Do you have to play an instrument?

[donkey tugger]

Hmm, I sense a bit of goalpost shifting going on here.

I don't think many people would ever argue that knowing theory/being a skilled instrumentalist is a bad thing (except me having a pop at some irritating c**ts in the pub earller ) , rather they would take issue with the assertion made by some nutnecks that it is absolutely essential to make any music worth listening to.

Vote Tugger for KvR president! Free pies for all!!

[jens]

[Sepheritoh]

I don't see the sense of arguing about anything here, not being apologetic or defensive. I am self taught, mainly over the last few years, but I do not think I necessarily make better music now than I did before. At least, I used to play guitars much better 10 years back while knowing no more about theory than simple guitar chords.

Now I have taught myself a lot of shit, surfed the internet, read Forsyth and Korsakof and Davis and Rona and Gilreath in the last year and can do very fancy things with libraries - but still my music is not much better than before. I still immerse myself in some of my older recordings and just think, shit, I wish I could still play the guitar like that.

[moldofunker]

i still belive that untill i'll learn to play the keyboard i won't be able to give my songs the feeling i have at some inspirational moment..

[jens]

i still belive that untill i'll learn to play the keyboard i won't be able to give my songs the feeling i have at some inspirational moment..

did you read through my quickstart-guide which cost me a fair amount of time to write?

[peppy197]

So, in ten years they will say you do not have to kearn to use the computer in order to ba able to make music, what with the new telepathy devices about.

I learnt theory, hated it, and now use the computer almost exclusively and rely on my ear for my "creations".

[dystonia_ek]

I am also wondering why it is such a pain for the people to learn an instrument/the theory. The musicians I know are hardly to separate from their instrument.

Learning is not a pain - trying to unlearn it is, though. I did learn the traditional route. And it became suffocating, and limiting in that everything I did still came back to the same tonal and rhythmic framework. I still haven't completely got it out of my system - though a few years of using only spliced tape certainly helped. Back when I still used synthesised sound, I had to use keyboardless synths to avoid slipping into predictable harmonies, etc. Now I don't generally use instruments as sound sources at all.

Even experimental music programs at universities just seem to churn out the same endless recycling of Schaeffer, Stockhausen and Cage.

All real innovation comes from outside the established order. And there's always resistance at first.

[Sascha Franck]

Don't want to read all through this thread, but anyways:

Sometimes knowing patterns, theory, licks, styles and whatever helps. Sometimes it gets in your way.
So you can do either way.

And that's about it.

[putte]

.. funny how complicated all this can be seen.

to me a "good" musician offers me his soul, or parts of it .. the accoustic link to his inner .. if its honest, and there´s passion to feel, this musician could do wonderful music with just a one-string-5$-gitar, without knowing how to play gitar, while singing to it.

and then there the musicians being able to play very well, with skills and all that, and also with a feeling for what they do, even passion. But the soul is missing, the originality of their own character .. (sure, this is all a question of definitions)

and i as well belive very much in the "musical ear" .. even though i never learnt how to read notes, or how to play the piano i call myself a musician.

tones can be like lego .. combine them, listen, and when it fits it fits ..

putte

[putte]

Sometimes knowing patterns, theory, licks, styles and whatever helps. Sometimes it gets in your way.
So you can do either way.

And that's about it.

fein gesagt! (well put)



putte

[rsmus7]

.. funny how complicated all this can be seen.

tones can be like lego .. combine them, listen, and when it fits it fits ..

putte

well spoken,

I don´t really play an instrument, I will be learning to play till I die.
But for me music is more the feel and not so much the skills.
Sometimes if you acctidentailly listen to someone singing while doing the homecleaning and this is for the heart, it can be much better then any chartbreaker, or..?

[progfusion74]

How would people here define "understanding music"?

Take John McLaughlin for example. He is a phenomenal guitar player, comfortable in multiple styles as a player and composer. He would not be as good as he is without understanding the nuances of Jazz, rock and Indian classical music. Such skills don't just happen. One has to work for them. In my opinion he understands music, and what makes him great was how he was (and still does) able to take all this knowledge about different musical styles and his instrument and do something new and wonderful.

Similarly Joe Zawinul is a keyboard player and synthetist, whose knowledge of music and synthesis, has been able to make him create music, most of us can only dream of. I can think of many others. Robert Fripp, Trey Gunn, all of whom are great instrumentalists whose understanding of the nuances of music allows them to extend boundaries.

prog

[progfusion74]

I also feel that saying playing an instrument is not relevant is insulting those session players and band musicians who have spent years getting good at what they do. Sure they may not be able to compose, but what they do should not be underappreciated.


Note: I agree that knowing how to play an instrument is not necessary, but sometimes it sounds like a crime to work hard at something. Remember the vast majority of non-guitar players master their instruments with no expectation of fame and fortune, but because they love what they do.

[putte]

I also feel that saying playing an instrument is not relevant is insulting those session players and band musicians who have spent years getting good at what they do. Sure they may not be able to compose, but what they do should not be underappreciated.

definately!

These skilled people are actually very needed for the people writing the music .. imagine all these late 60´s, early 70´s orchestra-pop productions (bacharach, spector, carpenters, free-design, beachboys, beatles etc. etc.) without all these wonderful session-musicians .. .. scary thought!

putte

[tee boy]

...or Yngwie Malmsteen.



No hold on. He can play. He just can't make music.

The shreddy f**king fretboard wanker!