Last night, I worked on that Perfect Moment bridge yet again. Sometimes I reach a point where I'm just throwing things together with almost no regard for what actually makes sense, and absolutlely none for context. But then I'll listen back later on and realize that I've done something new. That once I've veered from the path of trying to make something sound like this or that, magic starts to happen. And when I listen, instead of thinking "oh, that bassline isn't hip enough, or oh, those vocals don't blend right," I'll just think, "That's me! I did that!"
I think I don't actually like arranging my songs. I just love new ideas; when I work, I get excited about coming up with countermelodies and stringing them together, and somehow it all comes together. So tonight, when I sat down with La Da Da Dee, and tried to change the feel of one of the sections from swung to straight, I started to get really tense. I knew the general feel I wanted, but I didn't know how to get there. I just wanted a part that you wouldn't notice (which is something I often want in a rhythm section - if you don't notice the instruments, it means they're really playing the song), but I couldn't make it happen. So I just looped a couple bars and played over them again and again.
Until, of course, I had an idea. And once I have an idea, lights start to turn on, and my hands move by themselves, and soon enough I'm nodding my head, yes, this is how it should be.
But I'm a little worried. I'm worried that I'll end up not with 9 coherent songs, but with 9 collections of ideas, stuck together with chewing gum and common key signatures. My high school composition teacher once told me, after listening to one of my disjointed pieces, that I should write music for cartoons. I hope that Waiting doesn't get the same reaction.