I began my experimentation with the Daily Writing method. It is specifically focused on creating a long-term daily practice so I tried it for a more extended period than the other methods to gain insights into the process.
A habit can take an average of 66 days to form and anywhere from 18 to 254 days (Lally 2009). I wanted to give the method enough time to work, so I tested it for about 50 days. I tested the other five methods for shorter periods since they are more activity-based and frequency was not an essential component.
The original exercise found in Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way is “What are the morning pages? Put simply, the morning pages are three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream-of-consciousness” (Cameron 2016). My adaptation is as follows:
I adapted the page length restraint to a time limit as I thought this was more appropriate for composition. In freehand writing, you can write your ideas directly onto the page as instructed in this exercise, however, composing music on the spot does not necessarily have to be notated. I found that a page or writing minimum with no time restriction allows for too much editing and judging. Cameron emphasizes, “Nothing is too petty, too silly, too stupid or too weird…nobody is allowed to read your morning pages except you” (Cameron 2016). This method is focused purely on the act of creating with no specific intention to develop it further. It is clear from the author’s instructions that the goal is to not judge the ideas but to establish a daily ritual of creation. This is also why the session is not recorded. Instead, one composes and develops something for ten minutes non-stop and can then optionally write down any lasting ideas. I believe these adaptations bring the character of the original exercise best to the application of jazz composition with the focus being on the frequency of daily repetition.
As can be seen in both subsequent examples, I wrote a short figure in the ten minutes of the exercise but instead of stopping there, I continued to write and develop the fragments. This happened over the course of multiple days and weeks until the song evolved into the versions that I recorded and now perform.
Walking through the process with examples. Case study, “Newcomer”
Using this method, on October 15th, 2022, I started my ten minutes of writing. I came up with eight bars of a compositional idea. My original notation/audio recording can be found here:
Because this idea stood out to me as having potential, I continued to think about it. On October 30th, I notated it further and added more lyrics. I continued working the next day by adding another section of an interlude. Finally, on November 14th, I created a vamp section. With this, all the individual pieces of the song were written and I worked on the assembly and arrangement from there. As jazz composer Wolfert Brederode suggested to me, I incorporated a key change at the end of the piano solo, and added another verse of lyrics to continue to set the mood and reveal more of the story.
The original melodic/harmonic pattern I wrote on the first day of this idea became the basis for the whole song. To me, it had a clear mood: dark and restless. The harmony contributes to this darkness starting on a minor chord and the melody beginning with a leap of a major sixth down landing on the minor third. This interval jump to me is dark and moody because it emphasizes the defining tone of the minor chord. Additionally, the seconds in the upbeat pattern highlight chromatic extensions like the 13, and #11 and generally avoid the third leaving the harmony ambiguous and therefore leading to this feeling of restlessness and uneasiness. The lyrics also tell a clear story, “I wait for the sun, I wait where no one even knows my name.” They immediately create the feeling of isolation. There is a literal and figurative darkness in the scene with the narrator waiting for the sun implying that there is no light. Continuing to the next sentence, a name is part of someone’s identity and it is often the first thing one learns about another person. The fact that “no one” knows the name of the narrator gives the sense that they are not understood or known, even in the most mundane way. This further demonstrates the feeling of isolation. The feeling of isolation is also paired with the orchestration and writing of these measures. The piano part only has three notes per chord, one of which is the bass note. This is quite sparse and establishes a stark quality that adds to the mood. In a way, it also makes the melody stand out more, isolating it from the harmony, therefore mirroring the experience of the narrator.
Even though I only started with these nine bars from the ten minutes of this daily method, there was plenty of information to continue the composition. The upbeat pattern itself became the cornerstone of the song, a constant throughout, building tension in the piece. The mood continues and develops throughout the piece lyrically and musically culminating with the recapitulation of the A section modulated up a whole step. The lyrics continue the precedent of the first verse beginning each new verse with the lyric “I” and a verb starting with a “w”. Each verse illustrates another aspect of how the narrator views their situation of feeling like an outsider.
Melody/Harmony: The lyric sections balance the wordless sections as they contrast each other and the wordless section provides a release. The lyric sections have more interval jumps in the melodic line while the wordless sections move stepwise and with smaller jumps. Additionally, there is balance in the repetition and development within the composition. The lyric verse repeats five times throughout the composition but the last two times are transposed up into the higher, brighter key of D giving a sense of familiarity but also a lift and build in intensity from the development.
Form: The form supports the melody by having two contrasting sections. The key change and repetition of the original melody and lyrics allow for a new resolution in the last line, concluding the song.
Performance: I enjoy performing this song because of the emotional journey it contains. The vocal control required by the interval jumps in the melody and the range of the starting note of each section challenges me technically.
On this day, I had just come back from my first solo trip in Europe. I traveled to Basel, Switzerland and while I was there, I did a short hike called “24 Stops” that went through the countryside of Switzerland to Germany and included 24 art installations by artist Tobias Rehberger ("24 Stops" 2022). This experience inspired my writing that day.
