đź’ś Happy you enjoyed the concert!
I don’t think I’m dyslexic. I’m gonna try to explain it as good as I can. It is a process that comes natural to me, but it’s difficult to put into words. Since as long as I can remember I think in music. I understand it. I started talking this language at the age of 3 and I’ve been practicing ever since. I express myself better in music than with words.
At the age of 3, I started teaching myself to play the drums, which I played non stop for a few good decades. The piano came at the age of 5. There was a piano at home that no one played. One day watching tv I heard the song “the entertainer” and I practiced for days until I nailed it, and at the age of 8 I composed my first hit “my teddy bear”. Then, I gave drum classes to a guy, 5 years my senior, and in exchange, he taught me how to play the guitar, and the story goes on. As you see, music has always been in my life and my head has been trained over the years.
Later on, when I was a grown up man, making a living out of my music, I took some music and piano lessons with teachers, but I didn’t last long. By then I had my ways of learning and doing things and I felt restricted when I wasn’t allow to color outside the lines. I didn’t have the patience to do the ABC, and the teachers didn’t know how to interact with me, without following a program. I could play by heart what my teachers wanted me to practice by listening to it, although the position of my hands and body weren’t correct and I couldn’t read sheet music.
Everything comes from my head, and my intuition and when I mess with that, the music in my head gets less loud and clear. As I compose music for a living, I didn’t want to or I was scared of messing with the tool that allows me to create, so I quit learning music in the conventional way.
I don’t read sheet music nor I record to memorize it. I hear a melody or various melodies in my head at once, and the different instruments. Some melodies come and go and many stay stored in my head. I don’t use them in days or years, but when I look for them they turn up.
An example of my process. With PoW (link below), I heard an orchestra playing in my head and it would not leave. I knew, my intuition told me, I had to follow it until the end. So I played and recorded 1st the piano, then I played and recorder the cellos, then the violins, etc. Then I looked for the perfect balance between the instruments, for them to sound solid and bright, and I mixed the final track. Maybe, I should add here, that I’m also a sound designer and re-recording mixer for films. These disciplines allow me to create a track from A to Z entirely on my own. I hope i’ve answered your questions.
Once again. Many thanks for joining in!