Afterglow

I’ve been writing poetry since I was 11 years old. That’s 67 years. For the last 50 I also wrote lyrics kept in a now worn binder and then, in modern world, a file on my computer. I had no place to go with them. I just loved composing and making music on my guitar in the way I was able. Like a dozen other things I have loved in my lifetime that had no reason for doing other than the joy. [Sometimes doing for the sake of doing is way better than being owned by the thing done.]

Then the day came when Arthr Itis decided I could no longer play my guitar. For awhile, switching to ukulele. But even I got tired of making cringeworthy music. Doing wasn’t fun anymore.

But then, six months ago, I was introduced to AI music comp and I could take my lyrics and turn them into listenable music. The distinction here is my lyrics. I would not be interested in having AI write for me as is rapidly becoming the new norm, which I admit concerns me about the future of humans losing the art of writing.

Not unexpectedly, there has been a huge uproar over the potential of AI music to displace and put real live musicians out of business as well. But this doesn’t have to happen.

So long as AI music is used as a tool, that can put lyrics (written by humans) on the fast track to becoming music for some talented performer/musician to interpret/express, the threat is not about replacement.

I understand that there isn’t anything mankind has invented or created that can’t be hijacked and used for nefarious purpose. Happens all the time. There’s the internet and then there is the dark web. So AI might just be our final undoing. My dark concerns about AI in general have not altered. My biggest concern is how easy it is to hypnotize humans into making a god out of something they then worship. A large golden calf comes to mind.

Even though AI can instantly amass already existing information and mimic patterns, it doesn’t create new information like humans have done throughout history. But where does the info come from and how does AI know the difference between truth and lie? That requires discernment, an exclusively human skill set.

And, as I have mentioned before, all one has to do to stop AI is - pull the plug. AI is nothing without electricity. Humans existed and thrived long before Ben Franklin flew a kite.

AI music, with emphasis on ‘A’ for artificial, no matter how good it is, can never replace real artists performing for a live audience.

Maybe, if only for a season, AI music comping could be a boon to the starving musical artists. AI is fast track just like this computer I am typing on and the digital world my words will instantly land in when I hit the send button, but still - it does take a human to set it in motion.

I have no idea how long my fascination with making music will last. How long before my lyric well runs dry... or artistic creative energy or can’t see anymore.

In the meantime, I am delighted to have this tool to play with, to keep my old brain actively diving deep into my perspectives on life expressed musically. Frankly it feels very much like I have come full circle to the little girl in her playhouse content to be in her own imagination.

Lyrics are just another form of poetry you know.

A few years ago I wrote and posted a poem in my Bagsallpacked blogspot about the brief lull we can experience at the end of the hectic Christmas season. I titled it Afterglow. Recently I went back and read it and realized it had a more profound meaning now for me that might could be a music comp.

It speaks to how, in our waning years, sometimes we take stock and collect and sort our memories of all the highlights in our lives and then pause to cherish and appreciate them...

...in soft warm afterglow.