May
21
2013
I must be getting old: Ray Manzarek (from The Doors) died today. He was seventy-four. He lived a lot longer than his mate Jim Morrison. Far too many musicians died early. Too much fame too early. Ray, at least, made it to a ripe old age. Each year someone else dies who I followed in the sixties and seventies. Of old age. I feel old, today, although I won’t stay there. From dust we come and to dust we shall return. Death and taxes. We all face that one day.
Mar
19
2010
To me the music is always about feeling. Yes, I want the lyrics if there is any to make sense and be well integrated with the music. The music is always about feelings. Sure, I want the musicians to be competent on their instruments. Yet it has to be more than that. Each musician needs to care about their song, the notes they are playing. The audience always knows whether they care or not. And that is the first thing I listen is the feel of the song. It is either there or it is not. The music is always about the feelings of the musicians and how well they express them in their music. The best music expresses the inexpressible and you walk away enriched. It is always about the feeling the music engenders.
Nov
24
2009
Music is mathematics. A beautiful piece of music is composed of empty spaces and notes of various intensity and pitch and somehow they all fit together and become a composition. I can not tell you how to get it there but I can tell you when it works.
I can tell you when I string together on a cassette, let us say forty minutes of music, composed, maybe, of thirteen songs, it somehow fits together. It is done intuitively and is based on forty years of listening ten of thousands of hours (???).
An anthology of music I put together that way contains the “best” of what is out there and fits together. Ultimately taste in the quality of music is a gift. Music is mathematics and my experience in listening enables me to separate the mediocre from the very good and also know what music blends together.
The best songs from the “Stones” and “The Beatles” to name two familiar groups hold up well because the musicianship is impeccable and holds up well to repeated listening. The composers had a superb ear and the ability to get it “right”. Music is always mathematics.
Mar
14
2009
There is no such thing as secular music. Every piece of music reflects something. The musicians performing the piece of music reflected in their performance exactly how they were feeling, the reverence they had towards the music (or in some cases the irreverence). Every emotion they were experiencing would come through in any superb piece of music. It does not take long for a listener to realize the piece was mediocre. Then you should discard that piece and no longer listen to that piece of music.
A good piece of music has power: it can bring you up or even down. And the best sometimes can do both. You must be aware of the impact of the music you listen to and play it at appropriate times.
It is true there is no such thing as secular music. Nevertheless, the piece can edify you or subvert you and you must be aware of what you are listening to and its power. Subliminal messages can be conveyed. Music can drive you up or bring you down. You must be careful.
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