Tuesday 26 November 2013

Isurus  -  Methods of Composition Pt.1

Improvisation

There are, no doubt, countless ways of writing music although not many artists seem to explain how they write. This will be the 1st of a 3 part series which will be provide an overview of how we write our music. This process has changed dramatically over the years and I'll cover how we used to write and what has changed. Part 1 will cover Improvisation, Part 2 will cover Structuring, Vocals, Bass and Finishing Touches and Part 3 will cover the Evolution and Refinement of this process over time.

The Art of Communal Improvisation
Central to any band's method of writing is improvisation. This is probably the most important aspect of the writing process as it's where you pan for gold by playing around with any ideas you can come up with. We've always had a very strong practice regime between Dave (Guitar) and I (Drums) which forms the foundation of every song that we've ever written. Improvisation can also be done alone which I'll explain later but playing together is the backbone of everything that we do.

We usually have at least three 2-3 hour improvisation sessions per week and more when we're going through an intensive writing phase. These sessions can start and end anywhere. We sometimes start with a basic idea that Dave has come up with and take it from there or just see what comes up when we start from scratch. The benefit of doing this is that you build up a musical affinity over time and almost seem to gain the ability to predict what the other player will do before they do it. After over 10 years of continuous and regular sessions such as this, we've built up a kind of musical attunement which makes things come together faster and builds a certain kind of solidarity to the parts that we end up with. As I said before, this is probably the most important aspect of our writing process.

This process is one of sifting for gold and gradually boiling it down to the essence of any given part in order to capture the purest form of anything we write. We then begin joining parts together but I'll explain that in more detail at a later stage. My advice to any band (that wants to take any advice) is to play regularly and play a lot. It has to become a regular routine which is maintained even if you don't feel particularly inspired on any given day.

Individual Improvisation
As well as these Guitar and Drum jam type sessions, we also improvise and write a lot alone. Dave is constantly writing ideas and piecing them together which we then play together in our jam sessions. On the days that we do not play together Dave will almost always have written a new part on his own. I tend to work on my own once we have already pieced a number of ideas together and recorded them. I will play along to the recorded guitar part on repeat for hours at a time and run through every possible version of my drum part until I have 'purified' my part as much as possible.

Improvising In The Box
With modern computers and DAWs (digital audio workstations) it's now possible to improvise using MIDI within the computer that you record into. I personally usually spend around 1 full evening per week writing drum parts using MIDI alone and altering parts I've written live on my drumkit. I then learn to play the parts I've programmed and further refine them. It becomes a back and forth of playing on the kit and writing using MIDI and this has dramatically improved my technique on the kit as I program some difficult parts which I then learn to play. Essentially, improvising in the box means programming using MIDI. Most film scores are made solely in this way using vast sample libraries (but that's another story).

Organising the Chaos
During our communal and individual improvisation sessions, we record anything from small sections to almost complete songs depending on which stage we're at. When we're both playing in a jam session, we will record small sections which stand out as we go. As a result of doing this, we end up with literally hundreds of recorded parts that then need to be organised into projects containing parts that work together. In order to do this, we dedicate some evenings to only reviewing all recorded ideas that have not yet been placed in a working project. These sessions happen about once every 1-2 weeks and are usually accompanied by at least 1 bottle of Rioja. We then have different stages of projects running from a 'Work in Progress' right up to the 'Final Project' but I'll explain that in more detail in Part 2 of this series.

That's it for Part 1. Part 2 will cover Structuring, Vocals, Bass and Finishing Touches and will follow shortly.

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