yeah, I thought so ...
yeah, I thought so ...
“I am a social justice...advocate and I say, "Stop the Hate!"
Interesting discussion. So if you want to understand music and become a better musician, you have to understand music theory? I've heard of many musicians like the Beatles not really knowing music theory yet they've been really good at what they're doing. However music theory is supposed to explain what you're doing with it all? I wonder about this because although I'm not a musician myself, I want to understand music better too so I can actually also learn to play. I'm not sure how much my family members have studied music theory. My father took some piano lessons and has had played it a little bit and my mother knows to play the piano too and so does my brother who also plays the electric guitar and sings, he's been the real musician in the family, but I think he doesn't understand notes too well either although I'm not sure. I found it also interesting what Clapton said about playing guitar solos, he sings with the guitar.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWYps2c0tM0
"The more I see, the less I know for sure." ~ John Lennon
Well, to use a worn and also not scientifically correct metaphor, it's a left-brain/right-brain thing. On the one hand, most people have enough of a musical intuition to develop at least some sense of melody and rhythm. On the other hand, knowing at least the basics regarding the theory can assist the intuitive aspect and lead to a greater understanding of what you're doing, which in turn leads to greater creativity.Originally posted by Wind
The reason why pentatonic scales grew to popularity so quickly and as such became the foundation of the blues — a musical genre that developed among the African-American slaves — is that they are purely intuitive and that they thus don't require any musical understanding at the intellectual level. And that's where the problem lies for Lee. Due to the widespread adoption of the blues in modern western music, he had always been approaching things from the purely intuitive vantage and sticking to those pentatonics without concerning himself too much with the theoretical aspects of music.
However, studying the theory without being able to relate this knowledge to the playing of the instrument of your choice is no good either. You have to be able to match the two together in order to be a creative musician. And eventually, it then becomes second nature. At least, if you really want to be a good musician.
But due to the complexity of music as a whole — especially when dealing with chromatic scales, as in jazz — most musicians, even good ones, know only a subset of the complete music theory and mostly rely on their intuition. Almost every human being has an intuition for music. Those who do not — and such people do exist — are people with a certain genetic condition, because even animals intuitively understand the concepts of rhythm, frequency and harmony. And as such, if we discount those people with a genetic predisposition for not having any musicality at all, most people are capable of learning how to play a musical instrument.
Of course, mastering the instrument itself is yet again another matter. A guitar normally has six string courses — let's for a moment discount the different varieties with another number of strings and/or string courses, such as the tenor guitar, which has only four strings and is tuned to different intervals — and they are tuned in intervals of fourths, except for (from high to low) the second and third strings, which have an interval of a major third.
Every fret on a guitar also represents a semitone step. As such, there is no distinction between the diatonic and chromatic notes, unlike on a piano, where the white keys always represent the diatonic notes belonging to the key of C Major, while the black keys represent the notes that are considered blue notes in C Major, and the black keys are positioned a little higher than the white keys, and they are also shorter. And then there are the flutes, the woodwinds and the brass wind instruments, which are monophonic instruments — they can produce only one tone at the time, whereas guitars and pianos are polyphonic. All of these instruments require a different technique for producing the notes you want to play, and mastering one instrument does not imply in any way that one would then also be able to play any other instrument without practice.
But returning to the subject of the left-brain/right-brain dichotomy, here's an extreme example of either one... The late B.B. King was considered a blues virtuoso, and was known for his clever variations and creativity. And yet he couldn't play any chords on his guitar, nor could he read sheet music — which in itself is not a requirement at all, because even someone as experienced and knowledgeable about music theory as Steve Lukather cannot read sheet music.
And at the other end of the spectrum, there is my brother's ex-wife, who used to play a flugelhorn in a brass band. She had attended music school, she could read the notes, and she knew how to produce those notes on her instrument, but she had no sense of melody, and there wasn't even as little as a shred of musical creativity within her. She could not just play a tune — any tune, for instance from a popular song — at will, and she cannot relate to either the melodies or the harmonies. She also has no sense of pitch when she tries singing along with a song on the radio. She goes flat and sharp all over the place. On the other hand, she does however have at least some sense of rhythm, or else she wouldn't have been able to play along in the brass band.
= DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR =
= DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR =
I read once that musical something or other (maybe rythym) is innate in humans because in the womb they hear the sound of their mother's hearbeat (maybe that is what engenders a connection to music). Another thing that I read that I found interesting is that art/creativity entered the human species in parallel to language (I was looking for reasons why I felt my daughter had such natural musical ability, loud ego on my part, but I wasn't surprised when I read that reading ability probably evolved along with artistic ability). My dad always encouraged me to study music, as typical while telling me he wasn't going to waste money on lessons like he did for my older brother, who took piano lessons for some time and then just quit. He was always contradictory in his message and that is likely why I am very careful about not practicing the same habit.
I have a bad tendency to test people, animals, and things just to satisfy my curiosity. I've tried different things with my cat but he just gets annoyed and leaves.
wrong again, I should have wrote 'language developed at the same time as art, not writing, two different species there.
Last edited by Chuckie, 14th March 2023 at 19:24.
Some of that was really very nice, I don't really know the language but for some reason to me Pete's 'transitions' never seem 'flawless'. I don't know if it is the music or his style??
Last edited by Chuckie, 14th March 2023 at 18:56.
= DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR =
I found this interesting. Something occurred to me, I think Pete is out of practice doing these videos. It kinda 'forces' him to play at a certain cadence and it isn't the same as actually 'playing'.
I've just found this video below again; it's a slightly more recent video — this one's from 2020, when the lockdown was in place — than the ones of the various Gibson-proper Les Pauls, and I think these guitars make for a decent alternative if money is a consideration.That's always the best approach. Sometimes the one you intended to buy turns out not to be the best one.That's something I have to consider, although I'll have plenty of time to do so as it's not relevant now.If you want my personal opinion, I'd advise you to go for a Les Paul Classic instead. They're quite a bit less expensive, they have the same switching options, they come in beautiful sunburst finishes, and they're not chambered — the Les Paul Modern has the so-called ultra-modern weight relief, which is actually a form of chambering.
If I'll get the chance then perhaps I should go to some music store and compare and test those guitars.
And yes, strictly speaking these are Gibson copies, but Epiphone is owned by Gibson — up until the 1950s, Epiphone was actually a competitor to Gibson, and Epiphone guitars were all in the same price range as Gibsons, but in the aftermath of the damage the World War II war industry had done to both companies and their tooling, Gibson then acquired Epiphone — and there are professional artists out there using Epiphones instead of actual Gibsons. The Beatles for instance were famous for using the Epiphone Casino, which was the Epiphone version of a Gibson ES-330.
= DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR =
yeah, Epiphone is what I bought my daughter...I've just found this video below again; it's a slightly more recent video — this one's from 2020, when the lockdown was in place — than the ones of the various Gibson-proper Les Pauls, and I think these guitars make for a decent alternative if money is a consideration.
And yes, strictly speaking these are Gibson copies, but Epiphone is owned by Gibson — up until the 1950s, Epiphone was actually a competitor to Gibson, and Epiphone guitars were all in the same price range as Gibsons, but in the aftermath of the damage the World War II war industry had done to both companies and their tooling, Gibson then acquired Epiphone — and there are professional artists out there using Epiphones instead of actual Gibsons. The Beatles for instance were famous for using the Epiphone Casino, which was the Epiphone version of a Gibson ES-330.
As I've already explained in an earlier post, I own the #10 in this list — the natural-satin-finished SG Standard with the three single-coils — but it was a nice refresher of my memory to see them all listed again in their original order of appearance.
= DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR =
= DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR =
Slow groove, I like it...
My dad always laughed at Trini Lopez' Spanish. Said he spoke it like a nonnative speaker. "Going to Kansas City" was a better song.
= DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR =
= DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR =
Wind (22nd March 2023)
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