Sometimes a behavioral modification will help with insomnia. Currently you have conditioned yourself to use the bed for purposes other than sleeping. Bad. By all means, if you are unable to sleep, do something else. But do it off the bed. Then when you get sleepy, go to bed. If necessary, repeat. But condition the dinosaur brain to associate the bed with sleeping, not with interesting intellectual activities.
When I finally stopped reading in bed, I found I sleep better. Of course there was a transition period, a week or two, if I recall. Now, if I am unable to sleep, I move over to the comfy chair and read there.
As far as rhythm is concerned, the Western music traditions are a bit ... unadventurous. In some other traditions, 7/4 is the starting point for more interesting rhythms to build on.
I've heard that advice regarding making the bed a sleeping-only place before. I've actually tried that, but admittedly didn't try as hard as I should've. A separate problem I've got is that if I'm sitting somewhere else doing "as long as I'm up" things, when I finally do feel sleepy enough to crash the act of getting up to go to the bed is usually enough to wake me up again. I'm not sure how to get around that yet.
This morning, playing guitar was supposed to be just noodling and playing myself to sleep; the intellectual part sort of happened by accident (and is the reason for the "and suddenly I'm awake" -- I was making steady progress in the direction of sleep until I noticed it was in 12/8).
I've wondered whether having a recliner near the computer would be a good thing (or just having a recliner at all) -- the idea is that I'd find a comfortable-enough position to sit and read (electrons or dead trees, either way), and when I find myself nodding off, just tilt it the rest of the way back and close my eyes.
"the Western music traditions are a bit ... unadventurous"
*nod* We've got some cool stuff in that regard, but it's considered non-mainstream or just unusual mainstream (e.g. "Money" by PInk Floyd, which is in seven, and the original Mission: Impossible theme, in five). But even those are unadventurous compared to, say, a Turkish 9/8 counted 2+2+2+3. (OTOH, there's the score to Pippin, which is pretty trippy in places -- but hey, the exception that tests the rule.) We do have folks deliberately blending African or Eastern rythms into Western ideas, but I'm not sure whether they're thought of as extending Western music or standing betwen Western and Other. I'm also not sure what's state-of-the-art in jazz these days. (When I do hear jazz on the radio it's dumbed-down, easy-listening jazz, and I get bored very quickly. Modern jazz isn't my first choice of genre, but I would like to have non-"llite" modern jazz among my listening options.)
Hmm. Does klezmer count as Eastern, Western, or its own category?
Fortunately there's still a lot of room for music to be interesting even within the confines of the most common Western time signatures.
I label klezmer as crossover. Some of my Israeli friends call it "Jewish Jazz". Which I have difficulty with, since I don't "get" jazz but intensely like kletzmer. I never made the bepop transition; instead, I'm stuck in the swing and dixie era.
And, indeed, rhythm and meter is not the only criterion for music to be interesting. For instance, when papa Bach pushes his tonal machinery in motion, the result is captivating. Mozart, though unforgiving for the performer. And so on and so forth.
Not to mention the untold unnamed musicians, whose work lives on in the traditional music styles, such as Celtics. Here I have often felt that whereas someone else might give the rhythm line to another instrument and let the lead carry a melody, at least the Irish tradition seems to have the an union of the rhythm and the melody.
Funny, I was gonna mention klez as soon as I saw this thread. :) I've heard klezmer described as "Yiddish swing," which is actually probably more accurate than "Jewish jazz," but we won't get into that. (Y'all like swing, right?) I mean, tell me the most famous klez piece ever (that'd be Bei Mir Bistu Shayn) isn't swing...
In my copy of The Compleat Klezmer (Sapoznik/Solokow), some of the arrangements at the back are in common metre, but they have things in them that look sortakinda like "stretch triplets" -- they're sex- and septuplets. I can't even start to hear something like that in my head, and my software won't cope with it. Which is why...
I'm bringing the book to Pennsic next year. You can look at it there, and see if there's anything you like. I'll photocopy some stuff for you, but I'm not lending it, sorry. (I'm gonna get you a copy of Nakht in Gan Eydn just because I like it so much, though!)
(no subject)
When I finally stopped reading in bed, I found I sleep better. Of course there was a transition period, a week or two, if I recall. Now, if I am unable to sleep, I move over to the comfy chair and read there.
As far as rhythm is concerned, the Western music traditions are a bit ... unadventurous. In some other traditions, 7/4 is the starting point for more interesting rhythms to build on.
(no subject)
This morning, playing guitar was supposed to be just noodling and playing myself to sleep; the intellectual part sort of happened by accident (and is the reason for the "and suddenly I'm awake" -- I was making steady progress in the direction of sleep until I noticed it was in 12/8).
I've wondered whether having a recliner near the computer would be a good thing (or just having a recliner at all) -- the idea is that I'd find a comfortable-enough position to sit and read (electrons or dead trees, either way), and when I find myself nodding off, just tilt it the rest of the way back and close my eyes.
"the Western music traditions are a bit ... unadventurous"
*nod* We've got some cool stuff in that regard, but it's considered non-mainstream or just unusual mainstream (e.g. "Money" by PInk Floyd, which is in seven, and the original Mission: Impossible theme, in five). But even those are unadventurous compared to, say, a Turkish 9/8 counted 2+2+2+3. (OTOH, there's the score to Pippin, which is pretty trippy in places -- but hey, the exception that tests the rule.) We do have folks deliberately blending African or Eastern rythms into Western ideas, but I'm not sure whether they're thought of as extending Western music or standing betwen Western and Other. I'm also not sure what's state-of-the-art in jazz these days. (When I do hear jazz on the radio it's dumbed-down, easy-listening jazz, and I get bored very quickly. Modern jazz isn't my first choice of genre, but I would like to have non-"llite" modern jazz among my listening options.)
Hmm. Does klezmer count as Eastern, Western, or its own category?
Fortunately there's still a lot of room for music to be interesting even within the confines of the most common Western time signatures.
(no subject)
And, indeed, rhythm and meter is not the only criterion for music to be interesting. For instance, when papa Bach pushes his tonal machinery in motion, the result is captivating. Mozart, though unforgiving for the performer. And so on and so forth.
Not to mention the untold unnamed musicians, whose work lives on in the traditional music styles, such as Celtics. Here I have often felt that whereas someone else might give the rhythm line to another instrument and let the lead carry a melody, at least the Irish tradition seems to have the an union of the rhythm and the melody.
Klezmer
In my copy of The Compleat Klezmer (Sapoznik/Solokow), some of the arrangements at the back are in common metre, but they have things in them that look sortakinda like "stretch triplets" -- they're sex- and septuplets. I can't even start to hear something like that in my head, and my software won't cope with it. Which is why...
I'm bringing the book to Pennsic next year. You can look at it there, and see if there's anything you like. I'll photocopy some stuff for you, but I'm not lending it, sorry. (I'm gonna get you a copy of Nakht in Gan Eydn just because I like it so much, though!)