Composing Hacks #2 - Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies

[@AdamNeely]

These are great! I loved breathing along to Groanbox, that sparked some ideas.

[@enantiomer3164]

bro whut.

[@enantiomer3164]

i mean what if he just liked the video and wanted to comment?

[@rasm0225]

Goose - not really. They’ve worked on videos together so I think there is a genuine professional relationship. And I think Adam and David both believe in this as a community where dialog happens. If it was someone with 1000 subs chiming in constantly trying to divert traffic, I would agree, but that’s not the case hear.

[@kungfuasgaeilge]

Weird comments on this post. It's a guy who loves music reacting to something another guy who loves music said... D.Bruce thought Ben Levin's videos were cool (big thumbs up for that shout out, by the way), it's a guy who thought another guy's ideas were stimulating. Good on them, may they mutually expand and grow (mostly musically/intellectually, but I suppose youtube-ly too, if it must be brought into the equation) I love how many cap-doffs Mr.Bruce gives in his videos, it turns 10 minutes into hours if you actually take interest, and there are endless gems that one wouldn't find otherwise (also often in the comments. Well done DB subscribers.). As soon as he mentioned that Messiaen interview I honestly got a little tingly adrenaline rush, knowing it was something I'd not seen and would love. To pass the torch, anyone who hasn't watched this video is missing out. Best done with a bottle of good red wine in a thunderstorm (I've found) /watch?v=SY7g0ULVl2I

[@Yossus]

I understood 'Destroy nothing' to mean that you're not allowed to reconsider an idea - once you write it down, it's got to stay. This is a good exercise if you're in the habit of critiquing your work while writing it, which is very inhibitive to the creative process. The right time for critique and editing is after the writing, not during.

[@antigen4]

yes ... when i went through the mill at architecture school I leaned a whole new way to apprehend creative work - in the past I'd been far too quick to simply 'throw out' an idea. Whereas now I look more critically at a work and try to ensure that every move made reinforces the 'parti' or original idea or launching point and throwing out those moves that do not.

[@TheRealMutttastic]

At this point, I try to make sure never to throw anything out, no matter how crap it is. I've known people to come back to things that are 2 years old, 5 years old, even older than that, and finally, after all that time, there's that "Aha!" moment you get when the creativity is truly inspired and uninhibited

[@j.paulbourque604]

"We should explore ways of being an artist that aren't imitating/trying to be the next Beethoven, but being the first, you know, You." I need to drink a tall glass of this.

[@BenjaminStaern]

2:29 ”Don’t be afraid of things because they'e easy to do”. Great advice! Sometimes people can be a bit narrow-minded that you prefer to do harder things because it sounds ”amazing” but then the next it doesn’t impress any longer until you suddenly find better and simple ideas.

[@loganstrong5426]

I saw "destroy the most important thing" as finding the heart of your piece, the center of it, and removing that. Say you're piece is based around a certain motif. If you take away that motif, what is the relationship between everything that remains. That way you know how the piece is developing without being stuck on the thread holding together.

[@RedstoneManiac13]

Hydrate or Diedrate

[@Croix1]

I think you can take it a step further, and I think this is what the cards are getting at (although they are obviously intended to be open for interpretation): Remove that part, and keep it removed. Then add other things, and let it evolve. Then you can even do it over again. This is a great way to get out of a rut, as usually the "most important thing" is also the thing you most cling onto in your creative endeavors, and removing that can sometimes open new avenues.

[@ListeningIn]

This is an incredibly interesting video. One thing that particularly resonated with me was your point about writing music that's easy/hard to produce. I've had many cases where I have sweated over a work, and I've ended up not liking what I produce. Then, on the rare occasion, you can think of an idea, write it down very quickly and it can end up being one of the best things you written. There's, of course, the famous example of Tavener writing 'The Lamb' in his head during a car journey (although, I'm not sure this is true!). It's, also, fascinating that for a few of these, I interpreted the cards differently. And, I suppose, that is exactly the point! 'Tidy up', for example, I thought of as a hint to clarify your ideas, or to simplify your notation. Thank you for another thought-provoking video.

