I often wonder about the role of composition in the construction of the musical personality of a guitarist. When guitar player start playing the majority throw themselves to flashy things such as licks, solos and improvisation. Why not composition?
Speaking of me, I started composing music sporadically when I was 18 following diverses emotions, without having the theorical tools or knowing the legacies of the elders.
I notice that when the desire to compose music is not bolder than the passion for improvisation or technical licks, when experiments combine with frustrations, it is SO easy to stay in his confort zone as a guitar player.
The most intense years of my musical construction were before, during and after my studies at Music Academy International in France. When I as 20 all my time my focused on instrumental practicing, because of my passion for jazz guitar improvisation and the technical and theorical knowledge of guitar.
Retrospectively I realized that my confort zone was defined by many subjective fears that all people have, but amplified here through the prism of composition:
- Fear of doing something new: I'm wallowing myself in the lofty security of my daily quiet practicing habits.
- Fear of being fully accountable of my artistic output: I prefer to play the music written by others.
- Fear of judgement of others: people will think that my music sucks.
- Lack of musical knowledge: I’ll write a short story once I’ve learnt the entire dictionary by heart.
- Lack of self-knowledge: I don’t know the deep reasons why I play music.
- High demands on myself: first I need to master improvisation on "All the things you are" and "Giant Steps" at tempo 250, then maybe I’ll be worthy of writing something cool.
- Feeling of not being ready: I’ve never written any note, there’s no way I can pull this off.
In my humble opinion, composing and playing his music is the ultimate significance of the word « jazz » as a complement to improvisation duties: responsibility, discipline, construction of an original personality through the output. An interesting parallel can be drawn between business and music. Do I want to work 9 to 5 and be an employee OR do I want to invent my job and be an entrepreneur? Do I want to play music composed by others OR do I want to write my own score? Do I want to spend my life pleasing my parents OR do I want to live my life on my own term? Etc, etc....
Composing music became a need when I was 26, as an evidence and an urgency, after a musical sabbatical year due to an unbearable feeling of boredom. You build a wall laying down each perfect brick after the other. I developed my practice of composition with patience and indulgence, without judgement, with the intuition that composition would be a constructive way of expressing myself.
Here are 6 key ideas or concepts that I came up with in my on-going journey as a composer. I must confess that the composition, arrangement and production of my album Seven Seeds of Life (released in 2011) was a significant quantum leap in my artistic path. These ideas allowed me to confront my doubts and fears in the manifestation of my projects.
1) Try to compose sh*tty music
This concept comes from Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner, this was a huge game changer in my life as a musician. Since then I’ve never been afraid of blank pages.
The best way of confronting my fear of a disastrous output is to purposely try to produce sh*t.
If I’m firmly aware of my personal aesthetic standards, my artistic experiences, my years of development as an artist, then there’s NO WAY I can produce average work according to my standards.
When that fear rears up its ugly head, I firmly say to myself:
- I’m exactly at the right time and the right place that is good for me, as a human being and musician. This moment is a perfect as it should be.
- I’m fully accountable for the path that led me up to this day.
- I’m clear about my expectations and the path behind me.
- There’s NO WAY I can produce something I'm not connected with.
This atonal harmonic context allowed me to face my fear of judgement. How can this eccentric and atonal phrasing be accepted by a non-musican audience? These constraints allowed me to solve this problem and come up with creative solutions.
When I look back on this album, this tune was composed in 2008 and was a snapshot of my life. Despite the imperfections that I notice now, I don’t change any note of that tune when I play it.
Having a continuous improvement state of mind is a good antidote to fear of judgement or fear of not being ready.
I only consider compositions bad or naive retrospectively.
I can beat around the bush, be frustrated with not finding the cool idea that will make a difference in my composition, I can develop silly ideas, but I’ve never been afraid of a blank page with this concept.
2) Channel personal experiences in my music
"Bitter Man", "Welcome Back" or "Time’s Up" all originated from specific personal experiences. A memory, a film, a relationship. Good ideas usually come from personal background.
For these compositions I developed an idea (melody, chord changes) as much as possible and built the canvas of the song.
Writing from within improves the sense of accountability, creates a connection between the heart and the art.
3) Compose something on a regular basis
Will power is a muscle that needs to be trained everyday. Inspiration comes from intention. As Oprah Winfrey says, "Chance is just opportunity that meets preparation". Discipline and repetition are the keys to progress: composition skills are practiced like improvisation or guitar techniques.
All great leaders are masters at scheduling. Steve Vai confirmed in a 2009 Guitar Player interview that beyond all his entrepreneurial and artistic enterprises, he always allocates 1 hour every day to create something new (guitar techniques, composition, melody, groove, etc).
Seven Seeds of Life was composed and recorded in a year, 2 hours a day. Discipline creates the comfort zone. With method, healthy habits, a neat organization and a compound effect, miracles happen in projets. With accurate progress tracking and with just 2 hours a day, an entire album can be composed in 6 months, a book can be written in a year, or any other project.
For example Everyday Hemingway would wake up insanely early and try to write between 500 to a 1,000 words.
4) Score other composers and deconstruct compositions
This practice leads to an analytical approach of composition, demystifies compositions and artistic father figures.
Sometimes we don’t dare to score music we look up to. For example, I used to play with a bass player who never wanted to score his favorite album Maceo Parker’s "Life on Planet Groove" because he didn’t want to waste the emotional connection with this piece of music. This point of view is honorable. But I learnt a lot about jazz and composition when I decided to score Kenny Garrett’s « Songbook » album, Wayne Shorter tunes for Miles Davis Quintet.
Scoring leads to a personal connection with music, as much in improvisation and as in composition. It allows mastery of forms, harmony, writing skills.
A nice thing is to analyze why some tunes are cool, some are not. Why AC/DC’s "Highway to Hell" is so great? Why Desmond Child’s touch is so recognizable in Aerosmith, Bon Jovi or Alice Copper songs? What are the arrangement tricks of Mutt Lange for Brian Adams of Def Leppard tunes so cool?
All great composers have their own habits that can be traced easily.
5) Keep it simple, keep it short
All great tunes are simple and revolve around just 1 or 2 ideas.
Ravel’s Bolero, AC/DC songs, Mozart's melodies. The form is so perfectly crafted that each section, each note is not only an emotion but also a function.
"Time’s up" was purposely written with just 2 ideas on a AABA structure. If the AABA form is so widely accepted, why try to change it? In this form I sticked to just 2 ideas and gave my all the tell the most beautiful story I could.
6) Strenghten the basics (theory, groove, melody)
Perpetual learning is a nice way to stay hungry. Practicing the basics strengthens the roots of my confort zone. There's always is new way of looking at things every day: composition, orchestrations, arrangements. Teaching is also a powerful way of practicing the basics.
My goal is to keep my theorical knowledge always sharper than my compositions. I do my best to always be able to arrange a melody in different ways.
"Welcome Back" could have been arranged for a jazz trio, guitar duo, rock power ballad settings. I chose to record that tune for a guitar solo.
