The music analogy to design...the dialog continues

[Mark Singer]

If we think about music....beautiful melodies...someone must decide where each note goes...how it relates to other notes, etc.. This decission is the design or composition of the music...without it the notes would come randomly as noise! That is correct: music without design would be noise! If only one song were ever designed (composed) , we would all forever be hearing and playing the same song. Pretty boring!

As we know there are millions of songs...played many different ways.
There is classical, jazz, rock, folk, ethnic ....well many other types of music as well.
Sometimes an artist will take a classic song and play it in a contemporary way.
It would be like building a traditional table and making it more modern in some way.

Some think that all the great furniture designs were made over 100 years ago...if composers stopped composing a 100 years ago... all the music of the Twentieth Century would not exsist! What a loss. If we say the same thing for motion pictures, well there would not be any...zero!

It is fine if you are not a designer ,(composer) to play someone elses tune...learn the instument...how to hold it...how hard to press the keys...find your rythym...play
Like practising using a plane in the workshop or making a table that is someone else's design...there is much to be learned.... Change the song a bit, yes now your....designing improvising composing...giving it your personal touch...

We are better for all the people that make the world a beautiful place with new ideas....music that comes from their soul...

Our pieces of furniture can sing ...our personal songs...let them sing lets here that music within you!

[Mark Singer]

I think this post got burried in the Design Forum where SMC members..."Leave it like it is" they don't touch it even with the 10' poles we all have in our shops

[Jason Roehl]

If it makes you feel any better, Mark, I read your post--and enjoyed it. I think your point about great furniture designs rings very true. It would be a shame if all woodworkers became trapped in a "there is nothing new under the sun" mentality. At the same time, I appreciate simple, well-constructed designs to highlight the beauty and figure of the wood as a testament to the Creator. There is not much I can add to it. But, even though I would never consider myself an "artist" (ask all my friends--I was your classic math/science nerd through school, with nary a creative bone to be found in my body), I am truly impressed by some of the innovative designs gracing the pages of various woodworking magazines and websites, and that has inspired me to strive for a little more "out-of-the-box" thinking in my own work (I don't care to work from others' plans). Now if I could just finish cleaning/rearranging my shop, then find some time, I might get some "different" things done.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mark, I read you post shortly after you posted it. I've reread it several times. I think your analogy is correct but there is a couple of things to consider. Some of us can' t sing......some of us try but shouldn't. :rolleyes: While I've got some basic carpenter skills, I've only built one piece of furniture. It was from a NYW Norm plan. My wife was so impressed with the results that she bought me a new table saw and then had my new shop built. I am just a novice at building/designing furniture......but I have ideas. When the shop is finished, I have two projects to finish and then start improving my skills. I'm probably 3-5 years from full retirement and the new shop is where I'll spend a lot of my retirement. I have found little that gave me more satisfaction than building the oak sideboard for my wife. I have already got ideas of a set of display cabinets for my daughter to display her minature lighthouse collection and an apothecary(sp) cabinet for my daughter-in-law, the pharmicist.

[Joe Mioux]

Design...

There is also design in the sentences we construct. Good design in sentence structure relates to rhythmn and harmony. Just like the music we hear.

Back in the 80's, I was a editor to an electronic news service (predecessor to the internet), an assistant editor to an association's newsletter and also an editor to a state's assn newsletter. Writing, for me, was/is a creative process.

When I began college, I labored and toiled over 500 word essays. A few years later, you couldn't stop me from writing. Why? because it was creative. I designed those sentences. I turned words to meaning and feelings. Today, I do the same, just in a different media. The satisfaction is the same.

This evening, instead of just adding two support legs to my table saw's extension wing, I built and designed a recessed panelled support. Why? because I thought about what would be more eye pleasing. Is it complicated or fancy? No. Was it fun? Yes.

When one creates (designs), the feelings one experiences is very satisfying. One can create a well structured story, or one can create a beautiful song. Whether it is a fresh fragrant cut flower bouquet or the bouquet from fresh cut wood, the feelings and satisfaction are the same.

Good design is contaigous when it is done well.

[Mark Singer]

Joe,

You are correct....it is all the same. I saw a great movie the other night..."Sideways" . It was so original , funny and deep at the same time. It is different than any movie around, totally original and I thought to myself, "The people that came up with this are terrific, creative, sensitive...wow! It seems like in any field there is room for new ideas...and creativity...It is all in just thinking a little before the brush hits the canvas....and if your not crazy about it..."Leave it like it is"...