[@wellurban]

One of the wonderful things about Oblique Strategies is the number of ways they could be interpreted! For instance, I’d never thought of treating “Water” so literally: I thought it meant to treat your composition or artwork as if it had the properties of water, so think about fluidity, diffusion, channels, diffraction and so forth. Or in the light of another Oblique Strategy “Not architecture, but gardening”, to water your piece as you would water a garden: gently encourage a certain element to grow.

[@steevf]

My upbringing, as well as my music education, was all about stricture. My music professors were not open to new ideas or creativity. So this idea of abandoning it is really hard! But I at least know it's something I really need to do. Although, when I do managed to do it, I find myself doing it in such small ways that I'm falling right back into the holding on to the limitations even if that tiny bit of loosening of it brought in something new. I find I'm right back where I started. Stuck in limitations. And that is how I feel about stricture. I don't feel confident or even safe letting go of that. I feel like I have not been productive because of the inability to let go of stricture.

[@BrianFields]

For a portable version, there are also smartphone apps that randomly give you a card.

[@LeafGreen906]

destroy what you love can be translated to the saying "kill your darling". my graphic design teacher used this all the time, sometimes you have some creative work with this super original idea you just adore, but the work as a whole doesnt really benefit from that specific idea and you wont get anything out of it unless you kill your darling and take the rest in a different direction

[@WillayG]

Our design teachers were always telling us not to get married to ideas or do divorce them.

[@thedoublek4816]

That's something I've never learned.

[@BRNTmodularmusic]

I love your ‘destroy your influences’ way. There is this zen teaching that says ‘if you find Buda on the road, kill him’ that comes in a similar sense. Cheers!

[@yogimew]

"Water" also means have a shower. You may take a different view after coming out of one and feeling fresh.

[@brendanward2991]

"Allow an easement" could also refer to a trip to the bathroom!

[@MaraK_dialmformara]

yogimew or even have an idea while you’re *in* the shower and not focusing on the thing

[@hallamhal]

It can also be a verb, like watering a flower - letting an idea grow organically maybe?

[@ericperry1861]

Makes me think of what Wayne Shorter told Danilo Perez - "Put more water in those chords." After coming back with what he thought that meant, Wayne said, "But the water has got to be clean."

[@katetranscribes]

3:18 reminds me of the second movement of Ravel's string quartet where the violin plays a baseline below the viola, with the cello playing the melody on top

[@MaraK_dialmformara]

Kyle Silver that sounds very silly and I want to hear it. Can you recommend a performance?

[@penguinexpress12]

Mara K sounds neat

[@andreasghb8074]

Regarding impossible music, I can't remember who it was, but an Italian composer wrote a piano piece that had bits that were physically impossible for one player to play, leaving it to the performer to figure out how to make it work.

[@haggai0n0i]

loved this video (this one too!). Somehow I am getting from your videos something I can't seem to get from my actual teachers in the academy.. some air of positive encouragement blended in with some really great practical tools. Thanks for doing these!

[@DeGuerre]

I interpret "destroy the most important thing" as meaning that the most unmovable, unmodifiable thing is sometimes the thing that is preventing progress. That one idea, the one that motivated the whole piece that you're creating, its entire reason for being... that is precisely what could be causing the creative block, because you feel you can't touch it. (Yes, this happened to me recently.)

[@John-rd8no]

I interptreted the "destroy the most important thing" as a suggestion to break up my most beautiful theme or in electronic music to stretch, process and resample my favourite sound/melody

[@MaraK_dialmformara]

I’m more of a prose writer than a composer, but converting these prompts between media presents another interesting layer of creative challenge. For example, “convert specifics to ambiguities” is something I’ve been working on all my life, as a kind of way of meeting the audience halfway (and not explaining everything up front, which I thought was necessary as a kid). But something like “change instrument roles” is harder to interpret in prose. My first approximation is “give your characters a situation in which their normal/habitual responses are useless or counterproductive, and see how they grow (or don’t) from there.”

[@DerekPower]

"Change instrument roles" reinterpreted for prose could be "change character roles" or "change plot sequencing" (having something that is "supposed to occur" in the end happen in the beginning). All in all, the Oblique Strategies is just a way of reconsidering how you think about something, which is why it's helpful in creative ruts or writer's block.

[@thefrankonion]

These videos are always interesting from beginning to end.

