That MUSIC Itch: When Ya 'Just GOTTA!'

Subject: That MUSIC Itch: When Ya 'Just GOTTA!'
From: wysiwyg
Date: 04 May 01 - 04:33 PM

(THIS THREAD IS R-RATED AND MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL AUDIENCES)

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I started thinking about this right after I started the recent "Where's the Damn MELODY?" thread. In that thread I noticed an inner need to resolve a musical issue AT ONCE... to do, learn, get, WHATEVER so I could DO a piece that had gotten under my skin.

Do you know what I mean?

When everything else becomes secondary to scratching that itch? Like.... not the biological clock ticking, but an instinct so insistent that it sweeps away sense? Musical clock ticking....?

Um, I mean, excuse the plain talk, but, like, a kind of musical horniness that will not let you rest until you, um (oh God!) you know, DO IT? Cuz if you read that thread, you can almost hear it as a woman screaming, "NO! Over THERE! Yes! Yes!" *G*G* (yes, I CAN blush) But it's that strong when it hits!

Please tell me it's like that for you too!?!?!

And then once you have resolved the thing that was in the way of letting the music pass through and out of yourself... and you deliver the music that has been churning away inside... that calm...

We have talked before, in the threads, about the Peak Moments as musicians. So OK! Now! Let's talk about the part that builds up to the Peak! Writing? Singing? Playing? Huh?

(Hope it's not just me!)

~Susan

Subject: RE: That MUSIC Itch: When Ya 'Just GOTTA!'
From: wdyat12
Date: 04 May 01 - 04:43 PM

YES, Susan it is just that way with me too! And I'm a man. I am writing three songs at once, not all about Maggie, but for Maggie. I am on one of those precious highs of creativity that artists dream of in the troughs of songwriting block. I am in love and there is no stopping 'til the songs are sung. This is almost as good as sex!

wdyat12

Subject: RE: That MUSIC Itch: When Ya 'Just GOTTA!'
From: Kim C
Date: 04 May 01 - 05:21 PM

what he said.

Subject: RE: That MUSIC Itch: When Ya 'Just GOTTA!'
From: Matt_R
Date: 04 May 01 - 06:30 PM

I wouldn't know.

Subject: RE: That MUSIC Itch: When Ya 'Just GOTTA!'
From: Jande
Date: 04 May 01 - 06:31 PM

Susan, you've hit the nail on the head! =`)

the way I describe it is that it is in fact SEXY because it is creative, vital, and life affirming. Creating stuff is BEGETTING stuff, ya might say. Taking a part of the spiritual genetic material of ourselves and bringing something new into being.

It starts with an URGE towards that thing that is being conceived that in some people is even stronger than the sexual urge. And it moves throught the same kinds of stages as the rest of procreation, even to the part during thebirth process where you get so tired of it all you start to think and say that it will never happen (the transition stage) just before the great breakthrough occurs and you give birth to your spanking new song, story, artwork, or song.

I don't think I've ever heard anyone describe it better than you.

Also, another parallel: What happens if the Creative Urge is given the same treatment that sex often is when you've a houseful of kids to raise?

That's right! Creativus Interruptus! ;`)

I wrote a little poem about it years ago, but I have a poor memory. I'll have a look for it and I'll post it here if I find it.

Nice one, Susan!

wdyat12: There's nothing like being wildly in love for gearing up those creative juices, eh. In the first year of my relationship with present partner, I sometimes churned out two or three poems/lyrics a day! And during that time he, James, has written some of the most beautiful song-lyrics I've ever heard, as well as some lovely poetry and a number of short stories.

"Love is what we came here for..."

~ Jande

Subject: RE: That MUSIC Itch: When Ya 'Just GOTTA!'
From: Justa Picker
Date: 04 May 01 - 06:44 PM

With me it becomes an obsession, although "musical horniness" I suppose is another way of looking at it.

I know really good players who've been playing many years longer than I have, that simply don't have the patience to work out a lick, etc...if they can't get it in 10 minutes.

Once I get a musical thought in my head or an idea or lick I have to work out or a song I feel compelled to learn, "there's no shifting me".

I've been known to spend literally hours (with little breaks in between) working out chord voicings, and riffs, because I HAD to do it. Anything less and I'd feel I was compromising, and wimping out --but that's just me.

I've also been working on 3 different instrumental songs going on over a year now, (talk about obsession) that I want to be able at some point to record and maybe even perform live.

I've just about mastered 2 of them, but the 3rd will take some more time, because there are techniques I needed to learn and become proficient with, in order to play it. I do this strictly for my own self growth as a musician and, for my own amusement. No one who ever hears these final versions, will have any idea or inclination of just how much pain (in some cases) and sweat went into learning them (nor would they care)--but it's all in the name of making what we're playing appear "effortless" to the viewer/listener. I suspect that the really great players have all gone through similar processes.

Subject: RE: That MUSIC Itch: When Ya 'Just GOTTA!'
From: Jande
Date: 07 May 01 - 10:38 PM

*refresh*

just because...

Subject: RE: That MUSIC Itch: When Ya 'Just GOTTA!'
From: Jim Krause
Date: 08 May 01 - 03:18 PM

WYS--I have this love/hate relationship with writing. There are times when I can toss something off with ease, then come back and edit and rewrite it with no difficulty, and turn out something that I'd be pretty proud to sing for an audience.

Then there are the times when the process is more like coming down with a bad case of the flu; when you're so sick you feel like you could die, but are afraid you won't. And you just have to barf. Sometimes songwriting is like that, barfing. That's when I hate it. But when you recover, and start the editing and rewriting, you don't feel so bad anymore. Then you can go out, and present what felt like sickness to the world. Hopefully you won't embarrass yourself. Hopefully that festering, sickening feeling meant that there was really something worth all that fermentation and emotional nausea.
Jim

Subject: RE: That MUSIC Itch: When Ya 'Just GOTTA!'
From: Bert
Date: 08 May 01 - 03:30 PM

That's when you notice that people are staring at you because you're singing out loud in the supermarked. And it's a different song to the one they are playing.

Subject: RE: That MUSIC Itch: When Ya 'Just GOTTA!'
From: wysiwyg
Date: 08 May 01 - 03:59 PM

This is addressed to all who have posted and all who have not (yet! *G*)--

Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!

And Bert, I am working on one we can do together next time. When I have the nerve I'll send you the tune and chords to go with some words already posted. First I wrote. Upon arriving here. Schmielzo Polka. Songbook.

(running....)

~S~

Subject: RE: That MUSIC Itch: When Ya 'Just GOTTA!'
From: wysiwyg
Date: 08 May 01 - 04:01 PM

PS, time for new words-- Jim K-- songsick?

~S~