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The vast majority of Space Operas have the same flaws. A moment's reflection and they seem obvious.

1. Lightyear is a measurement of distance, not time.

Although it could be considered colloquial hyperbole nowadays, like saying some car is lightyears ahead of another in its technology, would it still be colloquial in the same sense when there is a more basic need to space-faring humans for measuring distance in terms of lightyears?

 

2. Advanced technology is out of context  read more »

Background  read more »

If you're stuck with a composition now, listen back to some of your earliest recordings.

Background
I've been composing for over 15 years now. I've been improving every year. I know that I am because I've recently come across some of my old recordings from the late-80s and I've improved since then. Yet oddly enough, in some ways I prefer them.

I've improved in many areas, yet there's an attractive rawness in the old recordings.

Clarity  read more »

Aim
Listen critically to your compositions and spot the similarities. By identifying what you commonly do, you can start to change and improve your range.

My experience
I did this a couple of months ago and I found a lot of my compositions started with same two chord sequence but often using different keys. These were compositions that I'd approached by playing randomly on guitar, not by a more thought-out and planned approach. If I liked the sound, then I'd move to the next chord and so on.
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Mixing rhythms can produce effective results.

Different time signatures

Think of the stress pattern of a 4/4 bar. It will have the main stress on the first beat of the bar. So that's:

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

Now let's look at a 5/4 signature, the stress would again be on the first beat

That's 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

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Articles 31-40 in the Musical Creativity Series

Which is louder, the hard-struck ringing chord or the palm-mute?

I answer both to that question. Let's look in some more detail.
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"cartoons drawn on the back of business cards": how to be creative features 26 points on creativity, more specifically how it affects people and some of the stumbling blocks along the way. I can't believe how true a lot of this sounds. I know people who fit into most of the categories mentioned. It was written in 2004 and I'm amazed I haven't seen it before. The more I read it, the more I realise little has changed.  read more »

I wrote recently about my wishes to do a space opera. I think it's the inner child in me wants a release. I was too young to fully appreciate Star Wars, too old for the teddy-bear Ewoks in Return of the Jedi, but I was just the right age for the Empire Strikes Back.


I read a lot of sci-fi as a teen and still come back to it on a regular basis. I've always preferred the near-future sci-fi that makes you think about the social implications, rather than the blinding-with-science-but-no-plot found in many books.

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Following on from the article about using gates on drums. I want to describe the main reason I use gates and that's to lock the bass into another pattern such as the kick drum.

It's quite a common use for a gate and when set well, it's subtle and almost unnoticeable, but definitely noticeable when you turn the effect off.  read more »