[@NewKidOnTheBlock100]

One of my favorite videos from you so far, I really needed to hear the 'Don't be ashamed of using your own ideas' card. Thank you :)

[@TheAnthraxBiology]

Duke Ellington used to compose entire pieces and then turn the orchestration upside down, giving the lowest instruments the highest line and whatnot. It makes for some fascinating textures that sound incredibly fresh almost a hundred years later.

[@DBruce]

Do you know of any examples of that?

[@geoffbakerhytch5623]

...another great video for composers by a composer; thanks very much, David, this is really helpful for thinking about my creative processes and practice as a (would-be!) composer.

[@simongross3122]

Water. I can relate to this. Water is a strong metaphor for life and can be emulated in music. Imagine the different behaviours of water in a still pond compared to a raging storm. I like this oblique strategy the best.

[@sebastianzaczek]

I Love the ambiguity of These cards, here in the comments i've read that many People have various interpretations of different cards. Even my own interpretations sometimes differed a Lot from yours

[@noxid0016]

I saw both the “destroy the most important thing” and the “destroy nothing” cards as a suggestion to deconstruct those things, similarly to how in “La Valse” Ravel deconstructs/destroys the waltz

[@arjansohier6566]

I always figured 'breathe more deeply' as a nudge to the composer: don't be anxious, relax, close your eyes and take a deep breath. In the sense that you handle things differently when you allow yourself a deep breath.

[@mumiemonstret]

I liked how you interpreted some strategies concretely (water, tidy up...) and other abstractly, and often opposite of how I interpreted them.

[@katieking165]

Just wanted to say - this is so interesting and helpful and at the same time entertaining and really fun to watch!! Thank you!! I also find that the opposite of “don’t imitate” is true, which would be something like “don’t try to be new for new’s sake”. I really love your music as well! It feels honest and I take a deep bow to your imagination and skill.

[@Emerson_FCosta]

Hi mr. Bruce! Thanks for sharing this information. I'm a composer too and this tips will help me in the sinphony that I'm writing.

[@oaueo]

Absolutely love your videos, David! You've got to be one of my favorite KZbinrs working. I think maybe you're being too careful about the "destroy the most important thing" idea. I think he really means it! A theater director with whom I've collaborated a lot and I used to call this idea "baby killing" (as in, kill your own "baby" - the thing you're holding onto). It becomes useful when the thing you started with that you *think* is indispensable just doesn't work with what the piece has become while you've been working on it. It's tough to let those things go, but if they just no longer fit with the direction you've been going in, it's very counterproductive to hold onto them. I often find that those things come back around in other projects - the ones they wanted to be in in the first place. That or they just keep cropping up as the "great idea" that doesn't actually fit in any finished piece (at least not yet).

[@mandrew_h]

I love these cards, my initial responses to them were nearly always different to yours, and yet I feel that my thoughts on each would change depending on the situation.

[@tribudeuno]

I recently saw an Eno interview where he spoke of the first dicho that he made that ultimately became the beginning of the Oblique Strategies: "Honor thy error as hidden intention"...

[@gepmrk]

Perhaps the 'destroy the thing you love' idea is best applied, not to that which you love in a general sense, but to whatever that element in a composition is that you're so attached to that it's preventing any further progress on the piece.

[@MarvinFalz]

3:00 "Parts that just come out without the artist trying." I come from the perspective of a hobby video editor, and I can relate to that statement. Often you have all the different pieces of visuals and sound/music roughly put together, and you know that something's still missing. And then after a while everything sort of falls into place.

[@jennifermcwethy1690]

Hey, David Bruce. I love your videos! I would love it if you had a video discussing Du Yun's opera Angel's Bone. It is one of my all time favorite pieces, and the opera won her the 2017 Pulitizer Prize for Music. I would love to hear what you'd have to say about it.

[@phillipsiebold8351]

"Destroy your loved ones" comes from writer's circles, which is "slay your darlings", which means to kill off characters that you have nurtured for too long as you write novel(s). In music, this is best expressed by Bohemian Rhapsody.

