Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
So, let's do this.. Hi, guys, everything ok? It's Andy here and today is... What day is today... Today is March 14th, a Thusday. It's really cloudy in Rio,
it's rained a lot in a few parts of town, I had a motorcicle lesson scheduled for today that's been canceled due to a wet track so I gained a few extra hours to stay home and decided to record a vlog.
And I'd never guess I'd become, or I'd try to become, a part of a world I've always criticized. I'm the kinda guy that spends a lot of time thinking.
I confess that not thinking is very difficult for me so, when people say nice things about meditation and emptying the mind, I admit that's unthinkable (see what I did there?).
I hear things about various subjects that bother me and put me in a thinkative state, instead of an angry mood. For example, when I hear a certain point of view that's never occured to me before.
And I keep thinking about thar until I develop my own point of view or until I feel like I'm ready to take part in a discussion about that subject.
Today I decided to record a video about a subject that's been bothering me a lot lately. I've had wonderful discussions with fellow musicians about it and got my own conclusions over time.
So there's a possibility my opinion will have changed when I record the second vlog and the video is just a way to expose these opinions of mine.
The subject is the dilemma "music vs technique", if there's such thing. I hear this sentence a lot: "that guy is good because he is technial and musical at the same time". And I keep wondering...
Is there any musician on earth that's not technical at all? Because you need a technique to execute any given task, hence the definition of technique (skill necessary to accomplish a task).
You may have great or terrible technique, but you do have technique, after all, I've never witnessed an musician with an open chest playing his instrument with his blood vessels.
If you have, please send me the video, It must be an extraordinary sight. So where does the dillema come from? Being "technical AND musical" or "being technical OR musical", as many say...
There's a big resistance to anything new: that's called nostalgia and there's no way to avoid it. I have a band called Crash Report (click the annotation box) that only plays contemporary, rock.
There's a lot of people saying that every post-70's band sucks and I respectfully disagree. That's nothing but a futile and useless resistance to new trends, after all, everything changes over time.
And rock 'n roll is no exception. There are bands thar were born after the "golden age of rock" that are simply fantastic and I won't say they suck simply because ther are part of a newer generation.
Along with everchanging rock, there's been a technical evolution of the musicians and I'll stick to the eletric guitar, specifically. That's noticeable because the guitar is a young instrument,
it was invented in 1949, little over 60 years ago, unlike many orchestral instruments that are much older. They've already passed their technical blossom, yet they still evolve like everything else.
Meanwhile, the guitar is still discovering it's virtuosos, many of the greats being still alive. The greatest name of alternate picking, Steve Morse, is healthy and touring.
The greatest sweep/economy picker, Frank Gambale, is in the same condition as Steve Morse. Nobody complains about the violinist when the guy can play fast, but, when it comes to guitar,
loads of people start throwing stones claiming that he's playing too many notes. So what's the standard for those hipocritical claims? Everything is a technique, guys. Everything is a tool.
Knowing alternate picking opens up a world of possibilities that would not exist if you didn't master that technique. The same applies to sweep picking, legato, two-handed-tapping, etc.
Knowing it all and mixing it all up is just ideal and allows you to express your ideas with no restrictions. Music, being a language, welcomes every available tool because the goal is to express yourself.
When you deal with a language, good expression is fundamental, aftel all you wouldn't understand me if I weren't writing in a language you fully comprehend. So, technique is a good thing!!
It's such a hipocrisy to say that one does not have enough feel because one is too technical, after all, hamonical knowledge is a tool too and nobody speaks ill of Miles Davis because his chords are way too complex.
But, if you add more tension to rock 'n roll, lots of people will be pissed off because of that. There are jazz musicians like Stanley Jordan, one of the greatest names in two-handed-tapping,
that are worshiped. Yet, when guys like Kiko Loureiro and Edu Ardanuy play something faster, there's a tsunami of complains wich is not a nice train of thought, in my opinion.
Having diverse types of techinique, wether they're theoretical or practical, will allow you to get to a result more efficiently. I love the following example to ilustrate this thought.
There's this old piece I wrote that you'll never hear, becaise I think it sucks, that's hamonically complex and took me a quite over a week to move it from my head to the guitar and actually play it.
After almost an year, I started learning harmony and learned a lot of nice harmonic movements. Long after I wrote that piece, I came to understand what was going on there and it felt great to realize I used that stuff all along.
At the same time I also realized that, if I had that knowledge before, it would take me three minutes to write that piece, not over a week, since I would already know such harmonic tools and phenomena.
So, technique is a means to an end, and the more you have, more competent you are. Obviously, these are my opinions and nobody has to agree with me, but let's stop with this *** about technical music.
One of the great minds of world music wrote a whole movement of the fifth symphony using only this idea: *snaps fingers*. He had this one inspiration and used it to write awesome music.
The rest is pure technique, that helped him dry the idea ultil the very last drop before moving on to the next. People graduate in composition for a reason, not because of chance or speculation.
Well, I hope you liked the video. If so, click on the "like" button, subscribe to the channel and add to favorites in order to help spread my idea. Also, check my channel for a hell lotta stuff.
There's more to come since I'm still finding my way in YouTube. Best regards and until next time!!