Wow. Sorry for causing all of this I guess. This stuff is a little confusing. Jim, I can very much relate to thinking of colors, the moonlight on water, etc. I think of music VERY much that way because I don't just hear music, ...I experience the music whenever I'm listening to it. Songs give me different feelings, ...sometimes they make me think of static electricity surrounding me, other times a cool, emminating blue glow within, ...all manner of different adjectives. So, I understand what you are saying and that's kinda who I am by nature, ...which is pretty darn weird for an engineer, lol. Engineers are thought of as uncreative (but they find creative solutions to societies problems so how does that jive?), rigid, linear, ...mathematical side of the brain only. Well, I have that aspect for sure, but I certainly have something else going on too, ...and the other engineers know it and they don't quite know what to do with me, LOL.
I'm not a "total newb", ...I have "on and off" been working through Troy Stetina's Metal Lead Guitar Volume 2. I covered Vol. 1 some while back. From this volume I've memorized at least the box patterns of the various modes, and I get the idea of what they do, ...but I have yet to really read something to help me understand how to make use of it, ...for example if you have a Cmin, F#min, E progression, (e.g. - my song Lightwave (first song I recorded) - see
www.myspace.com/fizzmusik), how can I use modes to mix that up? Or if I use a modal shape to pick out some notes and make a chordal progression from it, ...then what the crap works over that, LOL.
If you check out my page at myspace, all of those pieces were written fairly spontaneously when I just felt it and played what I felt. Mostly, they didn't take me very long to lay down. I would like them to have more parts. I think that Dawn could definitely use another part to mix it up a bit, and Lightwave as well. Bitter was written with the intial idea that it would have lyrics, but I'm not comfortable in front of a microphone and when I have the urge to write something, ...it isn't lyrics, lol. So, that's why that song has the open space that it does where lyrics should be. There's also that huge gaping solo section that I've never went back and laid down lead on. Collage is just pieces of stuff, ...the first piece is something I came up with a while back that I love, ...but just haven't come up with another part for yet that feels right to me. The second piece is a complete song I did with a friend but the quality of it is such that I am not comfortable putting it up for everyone to hear. Every part needs to be retracked. The last part of Collage is just something I was fiddling with one day when I was at home sick, and just felt Japanese. Yes, I'm weird, lol!
I know what a 1 is, or a 4, or a flat 5, etc. though I don't have the numbers memorized for every position within a scale pattern and sometimes have to stop and think about it to figure out if what I'm playing is a 4 or a 2 if it's in a different place than I'm used to.
Right now I have a couple or a few licks or progressions and I am trying to figure out what chord structure to put over one, and for another
chord progression based on Phrygian, I'm trying to figure out another part for it. It may be a lack of creativity, ...but I think it's more of a need to develop my creative abilities. No artist just automatically "has it", lol. Those abilities have to be developed no matter how much talent an individual has. So, I haven't yet come to the conclusion that I'm just not blessed with creativity at all (phew!).
