Notebook : page 3-4

prev | album home | next

The genesis of I Spend All My Free Time on the Internet. I don't know if I made a conscious decision to change from the alliterative "spare time" to the easier-to-sing "free time"; it may have (as many such changes do when I'm traveling from conception to recording) just sort of happened organically.

I'll sometimes write chords out in generic theory notation—I, IV, vi, V7—but often I'll just pick a likely key and write native to that, like I did here. I'm quick at transposing; I think of songs in terms of harmonic relations rather than literal chords; so it's not really a problem if the key I pick turns out to be unsingable.

When I first started writing music down regularly, which was probably in Music Theory I my freshman year at WPI, I was very meticulous about both the drawing of the notes and symbols and the proper use of notation artifacts. Since then, as I've become more comfortable with the process, my writing has become a sloppier shorthand: I do it to keep the information I know I'll need, and I'll often omit any other details.

The note at the bottom of this page is the only admission you'll find to the homophonic conceit of the "I am what I am == IM == instant messaging" joke in the repeated chorus element. Too goddam cute for my own good, there.

The proposed chords and melody for that "we read more websites than books..." B-part are completely different from what ended up on the album.