I’m a great believer in you don’t get anything until you’re ready for it.
In the past, though I often thought about playing piano or organ, there’d been no real need to expend the necessary time and energy to get it together because I had guitars and could play rather frantic harmonica when in the mood. I say without fear of contradiction I the pick and grin, hum and strum format down pat.
I also had a rocking little band, playing all original material. We’d done a bit of radio, a bit of regional television, some ‘live’ shows, and then …
On a Wednesday evening we were eating pizza and drinking beer and making plans for European conquest during the year ahead. The next day it was announced that due to the pandemic, the country would be shutting down. The band didn’t survive the two years of restrictions and inactivity that followed.
When I realized the band was going the way of the great buffalo herds, I decided to tap into the influences that had been packed away for decades, and get away from guitar-driven music. Guitars would still be around but utilizing non-standard tunings and more as supplemental or background coloring.
Around this time the now-chronic breathing difficulties intensified by a couple of notches, and my vocal ability began to deteriorate. The early stages of carpal tunnel syndrome made playing guitar an often-painful exercise, so I switched to exclusively using what are called “open tunings” which are much easier on the hands. There are, however, limitations, so …
It seemed like as good a time as any to give keyboards a try, and a suitably affordable and versatile instrument was purchased.
I’ve been learning keyboards the same way I learned to play guitar: figure out a chord or riff and incorporate it in something new. But as I am unable to read or write music, nothing’s written down in even a remotely traditional form: my own form of notation features lines and circles and numbers, arrows pointing this way and that … very esoteric looking. The French would probably love it. They might even mistake me for a by-gawd avant-garde composer. Stranger things have happened.
On the surface, this may sound like a difficult and no doubt often frustrating transition, but to date it has proved to be quite liberating.
With no intention of marketing the stuff beyond announcements on facebook regarding when and where new songs were to be found – and that they were available as free downloads – there was also no intention of performing them, as other musicians would need to be involved. Frank Zappa and Brian Wilson may have had the necessary conductor’s gene, but I don’t.
If a suitable radio program could be found, where the sound files could be aired with interview bits in between, that might work. But I couldn’t pull off a technical discussion of this new music, because I just do it. I noodle about until I hear something I like, chase it down, and record it.
Just don’t expect me to replicate it.
As noted, I don’t have charts, the melody isn’t written out, so I’m working from memory. This isn’t so much a problem where the basic chords are concerned, but anything I play over them is a combination of memory and improvisation (within the limits of my ability). This, when combined with my less-than-flawless technique, makes recording a time-intensive activity. Fortunately, I have my own recording gear, so there are no out of control studio costs.
The majority of these early efforts clock in around three minutes, though the longest hits four minutes, thirty seconds. The oft-alluded to First Snow Variations is projected to run somewhat longer, which likely means more takes to get it right. Hey, I’m only human and yes, I make mistakes.
I enjoy looking for what sounds work (or how to make them work) and figuring out how they can be moved around, like opening one door after another: “Okay. Great. Yes. No. No. Yes. Oh, hell no …”
My concern at the moment is of becoming predictable, which is the bane of the nascent composer or songwriter (two different things): once you find something that works and sounds good, there’s a tendency to keep returning to it. “That’ll be my signature lick (or chord progression).”
Sorry, pal, but that’s not how it works. You have to keep moving forward.
Now. Some may ask, “If you aren’t going to market and sell or perform these things, what’s the point?”
Ironically, it’s a question of finance.
By law, the Internal Revenue Service (on whose good side I prefer to be) is to be advised of all income, that means worldwide and, probably, outer space, too. Shortly after the IRS knows, the Social Security Administration knows. Now, that isn’t a problem, unless you’re retired. Yours truly falls into the “I’m a senior citizen living on a fixed income” column. The “fixed income,” in my case, being my monthly Social Security benefit.
Because I took an “early retirement” I was penalized 25% of my monthly benefits (that’s my own money, built up during 48 years in harness). If I start making money again – and, as a solid citizen, report it – it’s likely I would be penalized again, and the SSA would want me to repay them large amounts of my own money. That’s not a typo. Sounds dumber than Hell, but two friends of mine have already been burned by that particular flame.
So, y’know, there’s your answer. It’s not financially viable for me to try and sell the things. Unless, of course, the numbers are right. If I could be sure of seventy-five to one hundred grand a year, they could keep what I currently draw from Social Security and use it to buy shoes for their junior executives.
*** Please read Being An Introduction (Dec 12, 2022) before posting a comment. ***
Beginning with the month you reach full retirement age, your earnings no longer reduce your benefits, no matter how much you earn. It’s likely 67 but you should check with the Social Security administration to be sure.
"Ironically, it’s a question of finance."
I agree 100%, dear readers . . .
Oftentimes, it's just not worth the trouble to generate an invoice.
This reply is Not being posted from my mega-yacht, cruising the Adriatic Sea,.
Out in Ballard - yr straightman