For me it’s like this.
I’ll have a thing in me, won’t even know it’s there. And it’s been going for a while. And it’s got a pulse maybe a groove, not hittin’ me just bein’ there. I feel it. Before I hear anything. Around for a while only now I feel it. It’s like that.
Then I’ll have it in me a while. I’m hearing sounds. Not instruments. And they’ll have a swing to them. These sounds. And I’ll loop them into a groove. And run that. In my head. A lot. Friends’ve pointed out they can tell when I’m working on an arrangement, how my shoulders move.
It’s like that
So I’m writing this story about a kid and a pennywhistle. And I get to wondering what their playing would sound like. And later when I’m not thinking about it I get this little snatch of something in my head. And that snatch has got a groove to it. It’s not loud. But it’s there. And I’m not thinking about the kid and the pennywhistle, I’m just wondering what that is I’m hearing. I’m quietly humming what I’m hearing. Breathing to it. Still don’t know what it is. The snatch I hear that kid made up.
So now there’s a melody I half remember and some low notes giving a tone to things and it’s playing in my head. For days.
Sometimes instead of reaching for an instrument I’ll start recording with just me making sounds. If I’ve got something in mind it can get lost in getting it down. So it’s good to have something to refer back to. Eventually I find out what it was I was hearing. It was a phrase at the top of a tune. Sat down with a whistle player and a few good reels who recognized the tune when I named it, was good fun to play through a few times. Got a more traditional phrasing in my head, so I knew where I was stretching the melody.
Although that wasn’t what I was hearing. So I figured I should get it down. By the time I walked away I had a quick sketch of what I’d been hearing in my head since my friend reminded how it actually went. So rough but it’s all there, the shifting chords, the swing of the melody when it’s right. I don’t suggest listening to the whole take. But this is the roughest first sketch. And this is the sort of thing that turns into something cool. And this is what goes on in my head.
The Butterfly (sketch 01)
I think I can hear where I want it to go. Think I’ll spend some time on the upright this week, see if I can make something out of it. Clearly at some point there will be flute.
I was goofing on sharing something so rough. Then I remembered I’d actually turned one of those into a finished track a while ago. Come to think of it more than once.
Didn’t feel so bad.