Wednesday, August 16, 2006
A few thoughts this morning...
I've been listening to a little jazz and a little traditional music of late. There's a theory, especially in jazz, regarding how listeners react to music and it goes something like this: A certain amount of repetition is needed to draw listeners in, but a certain amount of variance is needed to keep them from getting bored. There is an element of taste in this; various people will prefer more or less repetition, but the theory still holds. This is part of constructing a good improvisational solo, finding that balance, and part of good song writing in general. It also relates historically as well.
Nowadays, people in general hear more recorded music than live and that works against the improvisational idiom since by definition improvisation is "song-writing on the fly" but the song is frozen by the recording. This freezing renders it little different than traditional music that is performed almost the same every time.
Which brings me to my point: I'm growing more and more tired of jazz, rock, and other more improvisational based forms and on to traditional music because a) I listen to much more pre-recorded music than live and b) a song-writer with the luxury of time can be much more compositionally creative than a jazz improvisationalist without it and if the piece is pre-recorded, the spontaneity of improvisation is lost anyway. Certainly it won't feel the same to the player, and to that I'm sympathetic: I'm an old rocker who likes to take a good solo as much as anyone else.
I've been listening to a little jazz and a little traditional music of late. There's a theory, especially in jazz, regarding how listeners react to music and it goes something like this: A certain amount of repetition is needed to draw listeners in, but a certain amount of variance is needed to keep them from getting bored. There is an element of taste in this; various people will prefer more or less repetition, but the theory still holds. This is part of constructing a good improvisational solo, finding that balance, and part of good song writing in general. It also relates historically as well.
Nowadays, people in general hear more recorded music than live and that works against the improvisational idiom since by definition improvisation is "song-writing on the fly" but the song is frozen by the recording. This freezing renders it little different than traditional music that is performed almost the same every time.
Which brings me to my point: I'm growing more and more tired of jazz, rock, and other more improvisational based forms and on to traditional music because a) I listen to much more pre-recorded music than live and b) a song-writer with the luxury of time can be much more compositionally creative than a jazz improvisationalist without it and if the piece is pre-recorded, the spontaneity of improvisation is lost anyway. Certainly it won't feel the same to the player, and to that I'm sympathetic: I'm an old rocker who likes to take a good solo as much as anyone else.
# posted by goldpython @ 8:03 AM 