[@FilipSandecomposer]

Txs for another great vlog! Me as a "serious", "classical" composer has a soft spot for progressive rock. It is maybe because they are making rather complex music, but with a very free and playful spirit....and even making very catchy melodies as well! What is your relationship to progressive rock...Gentle Giant, Fruup, King Crimson, Genesis, Jethro Tull and so on..(Many consider Pink Floyd to be a progressive rock group, I think not! Maybe "art rock"...but not prog)

[@FilipSandecomposer]

Octopus by Gentle Giant is truly a great work of Music.

[@jessymax4780]

Thank you David .. 🌷

[@odolany]

Some years ago I saw an interesting... performance of "Oblique Strategies", in Poland it was. Kind of a music game for improvisers - it was a combination of theatre and music that time. That also works!

[@jayducharme]

For me, "Water" isn't literal but is about the flow, similar to not fighting things that come easy. Water flows along a course that it makes for itself. It doesn't attempt to pass through stone or large obstacles; it flows around them. So, "go with the flow".

[@prettypic444]

My immediate thought was that, “tidying up” referred to erasing all the unnecessary marks, smudges, and cut parts on the page so you can think clearer (though I am a messy writer)

[@squigglycircle]

8:32 Andrew Huang will definitely appreciate this. #820hydrate

[@56independent]

By "breathe more deeply", i was thinking of a woodwind quartet and giving them long tacets, but your idea is better XD.

[@lacroquetarecords]

Very interesting. Love brian enos ambient works. Regarding your "destroy your influences", the literary critic Harold Bloom has a large scale thesis-book called "the anxiety of influence". There he explores how new writers copy and kill their literary heroes of the past in order to create something good.

[@dejanmilosevic3318]

''Student Culture Center'' from Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1985 published excellent book Brian Eno ''Oblique Strategies'', I think first ever of that kind in the world. Collection of his reflections about creativity, working in studio, etc. Some of these texts can be found here and there on internet, but I don't think there is such collection in English speaking area.

[@azbillbrandon]

Thanks David! You’re channel is a big help!

[@jakegearhart]

5:46 Maybe that's the point. Find things to add to the music to make it work still.

[@antigen4]

also - don't be afraid to copy. once you work through it - maybe it will be completely unique.

[@tyan4380]

omg thank you for this , i downloaded Oblique App

[@RROBOTS]

I've been watching your videos for months now and just tonight realized to appreciate how well you communicate in such a comfortable, conversational way. I'm sure there's things written about this kind of internet/youtube presentation of self? Learned non-acting?

[@Vossst]

I feel "destroy the most important thing" is about detaching yourself from a point of fixation or obligation. One can become a slave to what one loves, at the cost of innovation and clarity of thought. If there's a theme, or a bit of arrangement, or some abstract concept you are striving to serve, perhaps consider the other elements, and where freedom from certain trappings (easement, if you will) would leave you. The thing that you thought was important is not always the thing that is or ought to be the most important. There may be opportunities to discover or delight in what seemed peripheral or less consequential.

[@EclecticSceptic]

Super vid.

[@wyattwahlgren8883]

Great video! Thanks for the upload.

[@ZOOTSUITBEATNICK1]

imo terrific vid...love this imo

[@psychoprosthetic]

Hi David, I didn't know Eno's set of cards were available commercially, but I had heard of them. So thanks for that info. I was wondering whether some of your interpretations were a bit literal? For instance on "water" you went to actual water and hydration. But Debussy was often using watery themes and feeling in his work, and in one of your other videos you mention being inspired by David Hockney's Californian swimming pool paintings of water. I think sets of ideas like Eno's cards are meant as jumping off points, and the actual words can be used to take one anywhere except where you're currently at.

[@jorgepeterbarton]

for the 'destroy...' ones, if there's nothing left then you have more reason to destroy it and look underneath. Take whatever you mean from destroy though. Either destroying the one most important thing means you make lots o other things, or destroying nothing means you make lots of other things- i.e. retain small improv ideas.

[@nathanbeebe7604]

Destroy the most important thing could mean a lot of things. It could mean errode the most important musical part ss the piece decends, or outrite destroy that part. Or it could mean give up the most important parts, and see how the piece sounds without it, or with something in its place

[@mykhedelic6471]

Shout out to Ben Levin! Sweet. And the Adam Neely bump. Pay attention, kids-- these guys are all awesome.

