>Truly, has Joni ever explained her process in choosing her open tunings? >Does the poetry lead such choices? Does she choose the tunings before she >works out the melodies, indeed even before the poem is written? Is it >system-less, and all the more wonderous for it? Any way it's done, it >works a treat.
Sort of and yes. Her own words....... Things stick in my crawl and they rotate endlessly...and if I don't clear them.. like I could go mad. I write copiously and then condense. A lot of themes are very,very large and people don't like long, long, long songs and they have to be condensed down to three verses. Magdalene Laundries..... Taking the advice of my caretaker to try writing more in the daylight instead of at night. (notorious night owl) So I sat outside, in the sun, on a rock. And I tuned my guitar to the sounds of that day. Because I play in open tunings...so I tuned to the crows,seagulls,and the sonic references available. And a cheery chord progression happened. (cherry lyrics were not to be though) Usually the music comes first.. because it offers up more a challenging rhyme scheme. It also shows me where I can put my descriptive passages. Where I have to be direct,where my pockets of irony lie. You know.... it lays down restrictions which make it a harder puzzle. Which I enjoy. Open tunings are a pain in the butt. It is like a typewriter the letters move around on you.....every time you sit down to it. But it does cough up original harmonic movement. If you want original harmonic movement and are willing to like confuse your left hand completely, then go for it. Toodle the pegs until you like the chord,then search for the shapes with in it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------I don't know, I think in Joniworld 1+1 is never two and that is what keeps us coming back for more and more..... If it was two.....would we bother? OH ohooooooo my, my... when that train comes rolling by.... Bree _________________________________________________________________ >Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.
