Perhaps that's the real sacrifice an artist pays for his or her art, whether it's music or one of the many others such as painting, sculpture, or poetry. Knowing how "the trick" is done removes much of the wonder one experiences when watching a performance even while it elicits admiration for the performance itself. And admiration, while enjoyable, is not the same pleasure you get from wonder. Wonder comes from innocence - admiration comes from knowledge and experience.
-40hz
So true. I am getting better at switching my mind from critical musician analysis mode to just being able to enjoy the music. I still have a hard time with things that BUMP too much like at clubs, lounges, most parties, most situations where I have to dance with girls. I'm not really able to tolerate it for more than an hour. But yea, that's the price I pay for trying to figure out music. I'm fine with it, I love being able to experience hearing and recognizing a great new song. I wouldn't give that up for much.
One of the reasons many musicians attempt to master multiple instruments; or explore unrelated musical genres and cultures; or create (or join) radically different music ensembles is to recapture that sense of wonder and innocence. To be able to "just listen" once again. And ignorance (the healthy kind) plays a key role in that.
-40hz
You know, I never though of it like that! One of my close friends is like this, and I'm the opposite. To quote Oscar Peterson, "I'm having enough trouble trying to just play the piano" (when asked if he likes to sing also). But that makes a lot of sense. But we are different like that, he's the type where his mind will quickly bore of something once he hears it once (unless it's really good, like Bach or something). But I don't mind lots of repeated listens. Usually it's for analysis, but sometimes I can loop a good groove for a while. Something like this:
When that guitar is soloing over those two chords, I can listen to that for a hell of a lot longer than my friend. Actually, this is really what my question was all about. In this particular example, yes it's only two chords, but they just got it right for me.
I'm one of those people that experiences music as a form of mathematics. I really think Pythagoras
was onto something.
-40hz
Ha! You know, before I even knew about Pythagoras and music, I made a chord progression diagram in Autocad to see the geometric shapes made from my favorite progressions. Then I found the Pythagoreans were all over this stuff! lol.
The challenge is not to get so smart and crafty (i.e. "slick") that the sense of what it's all about gets lost in the process. Because most people - even untrained people - do have an innate sense of what it's all about. And they can easily recognize a good song, even if they don't consciously know why.
-40hz
This is probably my problem. But I've been getting better lately at striking that balance. Playing with people more helps this problem a lot. Also, not "practicing" and just playing also is a good way to fix it for me. I tend to practice too much and play too little.
By "intellectual" music, I think what SB was talking about was well-crafted music that dealt with subject matter that speaks to needs a bit higher up Maslov's hierarchy than most of what passes for "popular" music does.
-40hz
Yes, that is exactly right. lol! Especially for performances, I really try not to be an intellectual since my experiences with jazz has taught me that it is largely alienating, unless you have a very particular type of audience (which is very rare). I spend the analysis/intellect on arranging a song and coming up with the practice routine, after that, I plan on just playing it a lot and see what develops. And for performances, I like most of it to be pretty second-nature so I can focus on the audience and react to them without screwing up the music. I was so relaxed at my last gig (country music, easy stuff) that the organizer of the festival made a special note to come to me and mention how relaxed i looked. I couldn't tell if it was a compliment or if he wanted me to have a little more energy. I think it was a compliment because I was playing pretty well!
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40, you're cracking me up here.
poor Cody (lol)