Teach enough students for long enough and eventually you start to experience some of your own lessons. For a while now I have been "ranting" both here and in my classes about the need to always look for a new perspective whenever a musical experience starts to feel overdone. A few days ago I found myself with that exact need and the end result proved very inspiring.
I was sitting in on drums for a friend's band - something I have been doing more of lately and have been enjoying so much that I now, somewhat secretly I suppose, am hopeful to do more of it more often. Anyway, four hours of "classic" cover songs is usually not exactly my idea of musical euphoria these days. Yes, I see the hypocrisy of my attitude - I should only be so lucky as to have a band, any band, cover one of my own songs, but I digress...
Anyway, in an effort to make things a bit more interesting for me, I decided to see what would happen if I played the kit for the entire night "left hand lead." (see Simon Phillips for pretty much the absolute master in this technique.) Turned out the 4 hours flew by for me. What a blast!
Sure a simple lesson in the end, and one that I should have known would produce results, but while in the midst of it I was really captivated. Looks like there will be at least a breif addendum to my Monday lectures...
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
New Creative Perspectives
Let's be honest. On some level the Singer-Songwriter paradigm has been successfully, and fully mined by some of the world's greatest musical artists. That is not to say the art form is dead or irrelevant - far from it, there are countless amazing songs being turned out even today - but the fact is that the notion of innovation in the genre is a good bit less present. The sense of "Wow! I never expected that." Is not really all the common. There are certainly great shows and amazing performances and all that, but that is not really what I am referring to. I am looking more at the notion of approach to the craft.
So, as I am completing the writing of my next CD, I have decided to conduct a little musical experiment on myself. Worse case, I will have some great teaching opportunities with my students with regard to technology and how it relates to the creative process; but my real hope is to push my own musical perceptions to such a further point that while the sonic end result sounds "normal" the creative/performance process of the individual tracks is new, unique, and inspiring.
Here's one example: The Matrix Piano. Now there are lots of far better musicians than I, using devices like the Monome, or the new Launchpad, and others to interface with sound; but, with respect to their work, the results generally seem somewhat musically counter intuitive, and many times I am - granted cinically - left with the thought, "OK, but where is the song?"
(Forgive the overly jargon based next bit, by the way...) What I am working with right now is developing a viable matrix on an 8x8 grid MIDI controller that will allow for diatonic based musical thoughts processed through a vastly different perspective that the standard piano keyboard. To be fair, I am also working with the same 8x8 matrix in a more guitar fingerboard based context just to cover another base. We'll see.
The point is that if I am very lucky the end result will be music that is still considered viable and appealing to the listener, but the content more compelling due to the shift in creative process priorities - or more to the point my perspective on the creation/performance of the songs. As I said, if nothing else, this should provide some pretty cool teaching moments, which is no small benefit in and of itself.
Oh, for those few of you who have been emailing and such about the new CD's progress, I promise, even with this new creative approach, it is very much in the works, the music is something pretty special, and I'd like to think worth the wait; but, in the end, all that I suppose is up to you.
So, as I am completing the writing of my next CD, I have decided to conduct a little musical experiment on myself. Worse case, I will have some great teaching opportunities with my students with regard to technology and how it relates to the creative process; but my real hope is to push my own musical perceptions to such a further point that while the sonic end result sounds "normal" the creative/performance process of the individual tracks is new, unique, and inspiring.
Here's one example: The Matrix Piano. Now there are lots of far better musicians than I, using devices like the Monome, or the new Launchpad, and others to interface with sound; but, with respect to their work, the results generally seem somewhat musically counter intuitive, and many times I am - granted cinically - left with the thought, "OK, but where is the song?"
(Forgive the overly jargon based next bit, by the way...) What I am working with right now is developing a viable matrix on an 8x8 grid MIDI controller that will allow for diatonic based musical thoughts processed through a vastly different perspective that the standard piano keyboard. To be fair, I am also working with the same 8x8 matrix in a more guitar fingerboard based context just to cover another base. We'll see.
The point is that if I am very lucky the end result will be music that is still considered viable and appealing to the listener, but the content more compelling due to the shift in creative process priorities - or more to the point my perspective on the creation/performance of the songs. As I said, if nothing else, this should provide some pretty cool teaching moments, which is no small benefit in and of itself.
