The successful artist that break the rules of the expected way to do things interests me. They are the ones that point to the answer to what makes a great musician.
These anomalies, the Muddy Waters, the Captain Beefheart’s the John Lee Hooker’s, the Django Reinhardt’s and the Bob Dylan’s of this world are the ones who do not know scales, cannot read music, they are often the illiterate, the ones who play from the heart, the drug takers, the heavy drinkers, the iconoclasts, the womanisers, the radicles and the ones who think outside the box.
The list of these characters includes the deformed, the mentally ill, the revolutionaries, the anarchists and traditionally the ones who get arrested, thrown into jail, and die young. The fact that rule breaking and the bending of normality seems to be inherent for these people.
Look at those you teach or work with who are different and you will see something powerfully creative in them and that is something which can be tapped into to.
Jimi Hendrix wasn’t necessary the best guitarist for his time actually that fell to the likes of Wes Montgomery and Tal Farlow but Jimi took what he heard and coloured it through the prism of his experiences and personality.
So let us embrace the different and the awkward and counter intuitive (or counter intellectual) and make something expressive and beautiful and challenging.
Vic
www.bluescampuk.co.uk check it out
Friday 27 March 2015
Friday 20 March 2015
Language tells the mind what to see and what remains hidden and it is language that makes the world exist in our mind. Without the words we have no way to frame it.
An interesting concept, that words not only reflect but also frame how we think.
We can see evidence of this in national consciousness, for instance the poetic language of Iran leads to the rather unusual (to the West) allegorical political statements that we are unfamiliar with, which sound as if the speakers are trying to hide something. Whereas the rather simplistic English used by the Americans lead to the rather blunt and politically aggressive statements which are more familiar.
There is a theory that the very essence of language; the words, not only are the tools for expressing our thoughts but may also be the things that create our ability to think in a certain way. So if you have a word for something you can experience it, if you do not then you cannot experience it.
Subjugated people have throughout history had their language and their beliefs taken away or debased in order for ethnic cleansing to happen. We as a nation had this happen to us where the native tongue of the British was taken away by the Romans and then that was taken away by the Saxons to be then taken away and debased by the Normans.
Adding music to words can make the effect of language more potent, think of the religious use of music and language with chanting and song. Lyrics are hypnotically powerful because of the rhythms and it is easily possible for music to induce a religious trance. I am not sure why this is but I would guess that the rhythms impact the unconscious aspect of the memory stopping the intellectual analysis of the words and allowing the unconscious effect to take place.
Words carry an emotional resonance, also the way words are spoken changes that level of resonance. Words such as ‘Love’ and ‘Trust’ carry an emotional resonance which will be different to different listeners depending on their experience. Words such as Hate and Greed are so loaded with emotional meaning and are often used by governments and society to create the organising effect of the ‘Leopard outside’ making a community bond through fear. This technique is being used for everything from Fracking (lack of energy), to Terrorism (fear of the apocalypse from the men with beards) to GM (the lack of food security). The truth as always is more complex and nuanced than that and often the deciding point left out is someone is going to make a lot of money out of the desired result of fear but we are being corralled by the smell of fear or moral panic.
The language that we use frames our personal world and language is the way your world functions. Now it is our turn to use language in a way that is truly powerful, with music.
Vic
www.Bluescampuk.co.uk
An interesting concept, that words not only reflect but also frame how we think.
We can see evidence of this in national consciousness, for instance the poetic language of Iran leads to the rather unusual (to the West) allegorical political statements that we are unfamiliar with, which sound as if the speakers are trying to hide something. Whereas the rather simplistic English used by the Americans lead to the rather blunt and politically aggressive statements which are more familiar.
There is a theory that the very essence of language; the words, not only are the tools for expressing our thoughts but may also be the things that create our ability to think in a certain way. So if you have a word for something you can experience it, if you do not then you cannot experience it.
Subjugated people have throughout history had their language and their beliefs taken away or debased in order for ethnic cleansing to happen. We as a nation had this happen to us where the native tongue of the British was taken away by the Romans and then that was taken away by the Saxons to be then taken away and debased by the Normans.
Adding music to words can make the effect of language more potent, think of the religious use of music and language with chanting and song. Lyrics are hypnotically powerful because of the rhythms and it is easily possible for music to induce a religious trance. I am not sure why this is but I would guess that the rhythms impact the unconscious aspect of the memory stopping the intellectual analysis of the words and allowing the unconscious effect to take place.
Words carry an emotional resonance, also the way words are spoken changes that level of resonance. Words such as ‘Love’ and ‘Trust’ carry an emotional resonance which will be different to different listeners depending on their experience. Words such as Hate and Greed are so loaded with emotional meaning and are often used by governments and society to create the organising effect of the ‘Leopard outside’ making a community bond through fear. This technique is being used for everything from Fracking (lack of energy), to Terrorism (fear of the apocalypse from the men with beards) to GM (the lack of food security). The truth as always is more complex and nuanced than that and often the deciding point left out is someone is going to make a lot of money out of the desired result of fear but we are being corralled by the smell of fear or moral panic.
The language that we use frames our personal world and language is the way your world functions. Now it is our turn to use language in a way that is truly powerful, with music.
Vic
www.Bluescampuk.co.uk
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