I know NOTHING!

[kickingtone]

NOTHING!

 

Well, here's the deal. There's a very interesting series you can watch on BBC iPlayer, right now, if you have access.

 

Here is episode 2:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06fw2hd/the-naked-choir-with-gareth-malone-episode-2

 

It is an a cappella competition (Master Chef type format/spinoff). There is a panel of experts commenting and judging the performances, and many of the contestants are very talented and well into their music.

 

But when you hear a number of experts applauding what sounds to you like a BIG MESS, you have to start asking yourself questions, lol. I liked the odd bit of some of the performances, and in fact the whole of two of the performances in episode 1 (one of which lost!), but for the most part, I realize that I have NO IDEA what the experts are looking for.

 

I mean, I understand when they talk of things like increasing the dynamics of the vocals, and I can hear the difference, but too often I found the overall sound UNMUSICAL! -- which it can't be, right??? I don't think it's the artists than are the "problem",it's the musical arrangement itself that "disagrees with me". And it seems a lil eerie watching experts mull over the "finer points" of what sound to me to be a BIG MESS. It is as if there is some energy or expression that I am simply not picking up on, or I am totally rejecting.

 

So, am I missing some sort of acquired taste?

 

Do you have to put in a positive EFFORT to begin to like some songs? Or does the music always just "grow" on you, without you thinking about it?

 

It may not be a problem, because I am not interested in singing songs that don't inspire me. But it is still a good idea to recognize,appreciate and isolate technical expertise, so that you can learn it and redeploy it to contexts that interest you.

 

I have long realized that music theory is vast, but this has left me realizing just how much is invisible to me.

 

So, my main question is, in order to improve musically, can you limit yourself to music that you like, or do you have to study and analyze stuff that you can't stand, and discover WHY IT IS MUSIC?

[WRGKMC]

NOTHING!

 

It may not be a problem, because I am not interested in singing songs that don't inspire me.

 

That pretty much puts it in a nut shell.

 

What if you played football as a pro and you said to someone, your only interested in throws that inspire you.

Or say you are a musician and want to join a band and tell them you're only interested in songs that inspire you.

 

I can tell you right off what they would say. " The world doesn't revolve around your likes" If you're lucky enough to play in a band with 5 other players and get to contribute 1/5 of the songs on the list and the 4 other guys do the same, everyone can say they've contributed equally.

 

That doesn't always happen and compromise is the name of the game. If you look at the Beatles. Harrison was lucky to get one of his songs on an album. Ringo started getting one per album really late in the game. John and Paul were the heavyweights because they wrote the best music and did most of the lead singing.

 

This all comes down to being an artist. An artist can produce art to satisfy his own indulgence. Turning that into a profitable business is a whole different thing. It may be he just happens to appeal to others who have similar tastes but that's usually one in a million.

 

Performing is all about pleasing others who in return give you an applause and pay to hear you perform. That's it. If you just happen to have your own music and like that music then there can be some self gratification from the music itself, but that's normally reserved for the listener, not the performer. When you develop as a performer you also develop in maturity.

 

You cant exist in life long as a prima donna unless you have bags of money and you hire people who are willing to put up with your selfish, self centeredness. You'll also look back and find a wasted life and a trail of destruction in everything you do. I've known many great artists, many of them who reached world fame. The best inspired others to be their best.

 

There is good reason for this. Many learn the hard way just how important it is to work with a team of artists in a musical group where everyone feels inspired to play their best on everything that play because its the only way you can create great works of art together. Its is a team effort however and you have to live through the good and the bad working with others often on the edge of their emotional endurance. Its very easy for someone to crash and burn, get despondent or just loose all interest. Man is not a machine who can turn it on when they want all the time. People need down tome and time to recollect themselves and reevaluate their lives.

 

If you got what it takes, and the players all have a similar mission or series of goals they wish to obtain you can focus on that and not each other and do what you call, cannibalize each others emotions and carry uour own weight and not piggy back on others talent as you seek to perfect your act, you may achieve something that is truly magical.

 

The skills of the individuals combine to work together in a way that exponentially increases the level of art that goes beyond the number of players there. You'd think a band of five would produce 5 times the musical power of one. Those who have been there before know its much more then that. Its something you cant pout into words. You may have 5 members but the combined skills are elevated to sound like 6 or 7 players. Some describe it as a runners high, others describe it as spirits there backing you up. Even the great masters who wrote music hundreds of years ago saw it as Gods spirit working through them and they were only the conduit of the power flowing from the source to the audience.

 

Whatever method, or description you give it, it's a truly wondrous thing to experience. There is nothing like it on this earth that can compare. Not Sex, Not love, Not Money, Not Drugs.

