Ask the Brain
Saad's coaching, available the moment you're stuck. Grounded in his lessons, Office Hours, Discord, and writing — with citations.
I'm stuck on the rhythm of Tide Glass. The harmonic field feels right but the surface motion isn't landing. What did Saad say about working through this?
Good news, your piece is in lo-res sketch — exactly the right phase to be wrestling with this. Saad covered this almost word-for-word in last month's Office Hours: when rhythm and harmony fight each other in lo-res, it's usually because you're trying to develop both at once.
His specific advice from the OH session:
1. Pick one parameter per work session. You already have "rhythm against sustained harmonic field" named on Tide Glass — keep that as the only thing you're developing this week. 2. Don't open Sibelius. Stay on manuscript or in your sketch app. Saad said directly: "when it's in the notation program there is a finality to it that makes it mentally difficult to change." 3. If the surface still won't come, try doubling the harmonic rhythm temporarily — even if you cut it later. It surfaces what the structural rhythm actually wants.
If you want, I can show you the worksheet from Module 2 that walks through exactly this.
"When rhythm and harmony fight each other in lo-res, it's usually because you're trying to develop both at once..."
Pick one parameter per work session. Name it before you start.
Saad's reply about parameter-locking in lo-res phase