Difficulty of your own compositions

[rick-slo]

Do you compose instrumentals that are tough to play well or are you easy on yourself? Of course you could be doing it both ways.

[Rudy4]

It goes both ways, sometimes the tune that I've composed in my head is more difficult than what my motor functions really are capable of, but it's usually a matter of working out the fingering patterns that work best with the tune. After that it truly is a matter of simply practicing until you can play it proficiently.

I've been self-composing tunes and songs for as long as I've been playing, so it becomes easier over time.

Here's an example of a tune that I used to demonstrate looper use; click ahead to 3:20 to hear the actual tune. This one is titled "Fairbury's Fancy", and is done at a slower than usual tempo to demonstrate the process of looping clearly.

[islandguitar]

Um....I guess both! There are times when I feel like I've backed myself into a corner in that I've worked out a picking pattern for a tune/ melody and realize "ah,it's "up there" a bit above my range". Other times it's fine and easy on myself, but, "playing something well" to me means getting what I want with phrasing and touch as best as possible and that brings in a different kind of level of difficulty.
I'm one who does "live" takes...no punch in, so it can be a challenge to bring a piece to be "performance ready" for recording purposes, which is not to say that I don't do a lot of takes! LOL!

[Mr. Jelly]

I understand the sentiment of the question. It comes to light when trying to learn someone else's song. It is logical not to create something you can't do though. The art of work arounds is fully valid.

[rick-slo]

I was getting a things that are difficult (not impossible) enough that you have to stretch yourself to deal with them.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Do you compose instrumentals that are tough to play well or are you easy on yourself? Of course you could be doing it both ways.

Hi rick-slo
Depends on whether it's a vocal piece (with an instrumental solo) or whether it's totally instrumental.

I tend to write my fully-instrumental stuff a bit more challenging. When I'm singing, or accompanying (etc) my main attention is on the singing/lyrics, and the arrangement. I don't want overly-elaborate/ornate things to interfere rather than support the intent of the piece.

[TBman]

I stay within my "easy to play" range.

[Brent Hahn]

I'll put it this way: recording my own music has made me a much better editor.

[DukeX]

Not all of it, but most of my stuff is difficult for me to play well if I don’t practice it a lot.

[Doug Young]

I think one benefit of writing your own music is that you write both what you can hear and play most of the time (and they're often related). But I have quite a few compositions and arrangements where I can't play what I intended as well as I want. I revisit some of them now and then to see if I can resurrect them, or if I'm playing better, but most remain un-recorded and unplayed.

"Difficult" isn't much of a goal for me, I like things that sound good, and I admire people (Al Petteway comes to mind), who write things that sound great while laying well on the guitar (i.e. are fairly easy to play). So I tend to think of the tunes I've created that I can't or don't play more as failed compositions/arrangements in that they either don't lay well on the guitar or I don't actually like them enough to work to be able to play them.

I have plenty of tunes that initially had challenging spots, which I either practiced till I could play them, or changed them so I could play them. I just have to like them enough to do that.

[rick-slo]

Difficulty is not a goal in itself but rather can be a byproduct of composing the elements of what you want to hear in the tune. You can play it safe of course and leave some things out completely or search for easier work arounds. Who is doing what and why is my interest.

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Do you compose instrumentals that are tough to play well or are you easy on yourself? Of course you could be doing it both ways.

Hi Rick,
A very, very good question!

I've always considered myself lazy because I write to my strengths, and I refuse to write something that I can't just sit down and play with no muss or fuss; i.e. like fast single line runs, or insane stretches, etc.

My 'strengths' are things that came easily, of course.

One thing that has NEVER come easy is being easily satisfied when in the midst of composing or writing a lyric (which is almost like pulling teeth).

The only exception to my 'rule' is my piece '....and why not?", which I can hardly play to this day. Todd Hallawell, on the other hand, nailed it handily when he covered it. I still fool around with it every now and then.

Best,
Howard

[rick-slo]

Thanks for the post Howard. Personally I spent most of my years learning various classical guitar pieces and a few "fingerstyle" pieces. Many had sections I had to work on a fair amount to get to flow well. So I feel in my own compositions why should I avoid doing as much.

[Brent Hahn]

There's another way, the "I've totally got this" approach.

I was at an open mic and someone got up, poised and confident, and banged through Meredith Willson's "Til There Was You" using exactly three cowboy chords. She sang it okay, actually. The audience gave this lady a big round of enthusiastic applause, and I remember thinking "Are they being polite, or can they not tell the difference, or am I the only one who's not in on the joke?"

There's a lesson in there somewhere, and I'm still not sure what it is.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

There's another way, the "I've totally got this" approach.

I was at an open mic and someone got up, poised and confident, and banged through Meredith Willson's "Til There Was You" using exactly three cowboy chords. She sang it okay, actually. The audience gave this lady a big round of enthusiastic applause, and I remember thinking "Are they being polite, or can they not tell the difference, or am I the only one who's not in on the joke?"
There's a lesson in there somewhere, and I'm still not sure what it is.

Vocals, especially of a pop song people know, always has greater mass appeal. Not much of a lesson for an instrumentalist except perhaps that a good melody is important.