Do You Think Music Knowledge Helps Or Hurts
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Do You Think Music Knowledge Helps Or Hurts
I have heard arguments from both camps. Personally, I've always felt hindered by my lack of technical knowledge. I can't tell you what key I'm playing in. I can't write anything but TAB and my vocabulary is lacking. On the other hand I have a friend who I respect as an amazing musician who learned music theory very well and has told me that he has actually tried to forget or unlearn everything he learned because he feels it hinders his creative process. What do you think?
"[...] so plodding it actually hurts a little bit" - Smalltown Mike
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Funny you say that. I worked with this girl once who was classically trained and she couldn't stand any of the indie stuff I listened to because she judged it using her knowledge of music. On the other hand, she loved Top 40 pop stuff because most (a lot) of it is written by trained musicians.Furrypedro wrote:A double-edged sword this one I think.
It helps you to write music. It hurts your appreciation of other people's music when you start judging how good a song is on an intellectual level.
"[...] so plodding it actually hurts a little bit" - Smalltown Mike
That's it in a nutshell.WeaselSlayer wrote:You have to learn the rules in order to break them.
I don't think there's any practical difference between KMS's question and the question "does grammer knowledge help or hurt a journalist?" Or "does colour knowledge help or hurt a painter?"
Some background knowledge is required in all creative fields.
(Not to mention, if you want to work with other musicians, some theory knowledge is a must.)
Or maybe her taste in music just sucksKMS wrote:she loved Top 40 pop stuff because most (a lot) of it is written by trained musicians.
I know a lot of people who hate indie music, but they don't have the first bit of music knowledge.
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Well, just reviewing songs on SongFight does that!Furrypedro wrote:It hurts your appreciation of other people's music when you start judging how good a song is on an intellectual level.
I voted "helps" because I don't know enough of it, and I've definitely run into blocks where more knowledge would have helped.
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The more I learn about music, the more I think that musical knowledge (the traditional kind,anyway) hinders rather than helps. The theory that "you have to know the rules in order to break them" doesn't hold up. A person without musical training can fuck stuff up just as well as any trained musician, and there's a good chance that the untrained fucking up will be more interesting because the performer won't have years of training-turned-instinct to wrest with.
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WeaselSlayer wrote:I can see how it would go either way, but for me I wouldn't be able to fuck anything up if I didn't have all the training I do. The ability to hear anything in my head and almost exactly recreate it leaves me totally free to do whatever the hell I want.
Please do a piano rendition of Eruption in the style of Elton John. Please.
Yeah. Like you say, it can go either way. I think that the freedom to do what's not in your head is far superior to the freedom to do what's already in there.WeaselSlayer wrote:I can see how it would go either way, but for me I wouldn't be able to fuck anything up if I didn't have all the training I do. The ability to hear anything in my head and almost exactly recreate it leaves me totally free to do whatever the hell I want.
"I believe the common character of the universe is not harmony, but hostility, chaos and murder." - Werner Herzog
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This is where I feel my lack of knowledge the most. I have sounds in my brain that I want to get out, but don't know how.WeaselSlayer wrote:The ability to hear anything in my head and almost exactly recreate it leaves me totally free to do whatever the hell I want.
"[...] so plodding it actually hurts a little bit" - Smalltown Mike
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