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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
Don't read (too much)! I know this goes against that which many have said above, but is sifting endlessly through the symbolic representations of other's thoughts really going to assist immeasurably in the articulation of your own? Have you stopped reading this?
Reading others and writing oneself should be kept conceptually and practically separate.
My thoughts are exactly these when it comes to composing music. I must keep my head clear of other 'notes' and melodic phrases or they will (and have) creep into current works. This doesn't mean I won't actively seek inspiration from other methods of "approaching" representing the idea... but, often I'm my own inspiration.
If I wanted something that sounded like Copland I'd dig him up, prop 'em up on a chair and ask him to write it for me!
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Sep 2001
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1. Try not to concentrate too much on the words with which you want to communicate your idea, but on the idea itself...
2. ...but I think being 'well-read' is often stifling to one's own self-expression.Hey Bellig, Rule 1 swings, Rule 2 sucks. We are what we hear, see, and read. The originality is in the integration. We read for ideas and we write to express ideas. Why else would we read or write? And if we sing " I Gotta Be Me" we don't become Sammy Davis Jr. bar-hopping Las Vegas, we remain our less-than-glamourous off-key selves. Andy Warhol didn't like to read so he painted pictures of tomato soup cans which were bought by other people who didn't like to think. Let us ask ourselves this: Do we really want Art Historians of the future laughing at our painted cans? I didn't think so. Thank you. 
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Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 13
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 13 |
How do I learn to write from "He cleared his throat" to "snorts heavily, as phlegm and other assorted organic debris is shaken loose from his nasal passages"? Please help.
You are putting us on, unieduck. Very clever.
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Joined: Oct 2000
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veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
If I wanted something that sounded like Copland I'd dig him up, prop 'em up on a chair and ask him to write it for me!Paradox here - because it's actually very difficult to write (music or writing) in the style of someone else, and make a convincing job of it. I think it's inevitable that when we create we use existing ingredients, especially our personal (conscious and unconscious) favourites. That's not to say that the end product isn't effectively original, as the memetic  whole is much greater than the sum of parts. But to be truly original you'd have to have been raised on another planet orbiting another star. And even that may not be enough.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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old hand
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old hand
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But to be truly original you'd have to have been raised on another planet orbiting another star. Then you would have very little chance of being understood by anybody, and starve to death unless you are sponsored by some earthling .
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Joined: Oct 2000
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veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
Then you would have very little chance of being understood by anybodySo what's new?
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
Ahhhhh. Now I understand where musick is coming from! 
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Joined: Mar 2000
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
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So what's new?
This has alway struck me as a surprisingly difficult question (If you are dealing with patents people you are harshly confronted with it). Every claim to newness can be set against a multitude of "states of the art", and success depends a lot on that choice. The border area between "new" and "nonsensical" is even more swampy.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
The border area between "new" and "nonsensical" is even more swampy.
At least as swampy as the border area between "male" and "white".
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
a surprisingly difficult question (If you are dealing with patents people you are harshly confronted with it)Yes indeed. As witness suits regarding copyright on pieces of music. If someone nicks a brilliant, catchy chorus tune from another song, but has a totally different verse tune, are they infringing copyright? How important is a similarity in lyrics? How important a similarity in the instruments used, or harmonies? It's rare that this doesn't all end up incredibly subjective. I can hear a new song on the radio and clearly recognise similarities to songs I've heard before. This may be a good thing (as it provides more of what I like) or a bad thing (as the song "lacks originality"). But nothing is ever totally original; or everything is original, depending upon how you're looking at it. 
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