Similar to my process for writing “Newcomer,” I found that within the ten-minute writing period, I produced a distinct musical figure paired with lyrics. This time, however, the mood was tranquil with a sense of delicacy. Sustained notes form the melody over a more rhythmically subdivided pattern that reveals the harmony in the piano underneath. At the beginning and end of measures one, two, and four, the piano and voice converge in unison. This predictability shapes the calm mood. The piano departs from this unison forming a counter melody of perfect and some major intervals additionally creating a sense of stability. The range for this pattern is contained within a major sixth and the vocal melody moves in stepwise motion contributing to the stability and calm of the section. However, the four bars are a self-contained micro journey as the melody and harmony start diatonic and in 4/4 time, venture to another key center and time signature in the third measure but then return in the fourth measure to the same melody paired with a different diatonic root in 5/4 time. Additionally, the lyrics are ephemeral in the first line, “Ice forms on blades of grass.” The frost will stay on the grass for a fleeting moment until the warmth of the sun meets it. The lyrics portray a transient natural occurrence revealing the delicacy of the mood.
Following this, I wrote another two small figures that built upon the material of the A section but took it in a new direction. This B section starts with a similar sustained melody note and major diatonic harmony but then quickly ventures to a new non-diatonic key center. I wrote lyrics addressing self-reflection, starting with the apostrophe “Oh, fear,/ you’re not welcome anymore./ I liked it better here before I ever offered you a/ Stay.” At the end of the first day of writing, I had two distinct yet related sections that were somewhat developed and I notated them by hand.
The following day, I wrote additional lyrics for the A and B sections and assembled the form. The next step I took in writing this song was transposing it to C. My original idea was in the key of F but I felt it was too high in my vocal range for the softer more introspective emotional content I wanted to convey. I also elongated the B section with a new continuation. For this section, I focused on advancing the lyrics and taking a stand against the personification of fear from the previous seven bars. Here the melody is higher in range to give the lyrics more strength and energy and the harmonic rhythm increases from one chord every two bars to one chord and two chords per bar.
Upon returning to this song in another session, I wrote chord changes for the solo section. I kept the pattern from the beginning of the song but superimposed new harmony on top. The pattern itself gave parameters for what the potential chordal options were. I simply ordered them in a way to bring back the idea of a journey within the song. For this, I started with the most diatonic and stable chord, Fmaj7, and gradually morphed through the harmonic options eventually landing each chorus of solos on the tensest chord, F#7alt. While the chords are changing in these voicings, the notes stay the same between the first two chords and then for the next three chords, only one note changes. The change from Emin11 to Bbmaj13#11 is the first change that introduces two different notes in the voicing, building tension and leading to the final chord, F#7alt. F#7alt is the most tense as it is the only chord from the melodic minor mode, making it the most contrasting chord from the initial F major harmony. It also has the b9/half step as the first interval in the scale making it the darkest and most tense in the context.
Melody/Harmony: There is a balance between repetition and development in the recurrence of the ostinato pattern in the piano. The pattern begins and ends the song and it develops throughout the solo section. The B section appears in between, providing contrasting harmonic and rhythmic materials including a faster harmonic rhythm, more non-diatonic chords and rhythm that deviates from the ostinato. The harmony of the solo section is another example of balance between repetition and development. Within the repeated open section for solos, the harmony develops from stable to tense then repeats again creating a sense of balance.
Form: The form reinforces the journey of the song. Each four-bar phrase in the A section is a small journey but the larger form of the song starts simple and calm, builds to the B and then solo sections, and comes back to the melodic content of the A section with new meaning. Only the lyrics in the B section repeat within the form as they are more related to the message, whereas the A section sets the scene.
Performance: I enjoy performing this song especially because of the development of the journey throughout. There is a build in the composition that leads to great energy while performing the ending. The A section is a challenge for me to vocally create the soft and delicate mood required while managing my breathwork. Additionally, the solo section is harmonically challenging.
Thoughts from my reflective journal: “I think this method is very good for training mentality [sic]. Because you need to produce every day, you can’t have as many criteria for what you produce… Instead of judging if I liked what I was writing or if it is my style etc., I just followed the idea through to have something produced. It helps to develop a ‘yes, and’ mentality with any ideas, and as with any type of practice, I did feel like I got into a routine with the method.”
Results:
Without this method, there is no guarantee that I would have had these ideas come out. Before I started, I had the fear of not having enough ideas to test this method. The reality was quite the opposite. Because I was composing every day, this gave me the freedom to develop the ideas that stood out to me and that I liked. I had more ideas and ways to start songs simply because I knew that each day was another chance and that I could throw away anything that I did not like. Throughout the three months, I became non-judgmental during daily compositional work and then more selective when it came to which ideas I should continue developing. Throughout two months of working, I made at least 55 different potential starts to songs and I further developed only a handful of these. As seen in these two musical examples, the smallest unit of the song is strong. They have a distinct mood and distinctive musical elements that give a clear path for elaboration. This allowed me to find a direction to go in for each song.
This method reinforces the idea that creativity can be practiced (Sternberg 1995) and there are no limits to the amount of ideas you can generate. The important part of this method was just showing up and each day untangling and reforming the musical and life ideas surrounding me at the time to forge inspiration in the moment. Interestingly, I found the method can encourage developing a smaller cell of music into a full song. Because the ten-minute constraint limits the amount of material one can make, I focused on making one convincing idea during that time. Starting with these defined ideas made it easier to continue composing songs.
One thing to note about this method is the unpredictability of when results come. When writing a song on a short deadline, this method might not be the most practical. It relies on frequency over time and having a collection of input. With the luxury of building a compositional practice over time, my experience is that this method leads to results and builds confidence in the ability to consistently produce.
