In the year 2001, when I first came out with my “Forgiveness” CD, a Sri Chinmoy student from Austria sent me a letter with a $5 bill, asking for details as to how I make my musical arrangements…..I did not know what to say to him, because I consider myself an “intuitive” musician.
Kamalakanta Nieves sings "Hiya Majhi" 31 October 2005
Last modified March 19, 2006
Years later I had to return his money, because he got tired of waiting for my response!
What I try to do is to create a moment where I am open to music, and then I choose a sound, any sound I like, in my synthesizer. Then ideas start flowing according to the particular sound’s charcteristics. When that happens, I start recording!
Sometimes I will choose a song, and the arrangement for that song comes. Sometimes an accompaniment pattern will come first, and then my “musical being”, or my intuition, will tell me that a particular song will work with this idea. Then I try and find a way to make it work.
Arrangements come to me in different styles. Sometimes it is a Classical style, other times more “New Age” style, still others come in “Pop” or “Ballad” style. Each style has its virtues, and I thoroughly enjoy all of them.
Here is a recent experience of how this process works for me:
Recently I was devoid of inspiration to do music. It was like walking through a desert. Then, last week, I felt God gave me the inspiration to do music again. Immediately the idea for a “Symphonic poem” came, and two songs came to my mind. One of them is “Hiya Majhi”.
Two days later, at 5:30 in the morning, I sat at my keyboard and started randomly testing some sounds. As soon as I found one I liked, a pattern came. It is a nice pattern, in “minimalist” style (the style championed by Philip Glass). As soon as I recorded this pattern, again the song Hiya Majhi came to mind. Oftentimes I get tremendous joy by playing a song in the “offbeats”, that is, not playing it in the strongest part of the rhythmic pattern, not “square”. The result is that it feels like the song is “floating” on top of the rhythm. So I do not use a click track, not even for the rhythmic pattern itself. Then I try to feel the melody floating, and it works for me, I like it.
After the initial idea comes, I try to listen for what else it needs, and keep adding elements until I am satisfied.
I get tremendous joy when I play music, and specially when I am arranging. I’ll be laughing like a child, I am so happy.
This is why I try to encourage my fellow musician-brother-friends to continue to be creative. See, God put into our hearts the love of music, or art, or whatever it is that gives us joy. Therefore, we must honor that natural or “God-given” affinity with a particular field in order to be happy. It is as simple as that.
So here is an example. This is a recording made last Sunday, October 30, 2005. The song is “Hiya Majhi”. Thee meaning of the song is:
“O my Heart’s Pilot,
Do appear before me.
Today I am crying,
I am becoming my ancient hunger.
You are my only hope-light.
You are my life’s only message-delight.”
I hope you all enjoy it. So far I have put about 3 hours of work into this production…it could use a little more instrumentation, such as miscellaneous percussion, but that is another story….
-Kamalakanta Nieves
