Comments on: How to Hum Your Way to Better Compositions

By: Dan Connor

Dan Connor — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:54:14 +0000

No problem! Thanks for reading and commenting. Keep humming.

By: Craig Jacks

Craig Jacks — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 02:32:15 +0000

Great ‘tip’ article. I’ve been doing this very thing lately whenever I can’t seem to come up with anything that pleases me. Some of the ‘hummed’ comps have eventually turned into something close to worthwhile. Thanks for bringing this to the forefront of my thoughts tonight.

cjacks
The Shed

By: Dan Connor

Dan Connor — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:54:08 +0000

@ Oneoverphi. Absolutely – I agree 100%. A little voice recorder combined with playing with melodies in an informal setting can be really helpful. I do that too.

By: Oneoverphi

Oneoverphi — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:01:31 +0000

I find myself whistling or singing nonsense words to generate new melodic phrases. Sometimes while driving in the car. I would record a particularly good one onto my cell phone for later reference (when I’ve pulled over safely to the side of the road of course). I would suggest anyone who produces music keep some sort of recording device on hand at all times. You never know when that masterpiece will usher forth from your lips!

By: Dan Connor

Dan Connor — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 03:52:22 +0000

Kristie – I forget to do the humming thing a lot when it would be most useful. I’ll have to poke around for a good example of it in my material ;)

If I can find one where I used it a lot, I’ll post it.

By: Dan Connor

Dan Connor — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 03:51:08 +0000

Keith – I know! I get too serious about this stuff sometimes. I’ve been trying to listen to more Zappa in an attempt to stop thinking about music in terms of hard concepts.

By: Kristie

Kristie — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 02:35:06 +0000

I’m stuck on slow Internet at the moment so haven’t listened to it yet :(

BTW… Please please please post some of your humming compositions for me to listen to when my Internet is running at full speed :-D

By: Keith Handy

Keith Handy — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 20:59:55 +0000

Although nobody has to hear the rough, ridiculous sounding phases, I force myself to publish that stuff anyway, just to overcome fear. There are six billion people in the world, and if a handful of them see my youtube idea-in-progress videos and say “you suck”, that’s their problem, not mine. :)

This post is good in general because we tend to get away from doing things in the “little kid way” once we have real equipment, and it’s important to keep the “little kid” in us involved in the process, and that humming (or beatboxing, etc.) suggestion is a good way to do that.

By the way, I didn’t comment on your mastering experiment because I was still shell shocked from when a previous comment of mine had been accidentally deleted, but I think I’m ready to get back on the horse now. (Just kidding!)