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By alien zero (Thu Sep 27, 2007 at 11:26:52 PM EST) bands, people, music that matters (all tags)
Leftovers and righteousness.

Last night's band practice started off really awesome.  A twenty minute jam through completely unplanned and unrehearsed material;  switching from mood to mood, theme to theme.  Not bad for third rehearsal.

Then as we went back to actually working on original material.  It sucked.  Badly.  Got really annoyed with it and couldn't be bothered after a while.

Pretty disappointed in the guitarist,  though he's really good.  However despite his reassurance and enthusiasm for developing new material,  what he's playing just ends up in the same groove.  Boring.  Even worse for the rest of us who can only follow the furrowed patterns and wait for him to finish.  Not good.  Doesn't seem to value anyone else's input either.

What's the point of playing well below your ability?   His particular answer amounts to "that's what people want to hear"

Fuck people.  People suck.

< For those who hate the nostalgia. | BBC White season: 'Rivers of Blood' >

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The best music is music that
- shows me something new 0%
- forms a background to my life 0%
- annoys the neighbours 50%
- iTunes thinks I would like 0%
- 36 other Amazon customers also bought 0%
- the musicians feel and enjoy 50%
- conforms to strict expectations 0%
- is performed by strippers 50%
- WIPO 0%

Votes: 2
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Uppers and downers | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback
Careful. by komet (4.00 / 1) #1 Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 03:23:10 AM EST
When you say "well below your ability", do you mean technical ability? Many people play below their technical ability because you can't spend 10 years of practice on every song. Professional session musicians are basically continually sight-reading. Neither does it sound at all good when everyone in a band plays at their most complicated at the same time.

However, you should always, always play at the peak of your emotional ability.

--
<ni> komet: You are functionally illiterate as regards trashy erotica.


Aha by alien zero (2.00 / 0) #2 Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 08:26:48 AM EST
Thanks for articulating something I was too insensed to manage on my own.  Yes, playing at the emotional peak is what should be happening,  but that is very far from what was going on.  It felt... dead.  worthless.  dull, derivative and boring.  Technical ability and experience can be the best tools for breathing life into it, and yet even that was being surpressed yesterday,  most often by a call for halt and repeated requests to "keep it simple".   Two chords?  Yawn.

Point also taken on the everyone can't play complicated stuff all at the same time - which is very true,  unless everyone knows what they're doing.  (And even then self-indulgent crap often ensues)

I think the bigger problem is the lack of communication.  It is going to be hard to work with someone who has no interest in anyone else's ideas.  I have found this a lot in musical circles (and also, in a strange correlation, where guitarists are concerned)


[ Parent ]

acting term by Merekat (2.00 / 0) #3 Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 08:36:23 AM EST
I believe they call that phoning the performance in.

[ Parent ]

Uppers and downers | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

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