Details
Earlier today I was trying to do a lead sheet of a song I had written several years ago. I have this cool program (Finale NotePad 2005a) that is really easy to use (though it crashes a lot for me on playback...)
Anyway, I realized a couple of things as I was working the song out (bear in mind, that I can't read music - not with any proficiency - and I taught myself to play guitar). First of all, I really like syncopation. Took me forever to figure out all those dotted this and tied that... Second, there can be a huge difference between a melody written and a melody performed...even when the notes are the same. There's inflection, scoops and whatever...
So, turns out that it's all about the details. When I was a kid I took some kind of standardized test. One of the parts of the test was to make as many pictures as I could out of series of circles in an allotted time. As I recall, there were maybe 30 circles. I probably used 5 or 6 of the circles. I was told that I spent too much time on the DETAILS of the pictures... But to my, I don't know, 9 year-old brain, a drawing wasn't complete unless all the details were there...
So, whoever said it, it's true. "The devil is in the details." Thing is, there's SO many details, how do I know which ones are really important? I didn't know in that standardized test. You see, I was instructed to do the work "carefully" and "quickly." Which detail was more important? Should I be careful or quick? The answer I got, which was tremendously helpful, was "yes."
Argh.
And I'm still there. Not sure which details are more important sometimes, not sure which things that demand my attention day after day are the really important ones. For example, I just had two conversations with people from church. They were not really conversations about anything, but that's part of being in relationship with people, isn't it? It's not really the just the big things (worship, events, weddings, funerals, etc) but the details. The 10 minutes about the carshow or the 20 minutes about the in-laws.
And I still have a pile of work to do...details....
Anyway, I realized a couple of things as I was working the song out (bear in mind, that I can't read music - not with any proficiency - and I taught myself to play guitar). First of all, I really like syncopation. Took me forever to figure out all those dotted this and tied that... Second, there can be a huge difference between a melody written and a melody performed...even when the notes are the same. There's inflection, scoops and whatever...
So, turns out that it's all about the details. When I was a kid I took some kind of standardized test. One of the parts of the test was to make as many pictures as I could out of series of circles in an allotted time. As I recall, there were maybe 30 circles. I probably used 5 or 6 of the circles. I was told that I spent too much time on the DETAILS of the pictures... But to my, I don't know, 9 year-old brain, a drawing wasn't complete unless all the details were there...
So, whoever said it, it's true. "The devil is in the details." Thing is, there's SO many details, how do I know which ones are really important? I didn't know in that standardized test. You see, I was instructed to do the work "carefully" and "quickly." Which detail was more important? Should I be careful or quick? The answer I got, which was tremendously helpful, was "yes."
Argh.
And I'm still there. Not sure which details are more important sometimes, not sure which things that demand my attention day after day are the really important ones. For example, I just had two conversations with people from church. They were not really conversations about anything, but that's part of being in relationship with people, isn't it? It's not really the just the big things (worship, events, weddings, funerals, etc) but the details. The 10 minutes about the carshow or the 20 minutes about the in-laws.
And I still have a pile of work to do...details....
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