tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post3574716864316225661..comments2024-03-27T23:06:03.736-05:00Comments on The Music Salon: Why You Should ComposeBryan Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-35286415398425250072013-07-23T15:54:25.950-05:002013-07-23T15:54:25.950-05:00I agree, a musician should improvise and compose m...I agree, a musician should improvise and compose music, not just play it and maybe learn some theory and do ear training. I've been improvising on piano for some time now and I've recently started to compose (actually just one finished composition and many unfinished ones for now but it's something at least) based on my improvising (I explore things when improvising and use some of the things for composing so it's far from any kind of performance type improvisation). I do sometimes get musical ideas in my head but as my ear isn't good enough I can't write them down yet. Either way, I typically center my improvising and composing around the western (church) modes instead of what most seem to be doing which is to stick to the major/minor system. I try to avoid learning more theory than I already know for now and instead of theory I rely more on what I find to sound nice (which is a tip Nathan Shirley gave me along with many other useful ones). Either way there's an interesting theory book about modes (especially covering the harmony aspect) called "Modal Music Composition" by Stephen M. Cormier. What do you think about the modes in general? Do you think they can prove to be a valid option to the major/minor system (of course much has changed, especially in harmony since the middle ages and reneissance)?Rickardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08084578675339015204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-29031572316250693592011-10-31T05:34:15.369-05:002011-10-31T05:34:15.369-05:00I hadn't thought of that. Most composers are s...I hadn't thought of that. Most composers are separated off in university. They are not required to do any performing and usually don't. I suppose this is another aspect of overspecialization.<br /><br />Yes, all the great composers up to and including Shostakovich were also performers. But the real avant-garde were not.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-61152020468365358842011-10-30T17:06:50.994-05:002011-10-30T17:06:50.994-05:00You are totally right!
Another reason why musician...You are totally right!<br />Another reason why musicians should compose is that so many composers today aren't musicians anymore. As a result their music doesn't work at all (think about all the noisy, terribly complicated contemporary music).<br />In the past all the major composers were musicians too.Sebastianhttp://www.sebastiandiezig.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-42810296030399193332011-10-10T11:27:27.098-05:002011-10-10T11:27:27.098-05:00Yes, I'm troubled by this myself. I started ou...Yes, I'm troubled by this myself. I started out as a pop musician and did a lot of improvising, mostly in a blues context. But when I switched to being a classical musician that ability seemed to fade away. I have done some improvising with other classical musicians, but few can really do it. Including me! I wonder if it has to do with the relative complexity of classical music?Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-20991025781475018602011-10-10T10:34:18.128-05:002011-10-10T10:34:18.128-05:00Excellent point. Music should be taught like a for...Excellent point. Music should be taught like a foreign language, where practice means not only reciting set pieces but creating one's own sentences.<br /><br />But today's kids are taught music mostly in a passive way: learn the rules, master the classics, and focus on performance. Having spent my life navigating back and forth between jazz and classical music, I am still struck by how uneducated musically classical performers often are (of course not all of them!) I've known brilliant classical pianists who were incapable of improvising on a random pop tune or even figuring out the chords by ear. They knew their keyboard perfectly but had no musical fluency -- in the sense of language fluency. They knew piano but not music.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com