[@addisonneill9366]

If you like Brian Eno you should check out Jim O'Rourke he's one of my favorites. I recommend the "Visitor" and "Bad Timing"...

[@Gusrikh1]

Very interesting.

[@kassemir]

Destroy the most important thing. I don't think it was intended like this. It reminds me of the old saying "kill your darlings" which I always saw as a way of pointing out that you are often your own worst critic. Like a director might fall in love with a scene, because he visioned the scene, wrote the dialogue and directed the actors well, but if that scene doesn't work within the narrative of the film, it has to get cut, even if it's a good scene. I think they meant a similar thing like this for music. A section might be good on its own, but if it simply doesn't fit, it can be hard to spot and hurt quite a lot to let it go.

[@santiagos1s4s]

great video :) what's the piece that sounds when you show the cards?

[@bifeldman]

I am smarter having watched this than I was before.

[@VoceCorale]

Messiaen also refrained from using the whole-tone scale.

[@cederickdoomloop]

Great video! What was the music at 11:21?

[@odarter9800]

Real interesting ideas! What about making something in a style you despise? Is that something you've tried, or ever thought about?

[@richardboyer210]

feeling breathing movement mood ; )

[@HeathcliffBlair]

If a piece is not working and you don't know why, try removing the bit that you love the most. Chances are, THAT is the culprit. You probably put it there because you love it, not because it works within the whole. Tough love. Just file it away and use it as a jumping off point for something else. :)

[@timotejbernat462]

What is the name of the piece in the background, its quite infectious, is it one of yours, David?

[@gregaroivadilinovich280]

Timotej Bernat yes! The one when the cue cards come up?

[@johannesbowman5327]

What is the intro music you use to introduce each of the Oblique Strategies?

[@2Langdon]

Very interesting! Obviously everybody is going to have their own interpretation of each idea or instruction - for instance, I took the one about intonation to suggest gradations of emphasis rather than strictly musical intonation. And stricture can be helpful in limiting choice, but social or societal stricture can be a deadly enemy to confront and explode, evade or laugh at. Perhaps destroying the things you love has something in common with killing your darlings - not getting so besotted with a lovely bit of business, an elegant bit of cleverness that really doesn't support the overall composition. Then again, perhaps everyone else sees it differently to me. So the cards weave some Zen, by way of deliberate ambiguity. Musical I-Ching anyone?

[@franciscodanconia3551]

5:50 It doesn't say destroy the thing you love, it says to destroy the most important part. So if you're writing a waltz and you get stuck, take it out of 3/4 time. If you do, it's not a waltz, so you've destroyed the most important part, and with modern notation software you can always go back and change it, if that doesn't lead to something cool.

[@vibhanshubiswas8729]

I have a question for you. Can someone make the kind of music that they love the most. Like If I like a piece of music(or genre) I'm so much involved in that piece of music that I dont think I can hear it analytically and make music. In my personal experience I have been particularly listening to a specific genre which I like(won't tell the genre for the sake of not giving birth to a war) and it has been like more than 5 years that i'm unable to create the same kind of stuff. so do you think the same or is there a way out of it?

[@rosiefay7283]

9:57 "Into the impossible" The trouble with writing impossible music and trying to patch it later is that the patched version will never be as convincing as the original. And so you'll have wasted some time. Wouldn't it have been better to have made sure to stay within the possible, right from the start?

[@jimlang7461]

"an old-fashioned modernist approach" lol

[@Shadowofdeath1995]

We have a film school project that I am working on now. My problem is I think they do not work.

[@iseeu-fp9po]

Are there any oblique cards for dealing with depression and lack of creativity? That is a form of writer's block.

[@MaraK_dialmformara]

iseeu1980 I find the best way to break through a depressive block is to go around it. Find something you still enjoy (mine is Minecraft, but if nothing else there are always cute animal videos) and focus on that for a while. Eventually you’ll see/hear something and go “I could do something with that.” And then make the most of that feeling while it lasts.

[@DerekPower]

I'm sure "allow an easement" could apply as depression is a stricture =]

[@russell_szabados]

iseeu1980: all of them apply to depression and/or writers block. I suffer from depression and writers block often. Many times the best way to get around those two things is to change your process or physical situation. Oblique Strategies deal with both of these ideas extensively.

