One of the things you learn while studying jazz is how to be complicated. Every time I write something simple I have this voice in the back of my mind telling me it's not good enough because it's not full of crazy chords or in some kind of weird time signature. It's a ridiculous mindset, as there is plenty of beauty and skill in composing simply, but I really have to work hard to convince myself of that when I'm in the middle of writing and my inner critic is judging like mad.
Read MoreI don't have a lot of brain space left tonight, but I'll do my best to bash out a few cohesive thoughts on this piece. Today was an exercise in learning that something is enough. This one is not very long, and there was far more I was playing around with, but it got to 11:30pm and I decided to just record the most cohesive part. I tried to treat it like a finished piece in performance, and just making that mental decision seemed to help solidify it as a composition that is complete in itself regardless of what it wanted to be originally
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