| Q:
Can you tell me what real music is to you?
A:
This is a difficult question, I'll do my best.
First let me clarify my answer before I give it.
I'll give my answer to you assuming you want advice
on becoming a good composer and musician. I'll
do my best to point you in the direction I think
is best. Your question finishes with the important
three words; "is to you." So please
consider my answers my own opinion. After all
beautiful music is in the ear of the beholder.
Rocket
Science - I think as practicing musicians,
we risk making the mistake of concluding music
is some sort of sport rather than what it really
is, a form of expression. In its finest examples,
music can be an enormous emotional experience,
making us cry or laugh, feel great or depressed.
Music has a wonderful quality that ties events
to it. I can still smell my first real girlfriend
Lisa's perfume when I hear "our song"
in passing (thirty years after the fact). Of course
music should have some kind of technical expertise
figured into the equation. I mean, as a musician
I enjoy hearing technically proficient musicians
playing. But, I will also add that it is not the
only thing important about music. Matter of fact,
if that was the only good thing about a specific
musician or band, technical expertise, I would
probably not listen for any length of time. Take
a minute and try to remember the time in your
life when you first really got into music. Way
before you started to learn your scales or music
theory. You didn't think about if the guitar player
was great or what kind of arpeggios he was playing.
You most likely were in some way moved by the
music. It somehow connected with you. You have
heard it before but I will tell you once again:
There are thousands of phenomenal musicians out
there... So what? The musicians and music that
is set apart has something different added into
the equation:
Emotion
- Is there a story? Besides the actual music,
is there something being said? Of course, when
there are lyrics involved, it is easier to say
something. Music has the ability to create enormous
emotional impact. The reason is simple; it is
because a song is sort of a poem set to music.
One multiplies the other. The music should create
a backdrop for a statement, a canvas for a landscape.
I often ask students; "Why do you think there
is music, in all cultures, throughout all man's
history?" The answers give you a hint to
how to create music or at least help clarify your
compositional goal. Searching for the answer to
this question has been a task for me since I started
playing the guitar thirty years ago. Let us examine
music and our lives and the lives of our ancestors
who undoubtedly created music before they even
had a written language. Once again the question
to be answered: Why do we make music?
Emotional
Tool - I think that music is a tool to stir
our emotions, motivate us to do the difficult,
create an atmosphere conductive to talking to
God or the spirit, comfort us in our troubled
moments, help us enjoy the good times and rejoice.
Think a second about what music started out as.
I often imagine Africa thousands of years ago,
and percussion being the first type of music.
Maybe they made music to help them talk to God,
the whole village in unison with the musicians,
dancing and asking for rain or game. Have you
ever been to a church that didn't have some kind
of music? I've listened to music at both the local
Baptist church in Los Angeles and at Saint Peter's
Cathedral in Rome and at a temple here is Tokyo.
Music is there to help us celebrate marriage or
mourn death, connect with God and connect with
our lovers. Maybe music helped prepare hunters
for the kill. It takes a lot of motivation to
kill an animal without a gun; music could turn
the soul to a complete frenzy. Music helps us
focus on the tasks ahead, dealing with our jobs
and private battles, loves and hates, insecurities
and infidelities. I've also come to the conclusion
that when the soul moves the body follows, in
dance or battle. It also probably helped us to
pass on our stories and history before there was
written language. Putting words to music, makes
it a lot easier to remember. My four year old
daughter can say the alphabet unless she sings
it.
Melody
- Especially regarding instrumental music, melody
will become of the most importance. The melody
has to have some kind of emotional impact. Does
the melody by itself create a mood? Even without
words does the song create a sense of anger, love,
loneliness, happiness? Besides the melody itself,
how is it played? Did the artist play it like
he meant it? Jeff Beck always amazes me the way
he interprets a theme.
Being
Musically In Touch - I don't know exactly
how to describe this so I've picked "In Touch"
as my paragraph opener for the lack of something
better. What I mean by this is that players can
be technically proficient but not necessarily
"in touch." In touch may mean maybe
a sort of "sense" or "insight"
if you will. Maybe "connected" is a
better word. How can you get in touch? For me
this means that you will have to back step and
discover the roots of today's music and the roots
of yesterday's music for that matter. For me the
answer is simple: Blues. Ninety-nine percent of
today's players will tell you that the Blues is
easy but I have almost never heard anyone play
is convincingly. It is not about playing the minor
or major pentatonic scale over the twelve bar
progression it is about the chord tones, timing,
phrasing and motif and about the "story".