[@iseeu-fp9po]

@@russell_szabados Thanks for the reply and insight. I suffer from it too during this period of my life and am currently on SSRI's. Anyway, what do you mean with "physical situation"? Change overall life-situation, excercise more, that kind of stuff? And also, could you possibly elaborate on changing the process? The way one writes? Thanks.

[@buteverybodycallsmegiorgio]

I love the saying "kill your darlings"

[@LeafGreen906]

also if you write something impossible now theres no guarantee it will be impossible forever, the third movement of ravels sonatine for piano was considered impossible for its time and he would often finish the whole piece before the movement if he didnt feel confident he was gonna nail it

[@xtfcr7]

No, the third movement was the one Ravel was not confident about playing in public. He wasn't the most virtuosic pianist around...

[@LeafGreen906]

@@xtfcr7 But it was sent in as a submission for a contest and the judges deemed it to be unrealistic to play? It might just be me misremembering or having the wrong facts.

[@AndreiChes]

So few likes for so many insights. What a shame. Thank you from me!

[@AlanKey86]

These cards could be part of a boardgame I'd love to play a boardgame based around composition. I'm not sure how the scoring system would work (no pun intended). Perhaps, at the start of the game, each player would be given a card with a genre or composer written on it. Their goal would be to compose a piece that incorporates features of that genre. That would allow for a fairly objective way to allocate points. Players could move round the board collecting instruments, extra bars, chords, notes... there are lots of possiblities here. But how do we stop this from becoming a solo multiplayer game, where players only care about what they're doing? We want to maximise player interaction, conflict and conversation. **gasp** I've got it! How about players are all contributing to a single piece of music. There's a blank stave and everyone adds their chords, notes, vocies etc. to it. Everyone has their secret goal, dealt to them at the start (e.g. "Compose in the style of Stravinsky" or "Compose a Country song") but everyone's fighting (or co-operating) to achieve them. If I was good at designing boardgames I'd keep the ideas here secret... but as I am not I shall share this fledgling idea with the David Bruce community!

[@biggiezsnack]

anywhere I can get those oblique cards for LESS than $100?

[@benceboda6961]

What is that piece in the background?

[@neitsnie]

Out of sarcasm I wrote a piece whe performers are supposed to use telekinesis and teleportaion. Who knows ppl might b able to play it in the future?

[@grahamconnorhudsonjameson8834]

Where can I get those cards?

[@ДанисСултанов-и5д]

Good old divination is a thing again. Just joking, the video's great. It somehow reminds me of Ancient Chinese ritual using the Book of Changes.

[@thefrankonion]

David Foster could be Brian Eno's twin.

[@kungfuasgaeilge]

Hmm, maybe the 'destroy what you love' is a rephrasing (in context) of the whole 'If you meet the Buddha in the road, kill him' thing.

[@blakescanlen]

Have you considered going into academia?

[@forrestweintraub9858]

That cough hits different rn

[@skyreadersociety6183]

"the trick is to keep breathing"

[@jorgepeterbarton]

I think 'breathe deeply' is entirely literal. Stop what you are doing and do some breathwork. All of these cards are meant to be small psychological hacks and nothing directly connected to composing. e.g. i can't remember which artist Eno was producing but 'turning it upside down' resulted in them turning their actual guitar upside down and trying to play it. So these can be interpreted in different ways, there's no right interprestation. Tool took that to the extreme and recorded their vocal take hanging upside down. e.g. decorate, decorate: actually decorate. make your studio a nice livable inspiring environment. Put some actual pictures up, some ambient lights etc. that in itself is a creative process. Most are to get you NOT thinking about music, so when you return the rut is not there.

[@letsnotgothere6242]

I just noticed his violin has no chin rest

[@_leivo]

Cut your eyebrows please, loved your video by the way :D

[@ulfsvensson9710]

Destroy nothing is very useful. An useless melody can be an bassline five years later. But you DO need an archive that's not to clumsy.

[@OddBunsen]

First

Like in the arts, being the first in something for the sake of being first, is not always something to be proud of. 😉

[@IberianInteractive]

why does every composer with a lot of knowledge compose such boring pieces of music? Like seriously...all that knowledge, no good sounding music is produced