I use a cheap
Alesis DM5 kit. I've seen the pads alone selling for 50 to 100 bucks on Craigs list. Not the best, but you can play them...mostly stick-rebound issues...hard to do finer things like snare grace notes...but adequate for laying basic grooves...and getting a variance of velocities that make midi tracks more organic...without having to tweedle each note in the sequencer.
Re-strategize.....hmmmm. I think the point is to remove yourself from the process....just listen-in to what your brain is playing, without trying to jazz it up. Be an honest transcriber of what you hear.
Brian Wilson. I met him last summer...came to one of my gigs and hung out for three sets. Skidmarks. :^)
There was an article written about him in a magazine about that same time...I read it. He's a lousy interview, so most of it was with others who were in the studio when he was recording...describing his creative process. The theme was that he composed in his head...or let his brain compose...and he made it real the next day. Virtuallly everything he ever recorded was playing in his head, first.
Music theory is good. Application is tricky. You have to be familiar with what the sounds make you feel...where they want to push the progression. You can read that a dominant 7th wants to lead to a chord a 4th up. But unless you can recognize it, and know it 'in the bones', it's of not much use. The best thing about familiarity is hearing music in your head, and being able to immediately recognize that the 'band' is playing a chord with a
dom7th..shortens the path between hearing and recording. Absolutely continue with study. Add listening and analysis classes, if they're available. You listen to pieces, and pick them apart. It bridges the gap between information and application ......experience the sound of harmony that you learn.
I gave several listens to 'Perfect Day' and made notes:
There are continuous lines being played by cello during, and over, the feature..the vocal. Not good.
There are fishy chords...the piano is playing a maj 7 while another instrument plays a dom7. Repeatedly. There's a repeating chord somewhere with a b5 in it. The extention comes from nowhere, and leads nowhere. Suggest you do a little reading on 'voice-leading'.
[I'm trying to be specific as I can...the streaming won't allow me to rewind...I have to listen to the whole thing again to hear a single sequence.]
There's a part in the verse where the progression goes up the the IV chord. There is no bass root detectible....and the progression becomes ambiguous.
This is a real problem: definition. To wit:
The bass has to lay down the roots of the progression so as to lead the ear. Chords with alterations and/or extentions, in addition to notes of basic, intended triads, contain other triads. If the bass doesn't clue the ear befor wandering of, it confuses the listener. The ear hears multiple possibilities of the for the chord of the moment.
All the instruments are playing a lot of stuff all the time...with a couple very good exceptions where breakdowns occur: a welcome relief. The effect is like walking into a room crowded with a hundred people , all talking at once. You, the composer, have to bang the gavel, bring the place to order, and introduce the speaker...the feature of the moment in the song. Other instruments need to pay attention to the feature. Otherwise, it's chaos.
The piece's piano reminds me of Bruce Hornsby's bag. It might be a good thing to listen to how he does it without stepping on everything else in the song: contrast, space, punctuation.
I hear a lot of gospelly influence in the piano. That's good. Basic triads. Simple motion. There are places in "Day" where two instruments together are playing thick, conflicting chords in passing. Simplify the structures to get them jiving together. Less is a lot more.
The vocal melody consists mostly of step-wise scale motion. It is very weak. Good melody outlines and/or follows changes with chord tones. And there are places where the vox line is suggesting one chord, the instruments, another. And singing later parts an octave up would inject some adrenaline into the story. The phrasing of the words is consistently awkward. You need melody first. Contrive lyric to fit...and peel off conversationally, with purposeful exceptions that draw attention. Quirks.
[good melody is the forte of the inner juke. It's the supreme thing in music.
String quartet is a good study. Four melodies outlining chords, counterpoint melody, time. An extreme example of where you need to go to de-confuse the thick, wandering tapestry you weave with all those notes playing at once.]
But forget all that stuff, for now. Concentrate on what plays in your head. Listen to it. Obey it, without trying to make it 'better'. That is, leave space; organize melodic things to play beneath the feature; have two or more instruments play things together about half the time. Your inner composer does this for you. Just listen.
That's really the important thing: Like Brian Wilson, you must HEAR it FIRST. You're on the right track after that. Keep it simple.
btw...
I was just thinking about what you might listen to , to lead you to the place where this compostion needs go get to:
"Hey 19" by Don Fagan [Steely Dan] is the best I can recommend. Listen to the simplicity of the groove in the verses...punctuated piano figures. The out-front snare chugging along; the PULSE on the bass drum and bass guitar; the arpeggios sung in the melody. There's half space, half music. The idea would be to realize that you composition is that crowded hall with everyone talking at once. All the 'words' of the music, as it unfolds, strung together: iwentdowntowntoseemygalandshesaidtakeahikeyouidiot.....