Oh, for those few of you who have been emailing and such about the new CD's progress, I promise, even with this new creative approach, it is very much in the works, the music is something pretty special, and I'd like to think worth the wait; but, in the end, all that I suppose is up to you.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
The student who creis wolf
My more advanced student kinda hit a temporary wall a few days ago. The good news is that we got past it fairly quickly, but their initial impression of the situation, and treating the matter as essentially insignificant, struck me as troublesome.
The assignment had been to create a series of musically related themes (7 seconds, 15 seconds, and 24 seconds) that could be used in a news broadcast - a station had actually requested the work from them, so this was not entirely a hypothetical task for them. Anyway, as a way to ensure a certain amount of quality control, I asked them provide the actual ProTools session data, not just the final mixes. I had explained that this was an important part of the work they were doing so that there would be the opportunity to make any last corrections and thereby ensure a certain level of quality control.
For the most part they did a pretty good job, but a few either did not follow the instructions regarding the timings or in providing the actual session data. The issue of a grade for the work aside, when I brought this up to the class, several students commented that since the end result sounded so good (which it certainly did) that it should not really matter that the details of the actual assignment were incorrect.
And so ensued a bit of a rant on my part dealing with the need to make sure that you always provide the client with exactly what they request. No matter what. Now, if in the process you come up with something even better, then it is certainly viable to provide that as well, but to essentially ignore the specific request, can easily jeopardize the possibility of new work later from the client.
Granted I was on a bit of rant, but it was like I was speaking gibberish. There seemed to be a complete disconnect over the realities of how the industry really works. Artistic freedom must be earned, and I now realize that may be a far harder concept for my students to grasp than I had originally speculated.
We talked further, and it proved an interesting conversation, but it was such an odd starting point to me. I know full well that there is an immense amount of talent in that room. Frankly, I find it staggering what they are capable of; but the confusion of arrogance with ego (another, more detailed topic for another time) was concerning.
One even commented, "Would you tell Bob Dylan to change his music for something like this?" Of course not. Even if he was willing to have some of his music used in a news spot, it would likely be taken from already completed work, not a request for new material for this specific objective. And even then, no, I would not tell Bob Dylan to change his music. But the comment is a bit absurd any way, and the fact that the absurdity was not immediately seen is really my point here.
Dylan has such a proven track record that he walks into a room with a musical credibility of such magnitude that anything he says has to be taken seriously. But a 16 year old does not have that. The trip-up for them was to think this referred to a lack of talent. It's sort of the like a reverse boy-who-cried-wolf: students, younger musicians, have to be establish that they can successfully navigate within the rules first. Then once they break them, a client knows it was done for a musically valid reason, not just cause it's the easy way out.
The assignment had been to create a series of musically related themes (7 seconds, 15 seconds, and 24 seconds) that could be used in a news broadcast - a station had actually requested the work from them, so this was not entirely a hypothetical task for them. Anyway, as a way to ensure a certain amount of quality control, I asked them provide the actual ProTools session data, not just the final mixes. I had explained that this was an important part of the work they were doing so that there would be the opportunity to make any last corrections and thereby ensure a certain level of quality control.
For the most part they did a pretty good job, but a few either did not follow the instructions regarding the timings or in providing the actual session data. The issue of a grade for the work aside, when I brought this up to the class, several students commented that since the end result sounded so good (which it certainly did) that it should not really matter that the details of the actual assignment were incorrect.
And so ensued a bit of a rant on my part dealing with the need to make sure that you always provide the client with exactly what they request. No matter what. Now, if in the process you come up with something even better, then it is certainly viable to provide that as well, but to essentially ignore the specific request, can easily jeopardize the possibility of new work later from the client.
Granted I was on a bit of rant, but it was like I was speaking gibberish. There seemed to be a complete disconnect over the realities of how the industry really works. Artistic freedom must be earned, and I now realize that may be a far harder concept for my students to grasp than I had originally speculated.
We talked further, and it proved an interesting conversation, but it was such an odd starting point to me. I know full well that there is an immense amount of talent in that room. Frankly, I find it staggering what they are capable of; but the confusion of arrogance with ego (another, more detailed topic for another time) was concerning.
One even commented, "Would you tell Bob Dylan to change his music for something like this?" Of course not. Even if he was willing to have some of his music used in a news spot, it would likely be taken from already completed work, not a request for new material for this specific objective. And even then, no, I would not tell Bob Dylan to change his music. But the comment is a bit absurd any way, and the fact that the absurdity was not immediately seen is really my point here.
