Music and Songwriting/Bryan Wang
Bad mood days are a serious problem. Making some of the self-management projects about this would be useful.
General Notes edit
Treating assignments for all projects on an ongoing basis, managing the work time.
Only assign work that
- Provides value to other humans
- Is integrated into a prioritized, clearly defined end goal
- Has a clear feedback mechanism
- The subject understands and accepts the conditions of
Principles - doing work that provides value and pertains directly to personal goals
Each section has
- Notes on past work
- Short, long and mid-term goals
- Current Assignments
Mixing/Songwriting edit
Goals edit
Long-Term:
- Develop professional level mixing and songwriting skills - get the twin to head bob
- Pass the JMS Hand test
- Destroy Berklee - Berklee is destroyed
Mid-term
- Aim to perfect one song per month on "Asterisk Demos" album
- Complete a digital mixing course and apply concepts to new songs
- Recruit another person to the Man/Machine Wiki
- Write a song that does something
- Invent the DAWbstacle course
Short-term:
- Buy Logic
Notes edit
How to define a pro level mix? No major errors like compression artifacts,
Discussion of Songwriting as a mood enhancer
The Question Box edit
Long term - creating enough value-providing jobs for musicians to create creative balance within a society
Mid-term goals - Developing a lo-fi format
Short-Term - Review The Videos Matt Made
Notes edit
composing stems for new subjects
Bryan notes answers, talking,
relation to mike, impactful statements, snippets, story,
psychedelic colors, this is who mike is, what I want people to take away,
Structuring, sorting ideas under each heading
Self-Management Skills edit
Goals edit
LT - Develop largely stable, positive mood state, Develop the belief that you are the one making decisions about one's direction in life and you have the ability to self-direct if necessary
MT - Test the idea that building small habits can measurably improve mood in the long term.
ST - Keep pushing time log numbers, examine mood-stabilizing habits
Notes edit
13.4.2017
We're going to aim to use gamification principles to improve mood. Many of the mood fluctuations you've described in relation to your life events conform to predictions made by positive psychology models. Therefore, I think it's a logical consequence that we should attempt an approach proposed by this model to send you on 'happiness quests.' It sounds corny as hell, and it is. I still think it's going to work.
The hypothesis that I'm proposing is that one can and should set benchmarks for how one spends one's time in a relatively static environment. Life is full of surprises and fluctuations, and habits are a stabilizing force for one's sanity. Ideally, one can use habits to become more efficient when an environment is stable, but also adapt and be flexible when change comes up. One way to develop this capacity is to first study oneself when life is lived by a strict routine. This helps one to understand one's own psychological metabolism and make improvements to one's own understanding of one's own needs by creating conditions for scientifically studying one's own consciousness and systematically improving the system. When one reaches a plateau in improving a particular area of ability but a higher level of performance is desired, we will likely set up an 'extreme learning challenge.' This is a plateau-breaking technique to get past psychological resistance to growth in a way that is fun. It also creates a mental state in which learning is faster and more efficient than in a normal environment so progress is made extremely rapidly in a target area.
/20 things musicians can do to make money
/Time Log - 20 hours per week, personal core practice
25.4.2017
I'm concerned about the apparent consistent low mood. I am concerned that A) Bryan is not particularly motivated to change his mood B) we're not fully aware of the causes or actions necessary to resolve the issue. C)
The Ed Equation edit
Goals edit
LT - enter the pantheon of earnestness
The idea is based on an interview with Ed Sheeran where he said he tried to double James Morrison's yearly show count as a threshold for what he needed to do to 'break through.' If we were to follow the same equation based on what Ed had done, we would conclude one needs to aim to play 600 'shows' a year. Now Ed Sheeran counted open mics and smaller events that he did, but if you ratchet up the stakes in all categories, we could look at professional shows Ed has done where he plays 90 minutes, 12-15 songs. One other factor that gets no consideration in the original interview is the impact of each show. The hypothesis we are working with is that if one can...
perform 600 shows of at least 90 minutes with an emphasis on audiences that we can get the most profound interactions with.
ST - Conflate Jon and Bryan's records, get in a google doc and post here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17HdwR_13etPDYpIrHXVtqdpXFw2C4wLF3FR55-UXfsQ/edit#gid=0
Elevator Etudes edit
Goals edit
Long-Term - Develop a system of thought that unifies performance, composition and technique practice to increase the overall benefit of each one.
Mid-Term - Work through the triad-chord scale series for diatonic scales and apply it to compose hooks and improvisations that support the Ed Equation and the Swift Delivery projects
Short-Term - learn the 1st inversion 1-2-3 chord scale for G major and apply it in busking.
