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Reading John J’s posts on the other forum made me think about a lot.
I feel music today is dead for the most part. The main problem to me is music is supposed to be emotional and it’s about the interconnectedness of the human condition and how we all relate, feel, and share our experiences within the outward world. Since music is made for the most part to make money now a days that emotional concept is not there. It’s about celebrating individualism/hedonism for the most part and not about the togetherness/community/sharing that music originates from. Like John said, and I couldn’t agree more, anyone can emulate or copy what has already been done. On a side point, why do cover bands exist? They seem like the most ridiculous idea that some guys can basically fake being another band and people like it (and sometimes relate to them like it’s the actual band)…back to the topic. So what do you do to be your “own” guitarists?
I started half heartedly learning guitar around the age of 16. I played off and on for many years but over the last year I have really tried to focus. I got into modding guitar pedals and it kind of got me back into playing and searching for my sound. In the beginning I learned songs and the usual but I wanted to take a different approach now. My cousin, a mid 50s semi pro musician who has had a couple of big bands, really sparked me to take a different approach. He just told me to “learn as many songs as possible” but I felt like learning other’s music would only shape my ideas into copies of theirs so I decided to just start studying and creating that way none of the riffs/knowledge in my brain was learned from others. Another thing my cousin did was, I wrote a song that I loved but it was 9 minutes long and he said “you have to make it catchy and 3-5 minutes if you want play” and that made me realize that’s not what I want. I want to be true to who I am and what I believe so I didn’t change it. I feel all classic guitarists were themselves and didn’t have the “mold” or “constrictions” you have today and that is what I want to emulate is being true and honest to the self. So over the last few weeks I endlessly sat down and tweaked my set up for “my” sound and the sound I want then a couple of nights ago it all was there. Now I am in the process of making an album and I couldn’t be happier. Granted I love the feeling of purging emotion out of my fingers through an instrument and making music so I could care less about the money component but this is where I am. So where are you on your journey?
While I can agree that individualism pervades our society (just look at stuff like facebook and myspace that are meant to be social websites where everyone just shows off pictures of themselves and their personal taste) I don’t think music is mostly dead.
Even in a year where only a couple of albums I enjoyed came out, I always think “Hey, in five years, I’ll probably discover some really kickass albums that I missed from this year.”
And hey, one of the best songs to come out this year was 9:00 minutes long.
Screw money, the chances of making money are so slim in the first place, it’s better just to do what you enjoy, and to record it.
But of course, while you’re making music that truly moves you, it might not hurt to do some covers at bars. You can make money that way.
