Don t doodle

[ LiB ]

Don't doodle!

'What a load of cobblers!' I hear you say. 'I get my ideas at the keyboard. I fire up Logic, press Record and improvise until the ideas start to flow. Surely that's the best way to get ideas.'

Well good for you. That's great. I envy you. Trouble is, I can't do that, nor can many others.

For those of you who are good keyboard players I have only one word of warning. Beware of doodling. Improvising is not composition. Well it is, in a group environment when we tear off a solo on our chosen instrument over a predetermined chord sequence. For this we generally need a good technique. There lies the problem.

A common scenario. A keyboard player with a fantastic technique sits down at his synthesizer to compose and record in Logic. What happens? Before he knows it his fingers have taken over. They are following patterns that have been learned and subconsciously stored over the years . Out they all come and into Logic they all go. A half hour later he plays it all back. Has he got a composition at the end of it? I doubt it. Music composed or arranged for a specific purpose generally needs discipline and a degree of planning. A balanced composition, particularly a lengthy one, is rarely conceived as an improvisation. That half hour may have been better spent lying on his back like Leonard Bernstein.

[ LiB ]