i'm sure any mixed-media 101 professor in art school can tell you that every year they get the same tampon glued to a canvas covered in red paint that says "slut" and there's probably a reason for it. every artist has to go through a a time when they make trite, shallow, well-worn, cliche, and just awful art. maybe it's because we don't know any better or we just have to get it out of our system to move past it on to the "real" stuff.

cat with a guitar
i'm there now. well, i feel like i'm there now. lately i've been big on bass and i've been working hard to develop a personal method for creating and applying basslines to existing harmony... as if i was hired to do so for someone else. i'm treating it like i do my photo work or like a session musician, the client has hired you to make something for them. they're paying so they get to say how it is regardless of your "vision". so i'm looking to make serviceable, functional basslines that do what they're supposed to. state the harmony and naturally and logically guide the listener to the next chord. fine. i can do that but ugh... i feel like all my lines are tampons glued to a canvas.

like i'm not out to rewrite rock or win a grammy with a tasty bassline, but i'd like someone that knows what they're listening to to be like, "yeah, the bass is good"... but i feel like all of my lines are so obvious that it comes of as "pfft, yeah, he would play that" with an exaggerated eye roll. but, maybe that's the necessary part. i mean, there is zero wrong with the lines, they're just standard. i think i just i need to get these obvious and cliche basslines out of the way before i can develop my own style and preference.

that, having been said, it's not all bad. the daily practice of creating basslines for new progressions has given me a lot to work with. i'm much more conscious of where the harmony is and where it's going. maybe i'm being a bit hard on myself... i've hear much more basic basslines on classic songs all the time and don't think for a second that the bassist just called it in. after all, it's what the song requires not what i think the song requires. back to work, i suppose.