Notes edit
Practicing structure and how to score a performance?
more riffs are better than fewer, but one good riff is better than a lot of garbage.
The value of a riff is its effect on a person. If a person remembers it, if it creates a positive mental state, if it becomes part of a culture, it is effective.
Points are scored by
- Getting people's attention when performing
- Learning new exercises and playing them with more advanced complexifications
- Creating new ideas and spreading them
The essential process follows the structure of a Hindustani traditional performance, with a series of planned improvisations that are meant to give shape to an improvised performance and also simplify/gamify the thought process for the performer.
In essence, there are two main sections; an introductory improvisation and a composition. The intro sections are called Alap-Jor-Jhala, and the composition can have a number of different structures or expansions depending on the type of music you wish to do.
Alap - slow adjustment of the mind, finding the map. Trace the chord scale in a slow, ambient sound environment, have a melodic player improvise over that space and try to match any false notes. If there are any mistakes, try to work them in purposefully. The mood to project is a mysterious one, going for a sense of wonder.
Then you're going to take it through a series of controlled explorations. You need to have a very specific, premeditated exploration. (is it better to limit the # of phrases, or just race to see who finds the hook the fastest? Beating personal best?).
When you lock onto a good idea, and preferably a very simple idea, repeat it and play with it until you have it stuck in your head.
Comping Hook - Start by looking for a set of notes you want to work with. Once you have two riffs you are fond of, memorize some form of them and move on
choose a strum or fingerpicking arpeggio or another accompaniment texture and explore it systematically.
Let mistakes affect the idea.
Once you have the idea boiled in a free pulse, start to condense it into a set of cycles.
Once the cycles are set, structure them in the song and play them under the lyrics.
Melodic Hook - Take the idea of a triad and following it with a scale to build a melody
Outline
Ambient Mapping
Controlled Experiment, Add pulse - memorize hook
Set Hook into a cycle, improvise upon
Play the song
Anuja Kamat's development part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is7GFL39OZ0
Anuja Kamat's developments part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6KSKcLGut8
Developing a code for scoring a performance
The Odyssey edit
LT - Eliminate boredom
MT - Come up with a meaningful goal?
ST - ?
an exploration of styles and genres with the intent of broadening one's horizons. I thought to do this because of the broad exposure to music I got in college that one may miss out on in the working world.
Samples I would have used-
Isorhythmic motet - Guillaume de Machaut
Hindustani Improvisation - Ravi Shankar
Radiohead – Kid A
Ani Difranco – Serpentine
Giacinto Scelsi Quartets
Freeestyle rap battle - Cassidy versus Dizaster
Atonal Music - Berg Violin Concerto
Tuvan Throat Singing - Huun Huur Tu
Song Hooks edit
Questions: edit
How to write a good hook reliably at improvisational speed for any style you are working in?
How many kinds of hooks are there? What’s a sensible way to classify hooks?
How can you differentiate writing from inspiration and writing through a process? How do the techniques of those approaches differ? Can/should one blend the two?
Goal; edit
Be able to reliably produce successful song hooks
Hook Theory edit
Summary:
There are a lot of different kinds of hooks
Understanding the objective and subjective parameters of a hook not totally clear
need a method to reliably and rapidly produce hooks
question
Define the hook – the lyrical line or melodic phrase that catches the ear of the listener
song that’s all hook?
Pre-improvisational process for developing hooks?
secondary hook
rhythm hook, fill hook
you can call me al
hooks express themselves many ways
displcament hook?
Soak myself in hooks
the sound of it
The tempos of the catchiest hooks
repitition – tempo
Audience tendencies and tone color?
What is it that makes inspiration
comping hook
who is researching hooks?
Given the geometry of the attention, how
Customer Development edit
(The Ed Equation, JMS Channel Reach, Digital Channel?)
Films
Ask YouTube listeners for Bryan
Social Skills edit
I argue that specifically cultivating social skills will increase your social connectivity.
Philosophical reading, diving in shallow
Meditation edit
There are known benefits to spiritual practices, and they can be studied from many perspectives but there is significant consensus that spiritual practices improve well-being.
The American Dream edit
This would be an attempt to quantify and gamify the career development process.
Gains earned x marginal happiness
Unfiled Notes edit
Short-Term Projects edit
I'd like to issue a challenge
QNA, Lessons editing.
Prudence's idea of having kids when you give up your own dreams
Measuring happy conversations