Dylan has such a proven track record that he walks into a room with a musical credibility of such magnitude that anything he says has to be taken seriously. But a 16 year old does not have that. The trip-up for them was to think this referred to a lack of talent. It's sort of the like a reverse boy-who-cried-wolf: students, younger musicians, have to be establish that they can successfully navigate within the rules first. Then once they break them, a client knows it was done for a musically valid reason, not just cause it's the easy way out.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Learning curve - student musical maturity
Last night my students put on one of their CMAS concerts and, in addition to proving they are able to continually raise the bar each time with regard to their writing, performance, and production skills, they also demonstrated a new kind of musical maturity that I had not seen yet from them.
The shows themselves are pretty musically diverse since there are so many styles and tastes across the student demographic of the program. This is made all the more pronounced since they can only perform original material at the event so they, like most of us, write what they enjoy. This is all good, and after so many years of this, not really very suprising to me.
What was interesting about last night was that for the first time there seemed to be this universal sense that no matter the performer, no matter the style or skill level, every act was going to be given the same "start treatment." Keep in mind that the program is so big (a great problem to have) that many students working the production end of the show do no know all of the performers that well, if at all. This is significant and it was very interesting to simply observe them transition from "I'm going to do a good job just for my friends," to a far more mature, "I'm going to do a good job for everyone, because there are hundreds of people here watching this show and I need to make sure they get their money's worth."
It was even more impressive when we did the post show debrief that we always have to hear comments solely related not to, "I want 'this' or 'that' next time for me," but "I have an idea how we can train the newer student's in the program to learn to be more involved in the success of the event."
They are starting to see the forest-for-the-trees and it's pretty cool. Of course, each time they raise the bar it moves that much higher, so it'll be interesting to see if they can maintain this for their next show in mid-December.
The shows themselves are pretty musically diverse since there are so many styles and tastes across the student demographic of the program. This is made all the more pronounced since they can only perform original material at the event so they, like most of us, write what they enjoy. This is all good, and after so many years of this, not really very suprising to me.
What was interesting about last night was that for the first time there seemed to be this universal sense that no matter the performer, no matter the style or skill level, every act was going to be given the same "start treatment." Keep in mind that the program is so big (a great problem to have) that many students working the production end of the show do no know all of the performers that well, if at all. This is significant and it was very interesting to simply observe them transition from "I'm going to do a good job just for my friends," to a far more mature, "I'm going to do a good job for everyone, because there are hundreds of people here watching this show and I need to make sure they get their money's worth."
It was even more impressive when we did the post show debrief that we always have to hear comments solely related not to, "I want 'this' or 'that' next time for me," but "I have an idea how we can train the newer student's in the program to learn to be more involved in the success of the event."
They are starting to see the forest-for-the-trees and it's pretty cool. Of course, each time they raise the bar it moves that much higher, so it'll be interesting to see if they can maintain this for their next show in mid-December.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The truth behind good music - what exactly are we teaching? (part 1)
If there is only one thing I have learned from teaching, it's that students generally seem obsessed with the idea of "good versus bad" music. ""I like this...I don't like that...", etc. In and of itself there is nothing wrong with this. Frankly as consumers, it's important to evaluate what we're listening to based on personal preferences. But as a student of music, if you don't move past that point of evaluation you risk missing out on some really wonderful things.
I encourage my students to take a different approach. Start with good versus bad - if nothing else it's good to get that part out of the way - but then move on to a more important question, "is it viable?" In other words, like it or not, is it, on some musical level, working?
The distinction is important. The issue of good versus bad is always going to be pretty subjective. No real way around that, and to some extent it's a bit of a waste of time after a while. But the concept of musical validity is far more objective because it allows you to focus on actual fundamental music concepts. And if even one of those concepts can be found represented in the music in question then there is another way to get inside the music past "I like it so I'll work on it," or some such.
And that's the key step. At that point you're open to whatever the music holds for its own sake, not because of personal preference. That seems like a pretty good teaching goal to me.
I encourage my students to take a different approach. Start with good versus bad - if nothing else it's good to get that part out of the way - but then move on to a more important question, "is it viable?" In other words, like it or not, is it, on some musical level, working?
