Thoughts on emotions and music.

Well I have written this and rewritten it about 30 times and I'm still not happy but here it is.

This is going to be a little preachy, (a little personal and very therapeutic all at once. Not preachy like Oral Roberts or anything so don't worry. Just some feeling's about some recent events in my life that pertain to how some of us make music, and how some of us shouldn't.

Okay, here goes with some of the personal influence's. Emotion plays a big part in how a lot of us write music, be it good, bad or indifferent emotion is always there. In some case's were it is a song written for a pop artist by someone other than themselves, it is the artist's job to convey the emotion that the writer felt. For the rest of us, it is the way we feel on a particular day, or something that happened long ago, or something we are looking forward to. These are the emotions that whether any of us will admit it, are what makes up the music that we write or play.

This type of thinking does not effect just music like love songs or ballads, even though they convey a lot of emotion. We can put emotions into heavy metal, punk, jazz, rap, hip hop, the list goes on and on, but you see what I am getting at. You don't even need word's to convey emotion. Some of the most emotional music I have ever heard has no word's at all. The emotion is in the music and the instruments used to make it. The way a voice can make you listen, so to can an instrument. Artist's like Kitaro, Tangerine Dream, Dream Theatre, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton. Even guys like dare I say it, Yanni and John Tesh can change the emotion of a song just by the instrument they choose for a certain part. I have grown to love my synth's over the years, because of the large pallet of sound's that they give me. Not to say that a drum or bass or guitar can't be emotional, they can. Listen to guys like Santana, Clapton, Petrucci, Satriani and so on. They can make you cry, dance, or just listen with just the sound of their guitar's.

If there is no emotion in writing the music, people can sense it. And truly, there is a lot of music out there that is just that. Music, no emotion just music. I'm not saying thats bad, but you won't find them selling records to the mass public because everybody wants to feel something when they listen, and if its not there they won't be listening for long. Even the lowly old TV commercial has to have some emotion in the music, or it just ain't gonna get people's attention. Have you noticed who The music to some commercials is getting to be like a mini movie score very dramatic in some and subtle in others. That is how it should be, the music must enhance the vision, not overcome it but make you fell like you are part of that vision. In essence, make you feel good so you remember that product. I have done several commercials like that, and you know you have done your job if people are left in silence for a moment or two after they see it. I did a piece for a childrens fund that, the first time around in test viewings there was not much reaction. So I was asked to come up with something to "make people cry". After a lot of thought and watching that commercial loop in front of my face, I finally felt I had it. When they put it up for a test group, there was not a dry eye in the house. And the music that did it was vastly differant from the first go around, because I let my emotion's for what I was seeing come out in the music.

I personally have had a long dry spell of not feeling that I was putting the emotion's I wanted to convey in my music. It has been almost 2 year's since I have written something that I felt emotionally tied to. Now I have just been given a chance at something I had thought about for a very long time, but thought the day would never come. This event at this time in my life has filled me with emotions I have not had in year's. Feeling's of joy, confusion, excitement, thought's flying through my head non stop. The best way I know how to express them is in the music that I feel when I think about them. It is the thought of meeting someone for the first time in 16 year's, seeing someone I have never seen, for the first time. These are the kind's of thing's other's take for granted, but that fuel myself and other's to write and play the music that can be so emotional as to make someone else feel just as you or I felt when we are writing or playing that very same piece. Music can be a way of saying thing's we might not be able to say in word's alone. I guess some people are born with the feeling's and the ability to be able to put their emotions into music, and if I can have a creative influence on just one, it will make my purpose here all the more rewarding.

I know you may be reading this now, and thinking, what does this have to do with me? Well it may not make a difference now or even in the near future. But if you intend to make people listen and want to hear you, you will need to put some of yourself into what you create. You may never sell a million record's, but if you can effect the life of just one or a few with the music you create. You may just find the next time around that thought of those few, just might give you the emotion you need to write that million selling tune.

Ok, enough emotion for now, I may dig deeper into that again but only time, and a trip to California will tell.

Now for the preachy part.

I was given a demo of some music that at the onset sounded pretty good to me, sort of angry, but very powerful. After I had time to listen a little closer and make out some of the lyric's, I was shocked at what I heard. It was some of the most hateful words I had ever heard. And combined with the anger of the music itself gave me a turning feeling in my stomach that didn't go away for hour's. That is not the kind of emotion I will ever promote in music. Being a small independent and private studio, I guess they thought I wouldn't care and probably needed the work. WRONG. No matter how hard up I am, I would never lay my stamp of approval to anything that hateful and hurtful. Music is a very powerful tool and I never want to be part of anything that is meant to hurt or promote the hurting of other's. This world is in rough enough shape without trying to do damage to everyone who doesn't fit the mold of our society. So, as a final thought hear, keep the anger in the instrumental, and not in the word's. Then you can say you did let it out, but you didn't hurt or promote hurting anyone, including yourself.

Well I hope you made it to the end without getting to board, but I just had to let rip. Thanks for listening. I will leave you with a famous quote from someone I trust.

"Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together".

Keep Rockin and "May the Noize B with U"

Noize 2 U