Comments on: Turning Strangeness Into Beauty

By: Tony Conniff

Tony Conniff — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 23:15:12 +0000

In reply to Julia Douglass.

Julia,
As you can see above, I relate! Thanks for the positive (but realistic) take on it.
Tony

By: Tony Conniff

Tony Conniff — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 23:13:28 +0000

In reply to Richard Kranjac.

Rich,
Thanks for that! Well put.
TC

By: Julia Douglass

Julia Douglass — Fri, 15 Jan 2016 11:57:26 +0000

Thank you for this blog post, Tony. Oh definitely. It takes me awhile to “get stuff”. I won’t say now who I am finally “getting”, as I am decades behind everyone else in my appreciation for artists who everybody knows are iconic and extraordinary, who back in the day everyone would be raving about, and I would be going, “huh? wha? I don’t get it.” I used to get frustrated with my inability to appreciate the strangeness my friends immediately and totally “got”. But my slow to catch on tendencies have now made enormous amounts of music finally accessible to me, and I am having the time of my life, listening is so fun, for there are always new discoveries. (New for me anyway). And of course, there are artists now I am as usual going, “huh? wha?” and twenty years from now I’ll be excitedly talking about my “new discovery”.

By: Richard Kranjac

Richard Kranjac — Thu, 14 Jan 2016 23:13:13 +0000

Hi Tony,
Another great blog post. Elise nailed it with “open mindedness” which harkens to your judgement free tactic. When I hear those “interesting, but not quite there” ideas, I record them right away if I can. Sometimes the big lie, “I’ll remember it later/in the morning”, still kills off some good ideas, but not as much thankfully. If I record or right them down, I can go back at a later time and see if there’s more there. Just 2 weeks ago, I started fleshing out the barest sketch of an idea from more than a year ago. I had even listened to it several times prior and thought very little of it. Why was it different this most recent time? Some combination of patience, open mindedness and song craft came together to nudge it into something that was more than just “interesting”. It’s all a process and when I remember that, I’m much better off. Great ideas seldom come fully formed, they need time, hard work and often other sets of educated ears to bring them forth.

By: Tony Conniff

Tony Conniff — Thu, 14 Jan 2016 19:53:07 +0000

In reply to Elise Morris. Thanks a lot, Elise! Tony

By: Elise Morris

Elise Morris — Thu, 14 Jan 2016 18:53:43 +0000

I love this article and the open mindedness that drives it.