The distinction is important. The issue of good versus bad is always going to be pretty subjective. No real way around that, and to some extent it's a bit of a waste of time after a while. But the concept of musical validity is far more objective because it allows you to focus on actual fundamental music concepts. And if even one of those concepts can be found represented in the music in question then there is another way to get inside the music past "I like it so I'll work on it," or some such.
And that's the key step. At that point you're open to whatever the music holds for its own sake, not because of personal preference. That seems like a pretty good teaching goal to me.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Turn up the silence - are iPods and other mp3 players the enemy?
Many of my students are, at times, of the impression that I deliberately try to act against their own sense of logic. Now, to be fair, there is probably some truth to that idea, though not in the manner they identify.
One example would be my desire for a fairly quiet learning environment. Keep in mind that I run a music program. A rock music program. But here's the thing: the issue is not so much the "quiet," it's the need to be able to accurately hear everything.
This has been one of the more significant learning experiences for me in developing and facilitating the CMAS (Contemporary Music and Sound) program. I guess I've been doing so much of this kind of work for so long that the notion of being able to really hear the details seemed kinda self-evident to me. Apparently not.
On the other hand, it's not really the students' fault. The proliferation of iPods and mp3 players (I have a treasured iPod myself) has been a really good thing in many ways, except perhaps for one: they create an artificial sense of auditory isolation. I say artificial because the fact is that by listening almost exclusively in headphones a person simply does not hear the elements of the recording accurately. Not even close. It's just the physics of it. (See my comments about crossfeeding for more on this and how to get around the problem.)
So they have learned to hear very inaccurately, and this inaccuracy has created a false sense of auditory reality when they work. The toughest lesson I find for even my more advanced level students is the process of replacing their past auditory expectations with new, more accurate, instincts. It takes a while, but it certainly can be done; and it's very cool when one of them takes a step forward on it, but it definitely takes some pretty serious patience to say nothing of deliberate, work on their part.
Like everything else though it is a process. One I suppose I have become somewhat hypersensitive to. I love my iPod but actually use it almost exclusively as part of my car audio system - I rarely use it with headphones. In fact, now that I am so obsessed with crossfeeding, I am not certain I could use it with headphones and not go a bit nuts without some kind of CF workaround - gotta look into that I suppose.
Anyway, back to my students and my love of messing with their logic - it's really not about the silence, it's about being able to hear. On the other hand, I always know when a student really has learned the key elements of the program: when they are able to make the distinction freely on their own. Who knows, maybe in this case, logic is over-rated.
One example would be my desire for a fairly quiet learning environment. Keep in mind that I run a music program. A rock music program. But here's the thing: the issue is not so much the "quiet," it's the need to be able to accurately hear everything.
This has been one of the more significant learning experiences for me in developing and facilitating the CMAS (Contemporary Music and Sound) program. I guess I've been doing so much of this kind of work for so long that the notion of being able to really hear the details seemed kinda self-evident to me. Apparently not.
On the other hand, it's not really the students' fault. The proliferation of iPods and mp3 players (I have a treasured iPod myself) has been a really good thing in many ways, except perhaps for one: they create an artificial sense of auditory isolation. I say artificial because the fact is that by listening almost exclusively in headphones a person simply does not hear the elements of the recording accurately. Not even close. It's just the physics of it. (See my comments about crossfeeding for more on this and how to get around the problem.)
So they have learned to hear very inaccurately, and this inaccuracy has created a false sense of auditory reality when they work. The toughest lesson I find for even my more advanced level students is the process of replacing their past auditory expectations with new, more accurate, instincts. It takes a while, but it certainly can be done; and it's very cool when one of them takes a step forward on it, but it definitely takes some pretty serious patience to say nothing of deliberate, work on their part.
Like everything else though it is a process. One I suppose I have become somewhat hypersensitive to. I love my iPod but actually use it almost exclusively as part of my car audio system - I rarely use it with headphones. In fact, now that I am so obsessed with crossfeeding, I am not certain I could use it with headphones and not go a bit nuts without some kind of CF workaround - gotta look into that I suppose.
