Analytical Blog
Essential Question: How does the musical atmosphere one is surrounded by affect their traits as a musician?
I decided to ask this question because I have noticed something about the musicians from Miles' era and the musicians of now. Going back and studying the musicians of Miles, Mingus, and Herbie's era, I have decided that they all grew up in the perfect learning environment. I gathered this thought after seeing how many success stories came out of their era. Each musician had their own thing that was crafted from the materials that they had around them. If they wanted to expand on what they were accomplishing, then they looked elsewhere. Meaning they had to travel to a different area/different music scene to accomplish this. For example, Miles Davis traveled to France in his early career to expand his horizons as a musician. There he learnt a lot about the free mentality of people and musicians. He also learnt about what was possible with responsive, jazz loving audiences. This lead Miles to play the music that the audiences wanted to hear the most. Later on in his career this was most prevalent. As funk and RnB became a popular music, Miles fused jazz with this music and brought in massive audiences from all over the world to hear it!
In relation from today to then, I think technology is a key player in musical atmosphere. Back then, a musician had books and those around them to learn. The atmosphere was set by the musicians with little to no distractions. Music paid enough to the point that one would not be worried about finances and other distractions. All a musician had around him was the music and competition. The music gave the musician an influence to follow by and the competition forced the musician to play in a unique way as well as be the best that they could be. Now, today with all the technology one could ever need, a musician does not need to leave their house in order to play. This is both good and bad. The good side of it is that to study something, we have a million different resources to pull from all around us. The down side of this is that there is no musical community that is allowing people to play with other people. computers have taken care of this for us too. This is killing the point of music all together. Music is a form of communication. In ones bedroom, there is nobody to communicate too. Plus, progress is pointless if you can't actually use it with other musicians around you. The biggest issue is that the drive to practice and study is not the same. With there being so many distractions around us today, a musician has maybe 5% of their life being surrounded by music and musicians. Where the musicians of then would have had about 90% with the remaining 10% being human life essentials like eating and sleeping.
I figured this out and made a connection to the time that I was at the Berklee Guitar Sessions. At the guitar sessions, I was only surrounded by music and other musicians. The only activities I could do was play music or go and listen to other people play music. Due to this, my life truly became music for a week. I was so driven to practice the things that I had heard other musicians around me playing. I was also driven to practice to improve myself so that I could be on the level that some of the other musicians there were on. I had never experienced this before. The best, most useful part about this environment was that I had opinions all around me. I would go to practice something new and then take it out and test it with a group of musicians. One new thing that you can learn in music can be used a million ways. You can play something and modify it using rhythmic, or octave displacement. Or you could move a new idea through different areas of the circle of fifths until you resolve it to the original key. You can do so many different things. Taking an idea like this and trying it out with a group of musicians allows you to see how others perceive your new idea. It is also in this type of area that musicians can give you new ideas to build off the idea that you had that you may have never thought of. Or other musicians could tell you an idea that they have that reminds them of that. Technology does not allow for musicians of today to get this kind of feedback.
One last thing about playing with other musicians. If you are lacking in a certain skill. They will let you know. It may be in a nice, or not so nice way, other musicians will let you know if you are not doing so well in a certain area of music. Technology and your own ears can't do that. Even Miles Davis, one of the best jazz musicians to ever live in my opinion was told many times by older musicians that he needed to work on finding his own voice. There were many times that Duke Ellington would tell Miles that he needed to fix his feel for his song "Round' Midnight"
I decided to ask this question because I have noticed something about the musicians from Miles' era and the musicians of now. Going back and studying the musicians of Miles, Mingus, and Herbie's era, I have decided that they all grew up in the perfect learning environment. I gathered this thought after seeing how many success stories came out of their era. Each musician had their own thing that was crafted from the materials that they had around them. If they wanted to expand on what they were accomplishing, then they looked elsewhere. Meaning they had to travel to a different area/different music scene to accomplish this. For example, Miles Davis traveled to France in his early career to expand his horizons as a musician. There he learnt a lot about the free mentality of people and musicians. He also learnt about what was possible with responsive, jazz loving audiences. This lead Miles to play the music that the audiences wanted to hear the most. Later on in his career this was most prevalent. As funk and RnB became a popular music, Miles fused jazz with this music and brought in massive audiences from all over the world to hear it!
In relation from today to then, I think technology is a key player in musical atmosphere. Back then, a musician had books and those around them to learn. The atmosphere was set by the musicians with little to no distractions. Music paid enough to the point that one would not be worried about finances and other distractions. All a musician had around him was the music and competition. The music gave the musician an influence to follow by and the competition forced the musician to play in a unique way as well as be the best that they could be. Now, today with all the technology one could ever need, a musician does not need to leave their house in order to play. This is both good and bad. The good side of it is that to study something, we have a million different resources to pull from all around us. The down side of this is that there is no musical community that is allowing people to play with other people. computers have taken care of this for us too. This is killing the point of music all together. Music is a form of communication. In ones bedroom, there is nobody to communicate too. Plus, progress is pointless if you can't actually use it with other musicians around you. The biggest issue is that the drive to practice and study is not the same. With there being so many distractions around us today, a musician has maybe 5% of their life being surrounded by music and musicians. Where the musicians of then would have had about 90% with the remaining 10% being human life essentials like eating and sleeping.
I figured this out and made a connection to the time that I was at the Berklee Guitar Sessions. At the guitar sessions, I was only surrounded by music and other musicians. The only activities I could do was play music or go and listen to other people play music. Due to this, my life truly became music for a week. I was so driven to practice the things that I had heard other musicians around me playing. I was also driven to practice to improve myself so that I could be on the level that some of the other musicians there were on. I had never experienced this before. The best, most useful part about this environment was that I had opinions all around me. I would go to practice something new and then take it out and test it with a group of musicians. One new thing that you can learn in music can be used a million ways. You can play something and modify it using rhythmic, or octave displacement. Or you could move a new idea through different areas of the circle of fifths until you resolve it to the original key. You can do so many different things. Taking an idea like this and trying it out with a group of musicians allows you to see how others perceive your new idea. It is also in this type of area that musicians can give you new ideas to build off the idea that you had that you may have never thought of. Or other musicians could tell you an idea that they have that reminds them of that. Technology does not allow for musicians of today to get this kind of feedback.
One last thing about playing with other musicians. If you are lacking in a certain skill. They will let you know. It may be in a nice, or not so nice way, other musicians will let you know if you are not doing so well in a certain area of music. Technology and your own ears can't do that. Even Miles Davis, one of the best jazz musicians to ever live in my opinion was told many times by older musicians that he needed to work on finding his own voice. There were many times that Duke Ellington would tell Miles that he needed to fix his feel for his song "Round' Midnight"
This is awesome!! It's crazy how you can pick up traits in musician from whom you surround yourself with.
ReplyDeleteI think this type of immersion, like willingness to be immersed, is what will lead to you becoming a professional.
ReplyDeleteHow much of your life do you think is filled with musicians? How would you improve the ratio?
ReplyDeleteA lot of my life is filled with musicians. The only way I could improve this is by going to a music college!
Delete