Part 1:
Building Self Esteem
Let's get
philosophical here for a second, please bear with me. What is music? A sound?
A series of sounds? Let's look at
this differently: If we establish the basic premise that Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" is considered art, we must ask ourselves what made it
so. There was a blank canvas, he put a
lot of time and effort into painting it, and suddenly there was a picture of a
woman. Contrast this to Barnett Newman's
"Voice of Fire", a simple painting with three columns, and it is also
considered art. Why? The level of
complexity is clearly different. Well
that's just it. Art can be simple.
Everything is technically art and any sound (or series) is music. That being said, if you walked up to a piano and punched the
keys, by definition it would be music.
Whether or not it is pleasant is a matter of opinion, but you'd be hard
pressed to find anyone who enjoys "knuckle sandwich in B flat".
What I'm
trying to say is that, as a society, we need to break out of the idea that everything needs to fit in a
box.
This
week, I suggest that you pick up an
instrument (any at your disposal - even if it's your voice), and play four
different notes. Play them repeatedly,
change the order their played in, and change their tempo. That will be your first song.... no matter
how bad it is. This exercise is meant to
show that a melody can easily be built from scratch.
What an inspiring post. Having dropped my ill fated cello career after one year, I feel inspired to perhaps give music a second chance. If the person who created that striped painting can be an artist then why not me?
ReplyDeleteI think it's lovely that you play the piano. I have a phobia about playing as I used to have a very strict tutor who would shout at me so I ended up leaving. There is a piano near the library so hoping you will play for us one day.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds absolutely horrible Sheona - you should try playing again with nobody yelling at you.
DeleteSheona, my piano teacher was the same. It was a horrible experience, I quit too!
DeleteYes It was bad, I feel as if I missed out. Well done Ben for giving us hope!
DeleteWhat an interesting perspective Ben, I totally agree, music starts with little ideas and random notes. A feeling thats made with sound. anything can be music!
ReplyDeleteI really love the philosophy behind this Ben, I believe anything can be art as well but have never really considered applying that thought to music. You are clearly a very talented person and your blog has been a joy to read.
ReplyDelete