When Inspiration Meets Information

When Inspiration Meets Information.

Tear Down The Wall

I had an interesting conversation with one of my guitar students recently; it was another one of my sort-of-long-winded pep talks on how he might benefit by learning to read music and the importance of understanding the fundamentals of music theory. I felt as though I was looking at myself in the proverbial mirror that history sometimes thrusts into our faces- I remembered being an eager 15 year old guitar player who had managed to fake his way through a few standard classic rock hits with reasonable efficiency; I knew a bunch of chord fingerings and had pieced together a few simple solos by ear. But, I had no idea what I was actually doing! I didn’t have the facility or vocabulary to communicate or fully express my musical ideas, if somebody had told me “…this one’s in G…” I knew that was important, but had no idea what they really meant. I had hit the proverbial brick wall of understanding and I could fake my way no longer- and my student had that same blank, confused/interested look on his face I’m sure wore myself.

Polly Wanna Jam?

In short, I was a musical parrot… you can’t have a conversation with a parrot because it will only say what it has heard or has been told to say, worse still it has no comprehension of what it is saying. Musically speaking, this is the exact situation that I have seen many students at or above that pivotal age of 15 in, they have managed to learn some songs, lots of intros, bits of solos and even a few cool tricks, but their comprehension of what they are playing and what those bits of information mean to each other is zero.
So many times I have encouraged students to try some basic improvising- playing a scale over top of some accompanying chords; most have said after about two seconds “...I’m really not too good at this…” or “…this is going to suck, you’re way better at this than I am…” but after a few minutes of ‘jamming’, they are smiling, nodding their heads to the rhythm, and catching short phrases that they can repeat. They have found that when they have some logical, virtually fool-proof parameters, (scales) the glaring mistakes just don’t seem to happen. There are merely notes that they will like better than others, but none are wrong. And that’s huge; they proved to themselves that they really do have the ability; it just needs to be honed, focused and guided.

Happy Collisions

Every melody, every harmony, every guitar riff, solo or chord pattern, every bass line, keyboard part, every bizarre sounding jazz chord has come from somewhere, the scale. That central piece of information, that golden-glowing series of seven notes has given voice to all that you hear in music…OK, except drums. But that’s pretty amazing to think about for a beginning musician who dreads the very thought of learning scales; to think that they have before them all the same tools as Bach, Mozart, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Jaco Pastorius and the list goes on. Innate genius aside, they have the potential to reach for those heights.
I have several students who don’t and probably never will read notated music; tablature is perceived as the end-run around learning to read notes. So be it. As long as you learn your notes on your instrument, go ahead and learn all your scales by tablature, but you have to learn how to apply that knowledge and how to connect those dots. There are lots of professional players and successful songwriters who don’t read music- BUT, they really, really know their stuff when it comes to their instrument, they know their notes, chords, scales, how to harmonize, how did they do that? It’s irrelevant really, as long as you get there, you’re still there.
At some point, their inspiration met head on with a healthy dose of information and they discovered they had the tools to more fully express their most excellent musical ideas. They had taken the muzzle off their muse so-to-speak; they fostered, fertilized and fed their desire to become ever better at their craft- with information. Whether they asked a lot of questions, learned to read music, bought those learn-to-play DVD’s, somehow they got the information they needed. They certainly didn’t flounder about in their bedrooms wondering how to make a solo to that chord pattern that starts on fret three.

The Big Bang- Theory

There is always, without fail some kind of product created when musicians who haven’t had that glorious ‘inspiration meets information’ happy collision, actually get down to some sort of study of musical theory. Your inner musician now has a much more potent tool kit to work with in order to become the outer, more expressive musician. Theory by definition means something is unproven, when it’s proven it becomes fact; music theory becomes music fact when you as the musician become the arranger of those facts into something meaningful to the ear. A great quote to consider: “Music is the artful arrangement of sound over time.”
If you haven’t experienced it yet, then do whatever you can to make it happen, if you have experienced it, then you’ll know exactly what I mean; when you are excited and inspired to play, to create music, when you become addicted to your instrument the entire process of making music is invigorated, everything is potential. Your product is more satisfying; you can reach for and achieve better results much quicker and more creatively. Trust me, it’s true! You’ll be like old Ebenezer Scrooge on that fateful Christmas morn, everything is exciting, and you’re practically giddy with anticipation wondering what you’ll create next.