"If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical, it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience."
- John Cage
This is music, and anyone can do it...
The word "music" has become so narrowly defined. What is a "musician"? I recall a session not long before summer. Trey came over with his guitar, and I had my piano and other various instruments. However, we didn't sit down and play/write a song. We talked and mingled with our strings and keys. Morgan came over, and Trey handed her the guitar. She seemed to become fearful. "Oh, no. I can't play the guitar." She proceeded to set it on her lap and tap on the strings along the fretboard. Sound resonated from the instrument. She was playing the guitar.
So many people refuse to acknowledge that they are musicians because they don't "play" an instrument. Imagine what could be created if people just picked things up and made noise. I remember a night last year when I asked a friend to come over and record some music. We had guitars, yes. And we had a piano. We even had a synthesizer. Still, hours later, we found ourselves in the kitchen with a small tape recorder holding forks and spoons and tapping and banging on various objects (wine bottles, counter tops, cabinets, boxes, bags......). We yelled out gibberish over the primitive beating of our primitive instruments. We clapped and stomped our feet. This is music. And anyone can do it.
This video is from later on the same night, after we had moved the music to the living room. The wine was almost gone, but spirits were high as the beating of our hands and our instruments became more and more primitive. It's easier to stay on beat when you're not constantly worried about how good it sounds. We took our conscious thoughts out of the music-making process and let our bodies (our only real instruments) play what they pleased.
We hear sounds from everywhere, without ever having to focus, Sounds come from 'above,' from 'below,' from in 'front' of us, from 'behind' us, from our 'right,' from our 'left.' We can't shut out sound automatically. We simply are not equipped with earlids. Where a visual space is an organized continum of a uniformed connected kind, the ear is world of simultaneous relationships" (McLuan and Fiore The Medium is the Massage).
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Comments (1)
Javi said
at 8:58 pm on Sep 16, 2010
soooo, i just noticed you linked my page to yours, perfect phrase tooo... thanks I enjoyed this :)
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