Weird Insomnia

[Capricorndog]

A friend of mine, a Jazz musician, asked me to review one of the tracks for his upcoming release. I was flattered he asked, but unfortunately didn’t care for the piece. I listened to it over and over to make sure how I felt about it and then I emailed him back with a review. Funny, but if I had told him I liked the song; he would have just said thanks and left it at that. But since I had criticisms, now he wanted me to go into more detail about why I felt like I did. So I listened to his song even more and wrote him back a more detailed opinion, still generally negative. Well now he was really interested in what I had to say. He wanted to know even more about why I thought this part of the song didn’t work or why this melody wasn’t strong enough. It was exhausting. Finally our correspondence on the issue drew to a close. An hour later he sent me another song to review. Oy!

Anyways, it’s 2:43 in the morning and I can’t get the first song I reviewed for him out of my head. It’s kind of driving me batty. Maybe that means his melody’s catchier then I thought? Or maybe any music will get stuck in your brain if you listen to it long enough. Big radio seems to know that trick. Guess I try to lie back down and drift away. Give me the Beach Boys and free my soul, I want to get lost in your Rock and Roll. Oy!

[James]

Any musician worth their mettle wants to hear criticism about their work; it's part of the crafting process. Music doesn't exist in a vaccuum, and generally artists are constantly trying to connect with people through their art. If something is hindering them that they can't see or hear, they're keen to talk to people who do see and hear these things, so they can make further connections. Of course there are egomaniacs out there as well who don't want to hear any sort of criticism whatsoever, but I think it separates true artists from charlatans. I suppose it goes beyond art and into human nature: if you don't like a restaurant for one reason or another, and you fill out a card saying why, they take those on board and make changes where appropriate.

[ree-ree]

He must really respect your opinion; that's sorta nice.

[Capricorndog]

It really is flattering that he respects my opinion.

[Rebecca]

Maybe that means his melody’s catchier then I thought? Or maybe any music will get stuck in your brain if you listen to it long enough.

Probably the latter. One time I had to transcribe an entire song for one of my music theory classes. I ended up listening to the song 100 times before the project was complete, and it took me weeks to get it out of my head.

[katie]

whenever i'm working on a musical, it is impossible to get the noise of the score out of my poor, tired brain. it does help with choreography, though, cause i can play the song in my head and let my mind dance.

[froggorino]

i always have a soundtrack playing. always always always. like at any time you could be like, shan -- what's in there right now? and it would take me a sec to listen, but then i would tell you. it is so constant that i don't always notice that it is happening at all.

right now it is that commercial for ballpark franks. a few minutes ago this guy told me, "it works if you work it," so i'm all like "they plump when ya cookem."

soon to be replaced by some other thing that wafts by. i have never not been like this. anyone else?

frog"i am sure that this involuntary jukeboxing of the brain uses a ton of my ram, but what's a woman to do?"gy