Re: Creating Space

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

I would say that the solution to this, as to most other musical
issues, is to listen more. This may seem obvious for many, but for
those who typically plays instruments like the guitar and the piano it
can easily happen that learning to play the instrument, as a
bi-product, also causes the musically rather destructive habit of
approaching music-making as "positions on the fretboard where you push
down strings when plucking them" rather than viewing music as sound
and expression of emotional content. I've been stuck into that trap
myself and know that it can be a depressive experience. You need to
"de-learn" the instrument in order to rediscover music and one way can
be to try playing for a while in a manner that always avoids the
typical notes and phrases that "just pours out through the fingers".
If you don't feel that a certain note will fit in perfectly well to
play next - shut up and listen for another second until you really get
the feeling of what note that makes musical sense to continue with.

This teaching may seem counter-productive to a lot that is taught in
jazz, since jazz to a great deal is about implying phrases, scales and
melody runs. But this conflict doesn't really exist because that level
of jazz teaching only works at the level where music is understood as
"sound and expression of emotional content". This because scales and
melodies do have there own colors just as specific notes (related to a
key) have. Or told in other words: the true meaning of a melody is not
the order of the notes but the emotional content it brings.

This can of course be applied to live looping as well, since the
looper also is an instrument.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.perboysen.com
http://www.youtube.com/perboysen



On Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 6:47 AM,  <mike@michaelplishka.com> wrote:
>  We all know that music is as much about the silence as it is about the
> notes.  However, when doing live shows, I often struggle with finding 
> ways
> of stripping down the performance (I use an EDP or Boomerang when I 
> loop).
> What do the members of this esteemed group do to help give silence her 
> due?
>
> ~peace~
>
>
> Michael
>
>
>
> www.michaelplishka.com
> www.scribbledmusings.com
>
>
>