 

The thing is you cant just storm the gates and steal it. The second you attempt to it disappears like sand in your fingers. Obtaining it is a matter of grace and humility and most of all the hardest work you've ever done. Becoming a Navy Seal is kids stuff in comparison because most of that is purely physical. Music requires a tuned mind and a tuned body directed by a pure heart that wants to share what they can do musically with others. If you cant dedicate yourself to following that path and putting in 100 tomes more work then anything you'll ever get back, then you are truly seeking to be part of the wrong profession.

 

There is a line between listeners and performers and you have to know how to bridge it. You have to let go of one to become the other when you perform and become the best listener there ever was when you aren't performing. Its a matter of heightened awareness. Others sense this and recognize what it is. It mystifies them beyond all sanity because like I said they want to storm the gates and consume it. The problem is its fleeting and even the artist doesn't always know when they will be given a full dose of that inner power to share with others.

 

[kickingtone]

 

That pretty much puts it in a nut shell.

 

What if you played football as a pro and you said to someone, your only interested in throws that inspire you.

Or say you are a musician and want to join a band and tell them you're only interested in songs that inspire you.

 

I can tell you right off what they would say. " The world doesn't revolve around your likes" If you're lucky enough to play in a band with 5 other players and get to contribute 1/5 of the songs on the list and the 4 other guys do the same, everyone can say they've contributed equally.

 

Your parallel between football and music does not tell the whole story. Actually, it is a thoroughly miserable comparison.

 

In football, a team can be built around a "solid, workmanlike approach". However, a "solid, workmanlike approach" by a band is likely to go over like a lead balloon. Clearly, there is something about art that sets it aside, in this respect. The musician is a communicator, the footballer is not. How can you inspire an audience, if you are not yourself inspired?

 

Your footballer is good to go if ALL throws inspire him. EVERY throw counts in a game of football, so his aim must be to be inspired by EVERY throw, not to see his game as a "compromise". Not every technique from every genre and style applies to a band. The question of choice, preference and distaste come into the frame.

 

Not being inspired by a particular piece of art is not a matter of being self-centered, apathetic, or of being a "prima donna". It is a matter of honest fact. It is human to have preferences. An artist requires certain breadth of technique, but that does not mean that he should be all things to everyone.

 

Some inspirations you have to seek out. Some inspirations find you. Some of your seeking will be in vain, because some things will never inspire you.

 

That is why I said that not being inspired may or may not be a problem.

 

Your best performance comes when you are inspired, so the question is, "what is the best approach in seeking inspiration?"

 

That doesn't always happen and compromise is the name of the game. If you look at the Beatles. Harrison was lucky to get one of his songs on an album. Ringo started getting one per album really late in the game. John and Paul were the heavyweights because they wrote the best music and did most of the lead singing.

 

This all comes down to being an artist. An artist can produce art to satisfy his own indulgence. Turning that into a profitable business is a whole different thing. It may be he just happens to appeal to others who have similar tastes but that's usually one in a million.

 

This is more to the point. If you are not inspired by what you are singing, then you are going to turn in a strictly technical performance, or a pretence. That may be OK for practising, if your aim is to seek inspiration. But what disinterests me is the idea of performing before you have found that inspiration..

 

Performing is all about pleasing others who in return give you an applause and pay to hear you perform. That's it. If you just happen to have your own music and like that music then there can be some self gratification from the music itself, but that's normally reserved for the listener, not the performer. When you develop as a performer you also develop in maturity.

 

Talking about maturity, what I discover is just how much pretence goes on in performances. You start to see the difference between an artist who is only "looking the part", but not feeling the part.

 

There is good reason for this. Many learn the hard way just how important it is to work with a team of artists in a musical group where everyone feels inspired to play their best on everything that play because its the only way you can create great works of art together. Its is a team effort however and you have to live through the good and the bad working with others often on the edge of their emotional endurance. Its very easy for someone to crash and burn, get despondent or just loose all interest. Man is not a machine who can turn it on when they want all the time. People need down tome and time to recollect themselves and reevaluate their lives.

 

Feeling inspired to put effort into a production, and feeling inspired by what is produced, are two different things.

 

Again, my point is, "how much of the former comes to fruition as the latter?"

 

Effort is not the issue. Pragmatism is. For example...

 

I am not inspired by rap. By this, I mean that it is not something that I would want to sit and listen to. It would most likely irritate me.

 

However, I recognize the skill involved in rapping. And there are obvious transferable skills in rapping, e.g diction and timing. Because I appreciate that aspect of rap, I could learn a couple of rap songs. Then I could become more aware of the skill and energy involved in performing rap. I may come to like rap, or dislike it even more.

 

All I really was asking is, "how much digging around into less favoured genres/styles do folk do like this, to improve their technique?"

[Chordptrn]

Skip the music you don't like - it's a waste of time when you could be enjoying singing your favs.

Just do your standard singing practice - scales, ma may me mo moo stuff, warm ups, strengthening.

Apply that to the songs you like.