Anyway, back to my students and my love of messing with their logic - it's really not about the silence, it's about being able to hear. On the other hand, I always know when a student really has learned the key elements of the program: when they are able to make the distinction freely on their own. Who knows, maybe in this case, logic is over-rated.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Wolves and Sheep (update)
Somewhere in the chaos I had the idea that at least part of this blog would be to document the creation of my next album, "Wolves and Sheep," so taking a bit of a break from my music education observations, here's the current scoop:
So right now there are about 15 songs in various states of completion - in other words, the basic framework is complete, though there may be some minor re-writing to do on either the music, lyrics, or both. Of those, 5 or so are fully composed, though I suppose once I get to tracking them in the studio, a whole 'nother set of options will likely open up. There are also a literally countless group of riffs and ideas that may or may not turn into fully formed pieces. Also, in general, nothing is for sure till the song is fully realized in production, so certainly those numbers are gonna change.
In any case, the seemingly endless stops and starts on this for the past year or so seem to be finally aligning themselves into a workable plan and the project is beginning to take a form of sorts. The basic idea is to create a two part CD. The first half will be the music presented in "normal" mixes for standard audio systems like home stereos, cars, etc. The second half will be the same material presented in crossfed mixes specifically intended for headphone listening, which, thanks to the massive popularity of mp3 players, has become an equally typical listening environment.
Of course with the limitation of only 80 minutes available on a CD, this really means only 40 minutes of unique material. Interestingly, this is having the unintended effect making me be perceived by some as a kind of recording arts purist as that is pretty much the limit that was experienced during the years when vinyl records were the standard format for distribution. To be fair, I probably am a bit of a purest in general, but it was only recently that I found it evidenced in such a way.
Ok, so enough the trivial, the real essence of this project seems to be that the sound itself has evolved significantly over the past year or so. As an example, the rhythm tracks are all being dominated by really cool world percussion grooves that I have to say have been a blast to compose, play and record. There are still drum kits within the textures, but there is a different kind of life to these tunes largely due to the timbre shift. Another element taking hold is the use of choirs. Full on, massive choirs, in some cases, not just the expected, if not typical, vocal harmonies and overdubbing. Certainly this is adding a significant load to the production end of things; but, man, it's also really pushing me musically, which, all the rest of it aside, I find just fantastic.
The last part of all of it may be the more "ambient" material that has been emerging lately. It seems to be an offshoot of a lot of the looping I seem to be fond of when performing live, but that is not always a true representation of the original recording of the song. Hard to tell at this point where that is gonna lead, but I guess that's the beauty of all this. As it evolves, I can continue to update.
So right now there are about 15 songs in various states of completion - in other words, the basic framework is complete, though there may be some minor re-writing to do on either the music, lyrics, or both. Of those, 5 or so are fully composed, though I suppose once I get to tracking them in the studio, a whole 'nother set of options will likely open up. There are also a literally countless group of riffs and ideas that may or may not turn into fully formed pieces. Also, in general, nothing is for sure till the song is fully realized in production, so certainly those numbers are gonna change.
In any case, the seemingly endless stops and starts on this for the past year or so seem to be finally aligning themselves into a workable plan and the project is beginning to take a form of sorts. The basic idea is to create a two part CD. The first half will be the music presented in "normal" mixes for standard audio systems like home stereos, cars, etc. The second half will be the same material presented in crossfed mixes specifically intended for headphone listening, which, thanks to the massive popularity of mp3 players, has become an equally typical listening environment.
Of course with the limitation of only 80 minutes available on a CD, this really means only 40 minutes of unique material. Interestingly, this is having the unintended effect making me be perceived by some as a kind of recording arts purist as that is pretty much the limit that was experienced during the years when vinyl records were the standard format for distribution. To be fair, I probably am a bit of a purest in general, but it was only recently that I found it evidenced in such a way.
Ok, so enough the trivial, the real essence of this project seems to be that the sound itself has evolved significantly over the past year or so. As an example, the rhythm tracks are all being dominated by really cool world percussion grooves that I have to say have been a blast to compose, play and record. There are still drum kits within the textures, but there is a different kind of life to these tunes largely due to the timbre shift. Another element taking hold is the use of choirs. Full on, massive choirs, in some cases, not just the expected, if not typical, vocal harmonies and overdubbing. Certainly this is adding a significant load to the production end of things; but, man, it's also really pushing me musically, which, all the rest of it aside, I find just fantastic.
The last part of all of it may be the more "ambient" material that has been emerging lately. It seems to be an offshoot of a lot of the looping I seem to be fond of when performing live, but that is not always a true representation of the original recording of the song. Hard to tell at this point where that is gonna lead, but I guess that's the beauty of all this. As it evolves, I can continue to update.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)