If you don't get the blues together, you will
be like the other ninety-nine percent of the players
who are not "in touch." No matter what
style of music you play, it started in the Blues
so if you don't have it, your music will always
be a big bore.
Putting
the Cart Before the Horse - There is so much
music written for the sake of a technical challenge
rather than for the song. It should be the opposite.
There are too many musicians who start writing
their songs by thinking; "Let's see, I'll
start out with a bar of 7/4 and follow
it by a bar of 5/4. Not that odd time signatures
are a bad thing but the process is wrong. I love
to use the Beatles as an example. Think of the
song "All you Need is Love." My four
year old daughter loves for me to sing the song
to her but she doesn't realize that there is a
bar of three following the bar of four. She doesn't
know that the E7 chord going to the Amin
chord in the key of C can be analyzed as a V7/vi
chord. A song that can hold a three year olds
attention and mine at the same time is genius.
Tonally
Dialed In - The great musicians are very tone
sensitive. Getting the right tone makes it that
much easier to make your statement. The choice
of guitars and amps can make or break a great
tune. Try to pay special attention to what the
players you like are using. Miles Davis is easily
identified by his sound as well as Jimi Hendrix.
Easy
on the Ears - This takes me to my final point.
The true genius song writers/musicians are the
ones (just like the Beatles) manage to appeal
to a wide audience and yet maintain a level of
superb musicianship. I saw Jeff Beck a few months
ago in Tokyo and he is a perfect example. He played
instrumental music and sold out three nights at
Tokyo's International Forum. Some good examples
of songs that are easy on the ears but at the
same time very harmonically complex are "Fall"
written by Wayne Shorter and "Birdland"
on the Weather Report CD "Heavy Weather"
written by Joe Zawinul.
Candy
for the Ears - An interesting arrangement
can make the difference between a great song and
a masterpiece. What exactly is an arrangement
anyway? It means that you or someone who is an
arranger takes a song and adds some hair on it.
This "hair" could come in the form of
many different things. It could mean an intro,
a string part, a big fat B3 or percussion. It
could also mean a rearrangement of the form of
the song to make it easier on the ears. Guitarists,
yours truly included, generally make for lousy
arrangers. Keyboardists do a better job. Some
arrangements I like are "Tonight's the Night"
by Rod Stuart, the way the B3 and guitar get sort
of mixed up in the intro. How about "Strawberry
Fields" on the Sgt. Pepper's recording? Imagine
"Cashmere" from the Zeppelin CD "Physical
Graffiti" without the string arrangement.
The whole "Dark Side of the Moon" by
"Pink Floyd" is an arranging/mixing
masterpiece. Jazz when played by a small group
such as a quartet doesn't call for much arranging
but the same simple songs can be arranged for
Big Band which is a whole different thing all
together. For some good Big Band arranging check
out any Bob Minzer Big Band recordings or for
more of a rock vibe check out "The Brian
Setzer Orchestra." Some producers are know
for their arranging and orchestrating chops.
Two
Brains - Most of the most memorable music
around today was done by two people. It seems
that more often than not the chemistry of two
creative powers can create music of enormous magnitude.
Plant and Page are one example. Another, Wayne
Shorter and Joe Zawinul from Weather Report. How
about Lennon and McCartney? It is an enormous
undertaking to write music, then arrange it and
write the lyrics (if the song is not an instrumental).
Artists often hire someone on to take care of
the writing and arranging and this is another
kind of artistic chemistry. Miles hired on Wayne
Shorter in the 60s and Marcus Miller later on.
Jeff Beck used Max Middleton on the groundbreaking
release Blow by Blow (on top of that the record
was produced by George Martin). Elton John used
Bernie Taupin to write the lyrics for his hit
songs. I've also heard that Lyle Mays used to
take Pat Metheny's melodic ideas and make full
compositions of them. It is difficult to imagine
what "Sgt. Peppers" would have come
out as if George Martin wasn't involved in the
process. The only artist I can think of that pretty
much took care of everything himself was Jimi
Hendrix but it is still interesting to imagine
what kind of music would have been created if
Jimi had found his musical soul mate (not too
many people know it but Jimi was hanging around
with Miles before he died). Anyway, my point here
is that sometimes it is a good idea to work with
someone else and most of the better music that
has been released was created this way.
You'll
have to let me apologize to you, unlike my other
lessons I have not included scales or arpeggios
for you to try. No sequences to baffle you either.
But I wanted you to know that although these things
are important, it is half the battle, the other
half is your story and the way you connect to
your listener.
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