THE ILLUSION OF AN INSTRUMENT
fishmongerfunk
4,154 Posts
this video turned my playing around, I just wanted to share it...
fishmongerfunk
4,154 Posts
Comments
What do you play?
I used to play guitar, but I don't pick it up much anymore. I'm still pretty technically solid, but I just forgot everything I used to like to play. The only real time I do any "playing" now is when I'm scratching on the turntable. I don't fancy myself a qbert or anything, but I do consciously practice different scratches and techniques to get better at them. I think a lot of "practising" is developing your aural imagination as well as strengthening your muscle memory so that the two are in sync and work well together. Your inner ear has to be able to talk to your hands, so to speak.
Thanks for posting! I enjoyed watching it again. I love hearing people who are really good/into their craft speak passionately about it.
please post more examples of musicians expounding on their theories of music...
I don't have anything like this to contribute. But would love to see more!
Here's a video that helped me out it's pretty long but well worth watching for improvisers. Talks about using your conscious and sub conscience mind while playing.
This is a great class too. I found it pretty helpful on his approach to practice vs performance. Some jazz psychology here.
Did the ideas leave? Did the talent stop? After years of practicing scales purely on an ability level they should be more complex. What happens to the songwriting? I mean at a certain age your just with repetition alone your inner musical voice must be screaming at point in your life.
Let's take Paul McCartney for example. Macca hasn't stopped playing music since the Beatles broke up. He has all the money in the world. He can walk into any recording studio in the record, and damn near do whatever the fuck he wants. Unfortunately, the only thing he can do is release something tepid.
Now my opinion may be different than yours, but he hasn't churned out a Hey Jude, Helter Skelter, I Will, Paperback Writer, Michelle, We can work it out in years. Sorry to dump on the old fellow. I like the dude too, but i just feel he should be turning out better music.
- damo
It happens to chess players, novelists and mathematicians, too. You're mixing up knowledge, experience and skill with innovation and genius. There's no universal rule here but it seems to apply more often than not.
Surely no-one was batting out endless streams of all-killer, eternally classic works, even at their loftiest heights. I include The Motown Roster, Bowie, Stevie, Michael, U2 and anyone else that "Fell off real hard, son." Not every song can be super.
Because when everything is super, nothing is super.
Do you think some of that is "Youngsters" just blanket-dismissing Macca because he's now old-as-f*ck, and will never have currency amongst kids? Surely there's an element of embarrassment associated with his post-Beatles stuff. I am not pointing a finger at you Sp1dey, because I feel the same about him.
I mean, I don't really ride for the majority of his Beatles stuff, to be honest. The hits are unf*ckable, no doubt, but don't ask me to sit through "Yellow Submarine".
I'd sadly like to think that it is just genuinely boring music.
"I'm just hearing colours"
I think my post history suggests otherwise.
that was one of the lines that really struck me. at my best, i can see those colours (literally as splashes of paint or something) and it's such an amazing, spiritual experience (better than drugs, sex or sex on drugs) but i find it very difficult to get into that zone, and it only seems to happen when it wants to. my goal as a player is to be able to train my ear to hear/see those colours on a consistent basis.
My girlfriend is quite a few years younger than me, and in her mind Paul can do no wrong. However, I never see her casually listening to RAM or WINGS.
It's just an observation I'm making about phenomenally talented people who stopped making great art. It's not everyone. Check out Caetano Veloso now for example.
Anyways, sorry to derail the thread fellas.
- Damo
I think maybe that the "falling off" a lot of artists seem to have has more to do with trends and shifts in pop culture than anything else.
When people are developing their craft, they generally don't care about what people think of their art. Then as they become known and have a larger audience, that audience's opinion begins to mean something. After a short time as a "commercial success," the artist begins to lose the hunger/seclusion/loneliness/freedom/time/etc that was a catalyst to their art, and they also start to factor in the audience more. Perhaps this leads to some self doubt or pressure to fulfill expectations. This is the classic 3rd album tepidness factor. Too much outside influence or muddled ideas. Then as the artist matures a bit and finds themselves again, their particular style or genres has fallen out of fashion in pop culture, so their later works are dismissed.
Or maybe people just have a finite amount of interesting art in them. Everyone burns out eventually. Some quicker than others.