What Style of Music Comes Easiest to You?

[Vintage73]

And what comes hardest?

For me, I can play extremely heavy and complex metal in my head all day long.

One of the hardest styles for me to come up with, at least that I'm interested in, is Ambient. I love listening to it, but it's something I need to work at when trying to write.

[schnapsglas]

Blues. I can do blues all day. Also cinematic scores if I have the right tools.

Hardest? Jungle. Outrageously difficult to write. Every 64th note gets deconstructed and it's... just too hard. I can feel it in my head, I know what it should sound like, but it's not as simple as plugging in a guitar and playing. I guess that maybe means it comes easy, but it is too difficult to execute.

[robogone]

Don't know really. Depends which instrument I'm playing I guess.

Most difficult is probably jazz. I don't really know enough theory to pull it off convincingly.

[bharris22]

Easiest would be metal (NWOBHM variety - Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, etc.). I grew up on it, and it's like my native language - I just communicate in this idiom without thinking.

Hardest would be jazz. I love playing it, love listening to it, but it just does not come naturally to me (yet). It is much more difficult, but intellectually that is what I like about it.

[jerrysiegler]

I think that the easiest form of music to play is most likely the blues. After all, its only a few chords. Thats not to say it isnt genuine or soulful. It can be very complex when done by professionals.

[Zombie Queen]

My own.

[GaryG]

One of the hardest styles for me to come up with, at least that I'm interested in, is Ambient. I love listening to it, but it's something I need to work at when trying to write.

I think the nature of 'ambient' means it's hard to pin down at the best of times. If you want something unique then you're literally trying to come up with sounds etc that've never been heard before. Quite a challenge. And from what I've heard of your ambient work, I wouldn't fret too much, sounds really natural, not forced at all.

[feralsystems]

the style that comes easiest to me is also the one that is often hardest to come to grips with, experimental electronic.

by its nature, there are no rules so coming up with an idea and putting into practice in a modular environment is very easy. unfortunately, also by its nature it does not always have the aesthetic effect that i hoped for/envisioned. experiments often "fail" in that aesthetic sense, but the upside is that i almost always walk away feeling like i have learned something.

[GeckoYamori]

I can shit out cheesy jazz fusion on cruise control. Hardest, as in coming up with something that I'm personally satisfied with, is probably the more traditional rock/metal.

[whyterabbyt]

the style that comes easiest to me is also the one that is often hardest to come to grips with, experimental electronic.

by its nature, there are no rules so coming up with an idea and putting into practice in a modular environment is very easy. unfortunately, also by its nature it does not always have the aesthetic effect that i hoped for/envisioned. experiments often "fail" in that aesthetic sense, but the upside is that i almost always walk away feeling like i have learned something.

I'd concur with that in many ways. I'm predominantly inclined towards material that's actually relatively easy for me to produce (darker, dronier experimental stuff) thus making it hardest for me to justify to myself without it feeling glib. I feel that I have to have a very concrete process and rationale, otherwise it's just taking the easy way out. I have no problem at all spending time playing around in that vein for the enjoyment of but not recording it, but these days if I decide Im actually going to finish a piece of work that I dont see as being lightweight and trivial, then it has to be 'effort'. Its one reason I mostly go through a process of rehearsing out a set of ideas, creating some sort of score based around that, then deliberately upending the setting of the original preparation (eg changing or altering instruments, or processing) so that I have to take the lead from the score, not what Ive 'practiced'. Im not any kind of instrumentalist, so I also deliberately work from source material that's recorded live, as audio, that's post-processed; Im not really doing any kind of sequencing...

[bluedad]

pop rock in 60-70's style is easiest for me. I quit buying synths a few yrs ago when I realized all I need is my guitars and what synths I already have to do the style I feel most comfortable in.
Metal I wouldn't know how to get the sound, and trance is much harder than it sounds.

[Dean Aka Nekro]

Easiest? I would have to say "Metal", Not each and every of its styles/Sub-genres or mutations but on the whole most of them. I've not ever analysed why that is but it goes hand in hand with what I grew up listening to and still love. Anything from silly up tempo grind to brutal, technical death metal to sludge to post-rock usually I can 'do'. Whether or not any of it is any good well it is impossible and certainly not for me to say

Hardest? I would have to say "Electronic", Synthesis isn't a strong point of mine and anything electronic pretty much uses synthesis as its base. So I therefore don't find it at all easy or natural. I end up meddling with a synthesizer having fun with all the controls instead of actually capturing any of said sounds. So I rarely get past a first synth part even when I try! I really have tried too but I still stink at it

All the best and very interesting question

Dean

[trimph1]

the style that comes easiest to me is also the one that is often hardest to come to grips with, experimental electronic.

by its nature, there are no rules so coming up with an idea and putting into practice in a modular environment is very easy. unfortunately, also by its nature it does not always have the aesthetic effect that i hoped for/envisioned. experiments often "fail" in that aesthetic sense, but the upside is that i almost always walk away feeling like i have learned something.

I'd concur with that in many ways. I'm predominantly inclined towards material that's actually relatively easy for me to produce (darker, dronier experimental stuff) thus making it hardest for me to justify to myself without it feeling glib. I feel that I have to have a very concrete process and rationale, otherwise it's just taking the easy way out. I have no problem at all spending time playing around in that vein for the enjoyment of but not recording it, but these days if I decide Im actually going to finish a piece of work that I dont see as being lightweight and trivial, then it has to be 'effort'. Its one reason I mostly go through a process of rehearsing out a set of ideas, creating some sort of score based around that, then deliberately upending the setting of the original preparation (eg changing or altering instruments, or processing) so that I have to take the lead from the score, not what Ive 'practiced'. Im not any kind of instrumentalist, so I also deliberately work from source material that's recorded live, as audio, that's post-processed; Im not really doing any kind of sequencing...

You hit the nail right on the head here.

I guess that it is the challenge of it that keeps me going...

[SODDI]

the style that comes easiest to me is also the one that is often hardest to come to grips with, experimental electronic.

by its nature, there are no rules so coming up with an idea and putting into practice in a modular environment is very easy. unfortunately, also by its nature it does not always have the aesthetic effect that i hoped for/envisioned. experiments often "fail" in that aesthetic sense, but the upside is that i almost always walk away feeling like i have learned something.

The best works of that sub genre are works in which the composer is developing technique or method. That method determines the music and makes the rules. Old school academic electronic work like Morton Subotnick is a great example - he's working with the Buchla. Scroll to 11:11.



Terrific synthesis. His instrument becomes his method and determines where his composition is going to go. Synthesist as composer.

For playing arund with more experimental stuff, I prefer to work in a more fluid DAW like Audiomulch rather than a traditional sequencer like Cubase. I like that you can easily construct an actually better version of the old Ussachevsky (Frippertronics) tape loop and play with it in real time. It's very liberating.

I don't see as many experimental plug-ins as I once did.

[Perimeter Sound]

Depends on how much time I have to learn/change/ruin it ha-ha.