Analytical Blog
Essential Question: How does the way a musician is taught effect who he is later on as a musician, composer and businessman
As I have now finished the Miles Davis Autobiography and am 200 pages into Mingus' Autobiography I have realized that each musician learnt music in a different way. This would make sense as both musicians came from a completely different background. Miles came from a wealthy background where is family treated him well and provided for him. Miles was surrounded by friends and good music at all times. Mingus on the other hand was very poor and was abused by his father. The abuse lead him to be confused and unable to socialize with people. Being wealthy, Miles was properly taught how to sight read music. He was also given a strong background on music theory. Growing up, Miles was surrounded by classical music and jazz. Mingus grew up with being taught music for results. He was never given proper training on sight reading and theory from his trombone teacher. The majority of things he learnt came from the street and his double bass teacher. Mingus also grew up with a lot more jazz than classical music.
With the way that Miles learnt music, it is easy to see how his career was shaped. Miles' compositions were very structured and clear throughout. He worked on using his own pieces as well as working off of other pieces written my other musicians. Miles' music was strongly reinforced by theory that he learnt from his teachers and his time spent at Juliard School Of Music. When talking about the business side of Miles' career, Miles was very strong minded and confident in everything that he did. Miles' belief was that anyone could do anything as long as they tried hard enough. He did not believe in any sort of limitation when it came to music and life. This mentality most likely came from his fathers influence with his father being a strong wealthy black man in his community. He saw what was possible and achieved it. Mingus however was very different in his musicality. His compositions were much simpler in the aspects of theory. This is not a bad thing however, but it is good to note when talking about backgrounds. One thing that Mingus struggled with throughout his career was confidence and his anger. These two aspects of his personality were formed from the abuse that he took from his father as well as the extreme amount of racism that he had to deal with throughout his childhood. In the Miles Davis Autobiography, there is a reference to this when Miles is on a road trip with Mingus. They are in the deep South. Mingus goes into a gas station to get some food, where he is denied due to his race. Mingus becomes furious and wants to fight the store owners. Miles on the other hand deals with the situation and orders Mingus to leave and relax. This shows the pure difference in personality from Mingus to Miles. Miles' background of education and confidence helped Miles know when to be aggressive and when to walk away.
I think that this applies to everyone. When it comes to my musicianship, I am a strong blues guitarist. I am also very outgoing and engaging. These traits have come from my childhood as well as my parents. Growing up, my dad always took me to his business events, where I would have to walk around and interact with a whole load of adults who I had never met before. With them being connected to my dad through work, I had to be formal with them as well as polite and engaging. Through these work events, I learnt how to make business with people and market myself. I use this now every single day of my life. Growing up, I also listened to a lot of blues music and hung around a lot of blues musicians. Thanks to this, my roots are in the blues. Now being in an area that is primarily Jazz, I have to play a lot of Jazz. When I play jazz, I can not help but to play jazz with a very bluesy approach. However, the other musicians that I play with grew up with jazz. With that they play jazz with a jazz approach. They also play blues and other styles of music with the same approach. On the business side of things, a lot of people I know were not fortunate enough to have gotten the business experience that I got thanks to my dad. With this, their way of conducting business is very informal and inefficient. I believe that this shows how background can effect who someone is as a musician, composer and businessman.
Here are two samples of music from Miles Davis and Charles Mingus. They are both a version of the blues due to the simplicity of a blues. Listen to how Miles approaches the blues and how Mingus approaches it. You will notice that Mingus' blues is very soulful and relatively simple when it comes to chord changes and harmonic structure. Miles' blues is complex with complex structures. At the same time, there is less soul in Miles' blues in my ears.
Charles Mingus
Miles Davis
As I have now finished the Miles Davis Autobiography and am 200 pages into Mingus' Autobiography I have realized that each musician learnt music in a different way. This would make sense as both musicians came from a completely different background. Miles came from a wealthy background where is family treated him well and provided for him. Miles was surrounded by friends and good music at all times. Mingus on the other hand was very poor and was abused by his father. The abuse lead him to be confused and unable to socialize with people. Being wealthy, Miles was properly taught how to sight read music. He was also given a strong background on music theory. Growing up, Miles was surrounded by classical music and jazz. Mingus grew up with being taught music for results. He was never given proper training on sight reading and theory from his trombone teacher. The majority of things he learnt came from the street and his double bass teacher. Mingus also grew up with a lot more jazz than classical music.
With the way that Miles learnt music, it is easy to see how his career was shaped. Miles' compositions were very structured and clear throughout. He worked on using his own pieces as well as working off of other pieces written my other musicians. Miles' music was strongly reinforced by theory that he learnt from his teachers and his time spent at Juliard School Of Music. When talking about the business side of Miles' career, Miles was very strong minded and confident in everything that he did. Miles' belief was that anyone could do anything as long as they tried hard enough. He did not believe in any sort of limitation when it came to music and life. This mentality most likely came from his fathers influence with his father being a strong wealthy black man in his community. He saw what was possible and achieved it. Mingus however was very different in his musicality. His compositions were much simpler in the aspects of theory. This is not a bad thing however, but it is good to note when talking about backgrounds. One thing that Mingus struggled with throughout his career was confidence and his anger. These two aspects of his personality were formed from the abuse that he took from his father as well as the extreme amount of racism that he had to deal with throughout his childhood. In the Miles Davis Autobiography, there is a reference to this when Miles is on a road trip with Mingus. They are in the deep South. Mingus goes into a gas station to get some food, where he is denied due to his race. Mingus becomes furious and wants to fight the store owners. Miles on the other hand deals with the situation and orders Mingus to leave and relax. This shows the pure difference in personality from Mingus to Miles. Miles' background of education and confidence helped Miles know when to be aggressive and when to walk away.
I think that this applies to everyone. When it comes to my musicianship, I am a strong blues guitarist. I am also very outgoing and engaging. These traits have come from my childhood as well as my parents. Growing up, my dad always took me to his business events, where I would have to walk around and interact with a whole load of adults who I had never met before. With them being connected to my dad through work, I had to be formal with them as well as polite and engaging. Through these work events, I learnt how to make business with people and market myself. I use this now every single day of my life. Growing up, I also listened to a lot of blues music and hung around a lot of blues musicians. Thanks to this, my roots are in the blues. Now being in an area that is primarily Jazz, I have to play a lot of Jazz. When I play jazz, I can not help but to play jazz with a very bluesy approach. However, the other musicians that I play with grew up with jazz. With that they play jazz with a jazz approach. They also play blues and other styles of music with the same approach. On the business side of things, a lot of people I know were not fortunate enough to have gotten the business experience that I got thanks to my dad. With this, their way of conducting business is very informal and inefficient. I believe that this shows how background can effect who someone is as a musician, composer and businessman.
Here are two samples of music from Miles Davis and Charles Mingus. They are both a version of the blues due to the simplicity of a blues. Listen to how Miles approaches the blues and how Mingus approaches it. You will notice that Mingus' blues is very soulful and relatively simple when it comes to chord changes and harmonic structure. Miles' blues is complex with complex structures. At the same time, there is less soul in Miles' blues in my ears.
Charles Mingus
Miles Davis
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