Since I was in the area, I picked Joel up to work out. Wes decided he wanted to come along with us. On the way back to my place, Matt called saying he would be unable to make it.
We got to my place and goofed around a bit while we waited for Jaclyn to come over. Not that she was working out with us, but she needed to talk to Joel about a few things before we left.
Joel showed me how, even thought I thought what I had written for the guitar last night was original, I actually ripped of "My Friends" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and "Ready to Go" by Republica. He played them both for me. He is right. According to him, however, it is okay to rip people off. The piece is indeed original and it is different enough that it isn't the same song. It kind of pissed me off though. All that work and it turns out it may have been my subconscious singing something I had heard a million times before.
I guess, though, when you are working with the Chromatic scale, there isn't much you can write that hasn't been written before in one way or another. There are only so many notes, and only so many octaves a guitar can reach. On top of that, logically, the notes can only be arranged in so many ways, unless you like writing music that sounds horrible. If you take transposition into account, the number of possibilities becomes even less.
It still feels shitty. But, I'm not going to let that stop me. When I become interested in something, I get tunnel vision. I study and work and dream intensely and constantly. When it isn't possible for me to do so, I'm counting the seconds until I can. This persistence can be a good thing. It can also be the cause of months and months of depression.
"It takes a hell of a lot to distract me, it does. Try to pry my fingers from my guitar."
