The Zappa Composing Method

[Barry]

Here's something Dr Sharl and I have been talking about for some time: how did FZ go about composing? I mean, was it a music first/lyrics last sort of a thing, or vice versa? When composing, would he go straight to drawing notes on music-sheets, or would he use a piano/guitar and hum along until something good came along? How much of his compositions were accomplished during rehearsals, and how much was defined right away on the "drawing board"? Is there an interaction between both (actually, I'm sure there is)? To what degree did FZ's "sidemen" contribute to the tunes? Will I ever stop asking questions? Does my hair look good in the back? Will somebody please stop me? Thank you?

[xorg]

I expect that like most composers it was 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration and ideas would come to FZ while noodling around on piano, guitar, drums or whatever. Just occasionally stuff might have popped into his head from nowhere, but I doubt if anything would have popped in there fully-formed.  He did write stuff according to what particular musicians could (or could not) play, which would account to a large extent for why he got through so many sidemen. For example, Jimmy Carl Black could not have played 'The Black Page' but it suited Terry Bozzio pretty well.

I don't think other musicians contributed directly to his compositions, although there are a few co-composer credits here and there. But given that he played with so many talented people something must have rubbed off on him. I would guess that the sidemen affected some of the arrangements, however. And you can of course hear lots of influences in FZ's compositions.

[Studio Tan]

Some articles says that he wrote dots directly on the sheet but certainly you had to have the tune, or at least the general idea, clear first. Playing around with the synclavier in a different way of making music since you can record every whim directly and literally overload it with anything that springs to mind and edit out the highlights afterwards. This hints, music first.  Or 'Theme From The 3rd Movement of Sinister Footwear'. Isn't that one derived from a drumsolo?

[Bobo]

A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians.
- Frank Zappa
(Source: The Real Frank Zappa Book)

[Wannabeard]

I seem to be able to recall having read (presumably in TRFZB) that Frank was able to hear the tunes he wanted to compose in his head, and then scrible the tune directly on paper. It does not seem strange to me that the song would just pop in to his head, and then he would put it down on paper, as he certainly knew what the "dots" sounded like. And in some Guitar magazine I have read that he did not like to improvise his solos too much, and would rather compose them. So my idea of Frank is not someone who is fiddling around with his guitar, but someone who knows where he is going. But, I don't know if that is the right idae of Frank.

[black zappath]

Hello all, glad I have found this (running!) page and interesting chat!
I had read a Zappa interview in '79 or so, in Musician mag perhaps, where he said he wrote music mostly while waiting in airports, during flights, in hotel rooms, etc. Then, back home, he would check some of the material on the piano.
He also said in this paper that, when home, he sat at the piano all day to compose.
I would guess he probably meant the orchestra projects here, as opposed to many other methods he probably used back in those days, depending on how schooled his musicians of the moment were.
A piece like "Ruth is Sleeping", which he said he wrote between flights while waiting in an airport, sounds to my idiot ear like "randomly" written, and not very much planned. What think?

[Chris]

All of the above are probably right. Songs come to a composer in many different ways, and Frank certainly wasn't a "formula" kind of guy; he looked for inspiration anywhere and everywhere (as we know). Incidentally, on one of the many nifty bootleg videos I have, Frank can be seen in what appears to be '69 or '70 (I think it's from a European documentary from that time), sitting at a piano, trying a few chords, and then moving to a table and drawing those ol' little block dots on score paper.

[RONNY SINGS]

Probably depended on the song. I remember FZ talking about just telling the band what to play, and shaping the song directly, with no paper involved. This must have been the easy rock type stuff.

I don't know if this is representative or not, but once I was lucky enough to be back stage at one of his concerts. I observed that Frank had two notebooks with him (the big 4" ringbinder type). He sat and wrote lyrics in the one with just blank paper in it. He also sat writing notes on music paper, in the other notebook. So, what does this tell us? I certainly don't know, but perhaps this is what he did on the road. Maybe at home, he sat at the piano and checked his work as he went along, so to speak.

Or, maybe he couldn't do anything unless he channeled Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, and Mantovani......