The Composing Process -- Playing

For the next several weeks, The Creative will be taking an in-depth look at the steps I go through in composing a piece of music, from first ideas clear through the end of the publishing process.  Realize this is only my process -- this may or may not work for you, so use it only as a guide.  This is the second post in the series.

So now, you've got the seed of your creative idea.  If your seed is like most, it probably doesn't look like much, and you certainly don't see any way that seed is going to grow into something as huge and wonderful as a musical composition.  Your seed may contain only a tiny handful of notes, or a sound, or a chord or two -- definitely not enough to call it a composition.

As we talked about in our last post, however, remember that the seed is just the start -- you'd never guess an apple tree would grow out of that tiny brown thing in the core of your apple, yet it does.  Jesus talked about his followers having no more than faith the size of a mustard seed, and if you've ever seen a mustard seed, it's pretty tiny, yet it, too, grows in to miraculous things.

So let's look at your seed.  Take a good look at it and see what you've got -- you have to know where you are before you can worry about going anywhere else.  Obviously, we need to expand on that seed, so how do we do it? 

We play with it.

Yes, playing is a fine art lost to most of us about the time we reach adulthood.  As young children, we play all the time, so much so that life is almost one long uninterrupted string of playing.  As we progress through school, however, the seesaw of our life swings the opposite way, and our playtime shrinks as our work time grows.  By the time we graduate high school, our actual play time is very small, while our work time has grown to be great.

To make our seed grow, however, it will need some time in the fertile soil of our imaginations, and the only way to plant it there is to play with it.

Three things you need to understand about playing:

1. You're going to make mistakes.  This is not only all right, it's a good thing.
2. You're going to generate an awful lot of ideas, many of which you'll never use.  This, too, is all right.
3. If you're out of practice doing it, it's not going to be easy.  Yes, you guessed it -- this is all right.

Playing with a musical idea is all about helping it grow and stretch and expand, moving it inexorably toward the finished piece it is destined to become.  It's all about experimenting and trying things, seeing what works, discarding what doesn't, and not calling yourself a failure when you take a wrong turn.  To be most successful at this, you should play with your musical idea by yourself -- find a secluded piano somewhere, or a room where you can use the instrument of your choice and not be disturbed.  The more people we have around us, the more self-conscious we are, and at this stage of the musical process, our ideas and pieces are very fragile things -- so fragile that the slightest puff of disapproval from anyone can shatter them irrevocably.

Accept the fact that you're going to make mistakes.  It happens.  But guess what -- it doesn't matter!  You're just playing, and not even for keeps!  Hit the wrong chord -- it's fine!  Take the melody to the wrong note -- wonderful!  Mess up the lyrics -- fantastic!  In fact, many composers -- myself included -- have found better and far more interesting directions to take our pieces through the "mistakes" we made, rather than through the notes we carefully intended.

"Yes, Jason," I hear you asking, "but how do I play with my seed?  It's still just sitting there!"

There are a few ways you can play with a musical idea.  As always, please remember that these are just suggestions, not the only ways, or even the best ways:

•  Add to what you already have -- Take the snippet of melody you have and add some chords -- try different combinations until you know six or eight or ten ways you could harmonize the passage.  Or take the chords you have and find some notes that might make a nice melody -- you may have to try dozens and dozens of combinations until you find something that piques your curiosity.  Only have a sound or a timbre in mind?  See what instruments would work with it, or try recreating the sound, or try tweaking the sound.  At this stage, much of what you do will progress in small, measured steps.
• Continue what you have -- You've got a snippet of melody -- what comes next?  Does the melody rise or fall, become longer or shorter, repeat what's already there?  If you've got a chord progression, how does it continue -- what new and unexpected vistas of sound can you show your listener in the chords to come?  If you've got a timbre, does the piece keep that timbre all the way through?  If not, what new timbres could it morph into?
• Work backward -- Try the opposite of the above step -- what could immediately precede what you've already got?  What notes and chords and sounds could lead into it?
• Go to the end -- Oftentimes, an author will know how his novel ends almost before he's written the beginning -- the hard work is filling in all the middle steps.  Your composition can be the same way -- how does it end: loud, soft, gentle, agitated, fierce?  What chord does it end on?  What does the melody do near the end?  If you know where you're going -- even if you don't actually end up there -- it can give you direction as you play and can lead you onward.

Ultimately, once you've composed enough, you won't need to think in "steps" or "procedures" to play with a seed -- you'll just sit and take to it as naturally as you took to making mud pies when you were three years old.  For those of us who've forgotten how to play, however, having some suggestions to lead you on your way can help brake the blocks trapping us in a non-creative mindset.  As you follow these suggestions and make mistake after mistake, wrong turn after wrong turn, you'll come to realize that nothing bad is happening: your life isn't ending, the world isn't crashing down around you, and your piece isn't just surviving -- it's actually enjoying the process. 

Playing is all about growing our ideas, but it's also about understanding them better.  Think of your best friend -- when you first met, your understanding of him or her was probably very different than your understanding of him or her now.  The same goes for any musical creation -- what you think of it right now will be very different after you've got to know it, and that's what the playing is all about. 

On Sunday, we'll look at the next step in my process -- the rough draft.  Until then, keep creating, and share your comments or suggestions in the section below.