Tomorrow I’ll Try Something Stupid-Again
Music is such a balance of sticking with what works and trying new things.
One thing that has never really worked for me, but I still try, as in I tried it this morning and it didn’t work, is starting a song with a bass riff.
If I find a bass riff on my phone that I’ve recorded, I delete it. But I still record them.
So maybe I’m just an optimist, or I’m kidding myself, or I think I can do things I can’t, which I do think I can do things I can’t.
But again, it’s a balance thing. Like, stick with what works. In my case, it’s something like, don’t play guitar in bands, play bass in bands, because that works for me.
But keep trying, I guess.
And luckily, this is not an advice blog.
Because I’m back to trying to make three or four songs a week. Here’s one I did today.
What always works when I’m doing OP-1 music, see above, is starting with a guitar. Sit on the couch, noodle around. Something works. Get it into eight-bar form. No B part, that’s fine. It’s sometimes better to have a B part, sometimes not. But get the tempo right, and build something around it.
That doesn’t work with Ableton, but it works with the OP-1. It certainly doesn’t work with MPC. That’s always drums first.
I love all-in-one solutions, and I’ve learned not to try to make them do what they don’t do.
Two months ago, I was in MPC land. I almost got back into Ableton land after that. And now I’m kind of in OP-1 land.
Especially since one of the guys from Teenage Engineering said that they’re going to stop making synthesizers, which I think would be terrible because I really love the OP-1
Things largely because I can’t quantize anything.
Like, the drums are on the grid, but I play bass into it. I play guitar into it, and then sometimes I play my Moog into it, and always synths etc. from the OP-1 too.
It’s the antidote to everything out there needing to be what modern nerds would call humanized, which is putting something into the computer and then trying to mess up the time. It’s so backwards.
Maybe it’s age. Maybe I’m a Luddite, but I’m definitely not a Luddite when it comes to the OP-1.
Anyhoo, today, I’ll stick with what works.
Tomorrow I bet I’ll try something stupid again.
That’s my thing.
Stupid.