Wet concrete smells a certain way.

I find that the saying "There is beauty in simplicity" (or some reasonable facsimile thereof) to be really true sometimes. Like three chord rock and roll, vanilla ice cream, and a reliable circulating fan in muggy weather.

However, if you were to take these things and put them under a microscope, they lose whatever it is that makes them appealing. Nobody really says, "I like this music because of the strong cadence when movement from the chord built upon fifth degree to the chord built upon the first occurs!" You can't exactly shout that over the din of a punk rock band.

I think in overanalysis, which is something i find myself guilty of from time to time, i lose perpective, and drown out the things that I really enjoy, or like to create.

I bring this up because I recently saw some bird calls notated onto sheet music. They were incredibly complicated, polyrhythmic strings of black dots that only a very skilled technical musician could pull off. Here we have something that can be a really beautiful sound (not those damn jays though) quantitized and formulated. Something makes me not like that at all. It would sound sterile, even if played by a principle player on any instrument of your choice.

I guess what i'm saying is, it seems to be a good idea to shut the analysis off once and while. Stop and smell the coffee, or flowers, or wet concrete or whatever it is you like to smell. And don't trouble yourself to think about why. I'm not saying we should dismiss the feeling of wonder we may get from such a thing...just tell that little dude in your head that handles that to take off his lab coat and put on a hawaiian shirt once in a while.