Daily Archives : March 27, 2014

Intuition and Intellect

Putting sound together with apps is largely intuitive.  Let’s add the intellect now.

 

Writing stuff down

As you notice things you like, the intellect unconsciously catalogues them. Take the time to write these things down. Or record them somehow. You can use the same idea in different pieces by figuring out how to vary them.

 

Writing ideas down shows you what you’ve done. It creates choice and awareness. You can choose to do something you’ve done before (fully aware that you’re doing that), or do something new. That’s better than endlessly repeating yourself and feeling trapped.

 

Example

You have a chord progression you wrote at some point. If you know you wrote it, you can choose to use it differently. This means playing it in a different style, a different speed, on a different instrument, or any other way that’s not the same as the first time you used it. If you don’t remember writing it, you’ll often use it the same way without knowing it. Which gives you the feeling that you’re repeating yourself without knowing how. Which makes you crazy.

 

 

Intuition is an important part of the decision-making process. But it only takes you so far if you don’t use your brain as another tool. Nobody builds bridges or buildings intuitively. Design ideas for a bridge or a building are often intuitive, but the way they’re put together comes from the brain. These construction methods come from centuries of trial and error. Exactly like music.

 

So start noticing what you do when you make music. Then write it down.