation, keeping your ear a bit off balance. This theme was created without hearing what it sounded like until it was already notated, built entirely on theory and logic.
The right brain process is all feeling, no math. I sit at the piano and just play what feels right. I hum melodies out loud until they begin to morph into new ideas, until my brain naturally settles on something. This process is always based on what “feels” right to my ear, on whatever musical idea happens to come out when I sit down to play. It’s improvising! But the intention is not to produce fleeting music that is only enjoyed in the moment. Instead it is to use this process to create a lasting piece; allow the musical idea to begin as an improvisation, but make sure it ends up on sheet music. This looser method is how I came up with this rock-infused version of the theme in 4/4 time:
I thought of that theme while lying in bed about to fall asleep. I was too tired to get up and write it down, so I forced myself to hum it like 10 or 15 times so I would remember it in the morning. It’s amazing how a memorable musical idea can fade from your mind if you’re not careful. Once it’s gone, there may not be any retrieving it. Luckily this one stuck. This new theme was born only after I had hummed the original one so many times that I could do it without thinking, so many times that it began to run on loop in the back of my head as I went about my day. I ate my cereal to the tune of the Polish national anthem, at work I marched triumphantly down the hall as images of victorious Polish armies paraded through my mind, and while lying in bed I had to chase the theme away so I could finally rest. After days of this treatment, the theme takes on a mind of its own. It begins to transform, perhaps into a bossa nova theme, or reggae, or gospel, or whatever catches my fancy. The point is that this method is based on singing and feeling, and therefore the result tends to be more singable, and sometimes more passionate.
I wish I could combine my right and left brain processes into one smooth machine, with all the gears working at the same time. Today, while playing around with 3/4 time, I improvised this little progression:
It’s simple and repetitive, more like the accompaniment to a rock song than a classical piece, but I like it. This was generated with right brain, so it just came out. However I would love to be able to activate my left brain on the spot and manipulate the theme into improvised variations. The way my current process works, in order to really manipulate the music in a complex way I have to return to my computer and tweak the music on paper. I still end up with music I am proud of, but the process is not quite fluid enough. This is something I would like to improve. Perhaps one method is to try and force myself to sit at the piano and use my left brain knowledge to create whatever variations I can, using my hands to play rather than a computer to notate it. If practice is the mother of skill, then it would seem that I just need to sit down and practice. It’s difficult to break out of a well-established pattern, even if it’s an inefficient one.
This Polish piece is moving along. I haven’t really started constructing yet, just sketching (I posted more sketches on the previous post as well). Soon I feel like I need to transition out of sketching and work on developing these themes. That is a tough job too… If I endlessly sketch, then I can avoid this difficult, mentally taxing labor. But if I sketch forever, I will never finish anything. Time to get to work.
Pretty cheerful, perhaps too much so? But maybe as a triumphant theme in the middle of a piece? That doesn’t fit with the theme and variations idea, but maybe this could be more of a medley. A medley of dances perhaps, woven together into a tapestry where different themes come and go. As you can see, I’m in brainstorm mode. That first idea led to this totally new idea, but same tempo and key. It could easily fit with the first bit:
I like this one better, it feels more like my style. In fact, it makes me want to take these Polish themes and make them sound all “American-y”. Infuse in some bluesy stuff, jazzy stuff, strange colors. Is that destructive to the “Polish-ness”? Maybe so, maybe not. Chopin’s mazurkas weren’t reeeally all that traditional. They were infused with classical techniques, chromaticism, Chopin’s own flavors. So maybe I’ll take this old music and make it new again in my own way. After all, that’s the point of all this right? Here’s a minor one I might play with:
I think 3/4 time and minor key is the way to go with this piece. I have a lot of sketching to do, but at least I feel some momentum. I’ll keep you posted!