24
it's hard to learn creativity, hard to practice it, hard to teach it. but it is possible! i felt like i was getting kind of stagnant and lazy creatively, so i came up with a practice routine (i love practice routines). my my.yahoo homepage has a "word of the day" on it, one of those "enrich your wordpower" things (reader's digest fans?). every day (or so) i take the word of the day and compose a melodic/harmonic theme that expresses the word. then, i pick some instruments that are lying around and play an improvisation that expresses the word and the theme. i also record it for posterity and to have something to track my progress. i did one today - "cognizant for gongs and cymbals" - that i really think is the greatest piece of "music" i've ever made. of course, it is 4:00 in the morning, so who knows...
16
the simplest things are usually the most effective...
nehemiah 4:8-9
And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem, to injure and cause confusion and failure in it. And because of them we made a prayer to our God and set a watch against them day and night.
now, replace jeruslaem with "my life", "my relationships", "my plans", or whatever people have tried to discourage you from doing, whatever people have tried to make you fail. pray to God, set a watch. make it happen.
15
check this out...
14
Happened upon a copy of the Utne Reader magazine yesterday, some interesting stuff, lots of web sites to check out (i'll get back to you on those). articles about public art, visual and musical, very inspiring and something i've been thinking about a lot lately. more to come...
saturday night i saw don giovanni by the capitol opera company. small group, seemingly just starting out. very well done show, especially for the obviously limited budget. can't wait to see more in the future. maybe they'll let me write some for them. i could do that...
haven't touched the "africa cd", still haven't finished that one measure. picked up the guitar and dice-rolled some chords, working on a little melody duiring adult swim commercial breaks.
12
so begins my foray into the world of bloggers. not that i have all that musch of interest to say, but it gives me something to do. mostly inspired by ottmar liebert's journal, which actually shares some items of interest. hopefully i can do the same.
so, saturday at the drumlab, i sit and wait for students to show up, trying to fill the time. went to the beach yesterday for a 12-hour vacation. nice to get away, but sends the system into shock.
day 5 of working on one measure of melody for upcoming "african" CD, maybe today i'll get somewhere. damn the process. i love it so much.
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