(no subject)
I can't believe that I still have to say this, but learning more about music won't somehow stifle or ruin your creativity. That's just not how this works at all. You don't suddenly become a worse carpenter because I gave you 3 more hammers or showed you how some other person made their chair.
***
- This idea is wrong but also has a genuine basis to it (aside from laziness or learning disorders.) There's so much bad theory pedagogy out there, and so much prescriptive language.
If you associate the knowledge with the angry nerd who's delivering it to you, it's an easy conflation to make, especially if you don't have alternatives available to you. I found out about jazz theory early in my musical life, and also looked up to people like Jerry Garcia who spoke about theory in positive and approachable terms. Not everyone does though.
And I know the field has changed a lot recently, but even ten years ago when I did the NYU tonal theory sequence, it was a bad time. Every time a professor presents a song that I love as an example of bad voice leading, an angel loses its wings
- I try to avoid this, though there's at least one (somewhat obscure) example of a "pop" song that I have used a couple times because the voice-leading "problem" genuinely detracts from the moment.
I teach them mostly as "things to look for when something sounds off".
- I stopped even doing that after I kept presenting things as "wrong" that someone in the class thought sounded good. Which included hammering my fist on the piano keyboard. I talk about conventional and unconventional now.
***
The longer I think about this, the more I have cognitive dissonance because the part of me that has extensively studied composition and theory knows that what you are saying is true and that knowing more about music doesn't stifle creativity. But there's a deeper bit.
I've noticed that the more theory I know and the wider my radar is for composers and types of music, the less capable I am of actually writing music. I feel like I have gotten deeper and deeper in a block which is part of the reason why I'm a performer now.
And I think there's this subconscious idea that I need to innovate, even if my conscious mind is very much aware that I don't have to do that. I wonder if that dissonance is felt as stifled creativity?
***
Just this very morning, I had a songwriting student tell me this exact thing, he is curious about theory but is afraid of stifling his creativity.
This guy is not a beginner, he has been playing piano for eight years and comes from a family of musicians. He describes jamming with the guys from the jazz school who are urging him to use all these scales and things, and he is reluctant to take their advice because he doesn't seem to think very highly of how they sound. He's committed to learning guitar by ear and intuition because he is convinced that he will get better results.
I think he's wrong, but he's not totally out of pocket to think that way.
Because it's true! You learn your theory, it inevitably becomes a way to narrow the infinite universe of possibilities, and you start reaching for things that are conventional because you know they sound good. It's hard to resist!
I don't think the solution is to reject learning, the solution is to embrace learning but find ways to keep that beginner's mind alive.
So, like, really learn the guitar fretboard, and then... put it in a different tuning. Now everything you know is wrong! This can lead to amazing discoveries.
***
- This idea is wrong but also has a genuine basis to it (aside from laziness or learning disorders.) There's so much bad theory pedagogy out there, and so much prescriptive language.
If you associate the knowledge with the angry nerd who's delivering it to you, it's an easy conflation to make, especially if you don't have alternatives available to you. I found out about jazz theory early in my musical life, and also looked up to people like Jerry Garcia who spoke about theory in positive and approachable terms. Not everyone does though.
And I know the field has changed a lot recently, but even ten years ago when I did the NYU tonal theory sequence, it was a bad time. Every time a professor presents a song that I love as an example of bad voice leading, an angel loses its wings
- I try to avoid this, though there's at least one (somewhat obscure) example of a "pop" song that I have used a couple times because the voice-leading "problem" genuinely detracts from the moment.
I teach them mostly as "things to look for when something sounds off".
- I stopped even doing that after I kept presenting things as "wrong" that someone in the class thought sounded good. Which included hammering my fist on the piano keyboard. I talk about conventional and unconventional now.
***
The longer I think about this, the more I have cognitive dissonance because the part of me that has extensively studied composition and theory knows that what you are saying is true and that knowing more about music doesn't stifle creativity. But there's a deeper bit.
I've noticed that the more theory I know and the wider my radar is for composers and types of music, the less capable I am of actually writing music. I feel like I have gotten deeper and deeper in a block which is part of the reason why I'm a performer now.
And I think there's this subconscious idea that I need to innovate, even if my conscious mind is very much aware that I don't have to do that. I wonder if that dissonance is felt as stifled creativity?
***
Just this very morning, I had a songwriting student tell me this exact thing, he is curious about theory but is afraid of stifling his creativity.
This guy is not a beginner, he has been playing piano for eight years and comes from a family of musicians. He describes jamming with the guys from the jazz school who are urging him to use all these scales and things, and he is reluctant to take their advice because he doesn't seem to think very highly of how they sound. He's committed to learning guitar by ear and intuition because he is convinced that he will get better results.
I think he's wrong, but he's not totally out of pocket to think that way.
Because it's true! You learn your theory, it inevitably becomes a way to narrow the infinite universe of possibilities, and you start reaching for things that are conventional because you know they sound good. It's hard to resist!
I don't think the solution is to reject learning, the solution is to embrace learning but find ways to keep that beginner's mind alive.
So, like, really learn the guitar fretboard, and then... put it in a different tuning. Now everything you know is wrong! This can lead to amazing discoveries.