A song dedicated to the four "musical" Johns in my life: John Coltrane, John Lennon, John McLaughlin, and my dad. Nice rock chord progression, but also note the time signature, 15/8.

nice tune, but it's too much "computerized" to me...it's quite funny, the song, but not my style...
anyway, it's good

your drum sequencing is awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

everyone listen     done on fl?????

sounds a bit like philip glass meets satriani or similar........no offence.

if you like minimalist composition give your sequencing space to develop.......its great

i like this a lot....... better than lydian composition.

youre dad is a great influence

     

eh, youre trying to hard.  yea you know your music theory.  but thats not what music is.  i dont see much in the way of creativity here.  just what notes are supposed to played when...sounds kinda boring.  its a little predictable, because from what i hear its all based on knowledge of music and not creativity.

Well then you've obviously never heard John McLaughlin...

actually, i have heard him.  but i think theres a bit of a difference.  from what it sounds to me, and im sorry if im wrong, but you did all of this on your computer.  and theres a huge difference between clicking buttons and playing an instrument.  and yes he plays fast, knows his music, but there is a lot of creativity in his sound.  i still stand by my statement that this is all theory and no creativity.  if youre saying John McLaughlin only plays by theory, you need to take a step back and listen to some more music.

Well he plays a lot by theory. Theory has creativity, if you didn't realize. Take, for example, his all famed guitar part from Sister Andrea (I prefer the live one from Between Nothingness and Eternity). In an interview, he says that his solo was actually a formation of scales from an ascending root note, causing a gradual increase of flats, until the song restarts, in which he switches to a phrygian mode with a major third. I can't recall from where I saw this, but a lot of his solo was based on theory. Also, my song isn't very music theory-esque. I used a very simple rock chord progression, and basically created a nice, fairly simple melody to go with it, playing it in complicated rhythms.

little mamma's boys hide behind their mommies... grown up mamma's boys hide behind their computers... psychologically emotionally insecure boys hide behind their intellect

i'm gonna have to double nicu and vote also for the fact that this is MOSTLY theory and not much creativity...

nifty exercise... but overall boring... as nicu said... all the right notes at all the right times... phat little electronica beat... but... meh

good attempt... overall certainly not bad... i will refrain from actually voting on your song cuz I'm sure I'm biased and it's obvious based on the Philosophy thread that we disagree greatly in our appraoches to music composition and construction but I respect you in such a way as to realize that this might be somehow the pinnacle of beauty in your world... i don't know... i don't assume this... i just postulate it... one mans trash is another mans treasure...

Theory has creativity
absolutely not... no way no how... theory is the epitome of uncreativity... humans have creativity, not set standard conceptual maps... some of them can use the tools of theory to enhance the speed and effectiveness of their own creative potentials... but theory by itself is useless without the human to apply it

XenoX... you constantly eat your own words when you tell people that they "obviously" anything... you are "obviously" a moron when it comes to asking questions first and reserving assumptions for later...

I too am very familiar with John McLaughlin and the peice of which you speak and I think that peice is one of his lesser interesting items... his playing style is prone to wicked raw bursts of mind bending licks and while I'm sure he uses theory there's something more to it than just raw scale shredding... i think that peice which you mentioned is by far the least impressive of his works from a creative and an effectively emotinally evocative standpoint.

I don't see the need for 15/8... i think you could have accomplished the same thing with 4/4... to me time signatures like this are just an intellectual masturbation... I'm all for interesting times and polyrhythms... but I don't actually feel the 15/8 in this.... oh sure i hear it ... oh sure i can count it but it doesn't "do anything" for me. All too often I see people fall into the trap of using complication for the sake of complication... that's what this seems like to me... intellectual musical masturbation...

and the MAIN thing for me... is ... can you play it in real life? live? on stage... John McLaughlin did it... come out from behind your computer... don't try to compare yourself to him if you can't do it live... i could essentially replicate what you just did but better cuz I have better sounding computer instruments and I know just as much if not more music theory than you... hell i could make a 27 chord change, with scale modulation between major major-minor and dimished harmonies in 7/9 + 5/3 and still have it sound great... but i don't care cuz in my world that's just a big jerk off contest and it doesn't have any soul... hah! yes, i said it... no soul...


so... now... i'd love to hear you sing a song with an acoustic guitar... no BS... no veils and layers of computer wizardry to hide behind... lets hear you ... the real you... do you have the guts to show that to us?

FIRST, I'd love to honor your request, but sadly, I have no talent in singing. My voice is crappy, and I've never actually given a serious attempt at this, and so will not do that portion. However, I hope you accept a piano as a suitable substitute for the guitar, and I may try to get a live recording my piano skills. The song will probably have dubbed in bass and drums; do not judge it from that perspective.

SECOND, I'd also love to talk to you in real time, ie IM or something. I noticed you didn't put up your IM on your screen. If you have one PM me it, or IM me when I'm on...

AOL: madoc7311

i think the point both me and entheon are trying to make is that your knowledge of modes and scales dont matter as much as you are implying.  yea they are important to know because they help with such things as improvising and if youre stuck writting and need to know where to go, but you have to remember...music is creativity.  think about all the old jazz and blues legends.  did they know all of these modes and have them memorized and could recite them backwards and forwards...most likely not.  take django reinhardt for example.  dudes fingers were burned together.  the only thing that led him through that was...CREATIVITY.  he couldnt rely on all those scales and modes because he simply couldnt play that in his crippled state.  so whatd he do...form his own method.  point is, your knowledge of modes and scales means little in what your music actually sounds like.  and sometimes...SIMPLE SELLS!!!!  you dont need to impress me with what mode you write in and what time signature you come up with, because its not impressing me.  go with your feeling of what sounds good...make us a song that is drivin by your passion of music and not by what some teacher taught you is supposed to sound right because those notes fit together in a phyrigian scale structure.  and ill give you respect as a musician.

The thing is, though, that I DO have a passion for music. Just because I love mathematical music theory does not mean that I implement no creativity. What mathematical music theory does is it opens up a greater range of possibilities for the musicians, so he may utilize these in addition to the classical and simple popular compositions. I just don't feel any emotional connection with music. And also, many famous, "great", musicians don't konw the entirety of musical theory, but are great because they subconsciously 'feel' one chord progression works better than the other. John Coltrane, in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, was asked about how he came up with such a phenomenal composition as "Giant Steps". He replied that he started a song with a simple  II - V - I, but then thought, insted of the II again, how about the II's major third, the Vb? He did a II - V - II on the III, but decided to repeat the cycle, which brought him back to the I after all. After he pondered this, he analyzed the chord cycles and figured out exactly what was going on, amazed in his intuition.

wow...

I just don't feel any emotional connection with music.

that explains everything... i need say no more because you already said it for me

WOW is right

if i had no emotional connection to music...

a)  it wouldnt be fun to write, listen to, or play
b)  music would just be a bunch of notes jumbled on a page, which is now apparent that thats what it is to you
c)  music would SOUND AWFUL, because theres nothing personal behind it.