I have a songwriting itch. A creative hole in my pocket. I want to fill it up with new musical ideas and songs but I’m worried that nothing will stick. I want to do things in a different way. At the same time, I’m a stickler for processes and methodology. This brings me to part two of this blog series. In this edition, I’m giving you a gift – my songwriting parameter generator! Hopefully somebody out there in internet land will find it useful. If you do, please get in touch. 🙂
The Songwriting Parameter Generator
I’ve spent the past month or so concocting some ideas on how to streamline the songwriting process. My idea – Randomisation. But I didn’t just want to make the process simpler by randomising elements of an unwritten song. I also wanted to force myself to implement elements/parameters that I wouldn’t usually include/use. Enter, the songwriting parameter generator.
Like many creators, I am forever at the mercy of my past experiences. In this case, those are listening experiences. We create things similar to that which we have absorbed; either subliminally or consciously. At the same time, many of us very easily fall into the safe notion of comfort. There is nothing wrong with comfort. There is, however, an issue with embedded repetition. I’m talking about the kind of repetition where excitement, innovation and exploration have been replaced with expectation and routine.
In later posts, I’ll go into more depth, detailing my (fast evolving) process and how this generator fits into the puzzle. In the meantime, feel free to give it a go. Here’s how it all looks:
Basic instructions:
- Open the file and select ‘Enable Macros’.
- You can choose to generate one parameter at a time or do the whole lot with one click.
- I’m not exactly a ‘programmer’. This is the first thing that I’ve coded (besides aspects of this website) since high school. If you encounter any issues or bugs, feel free to either get in touch using the contact form or make a comment on this post.
- Make music!
The parameters that I’ve made available for selection as part of the randomisation are:
Unfortunately, I’m unable to share Macro-enabled Excel Spreadsheets in WordPress. Here’s a link to the file from my Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tq-u7FR_Om7_WtQNVafO1ClmkKAJLjyG/view?usp=sharing
Any feedback or suggestions? Let me know.