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Matt, that was a great write-up! Your attitude is totally logical and... fresh. I share most of your points, maybe except for your hang-ups with how staff notes look. ;-) Greetings from Sweden Per Boysen www.perboysen.com http://www.youtube.com/perboysen On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 9:23 PM, Matt Davignon <mattdavignon@gmail.com> wrote: > It's a few different elements, and I admit that I'm probably full of BS. > > 1) At the time I was entering college, the instruments I played were > almost entirely non-melodic instruments - mostly tapes, effects and > contact microphones. The classes my college were offering focused > primarily on melody and harmony. > 2) Any melodies in music I was making at the time were pretty basic > and minimal, and I didn't see any need to grow beyond that at the > time. (This was the time of techno, industrial and punk rock being > very popular.) Even now, I'm much more interested in the > characteristics of the sound than the actual melody, but I have to > admit that harmony and pitch have a lot to do with the > characteristics. > 2) I had this thing in my head at the time that learning music theory > would = conformity. In the mind of an 19 year-old misfit like me, > conformity was a 4-letter word at the time. > 3) It seemed at the time like it would be a lot of work for a little > gain. I was learning stuff at home that excited me a lot more. > Learning a new scale didn't seem that interesting compared to learning > how to make a chair shriek emotively across a cement floor. > 4) I was afraid that the sounds I was interested in would be seen as > worthless in the music theory community. (That was probably not true.) > 5) Part of me got all grumpy when I thought I discovered some great > new tone cluster or quirky melody through breaking a bunch of rules, > and then some music theory person would say "oh, that's just a > blankity blank scale". Part of me really wanted to believe I was the > first/only person doing it. Later, my perspective was "ok, everything > I do melodically is going to have a name in music theory, but that > doesn't mean I can't do it." > 6) Somehow, learning the science behind how everything worked felt > like it was going to take all the wonder of discovery out of music. > Imagine that you're just about to see Star Wars for the first time, > but before doing so, you have to listen to a Joseph Cambell lecture > discussing everything that's going to happen in the movie and how > everything is a literature device that's been around for thousands of > years. That's what it felt it would be like. > 7) And here's one that I thought was wise: I wanted to enter adulthood > with skills other than making music. I could always make music for > fun, but I didn't honestly think I was going to have a career making > the weird music I was interested in. I wanted to be an engineer > producer at the time, but was realizing that I didn't have the > patience to butt heads with people in bands. > > So, anyway, now I'm a grown-up, about 17 years after the decision to > not major in music. What's it like now? > > The good: > --Sometimes there's an assumption made that if you don't take music > theory, you don't learn *anything*. That's not true. I learned > different stuff. > --Whenever I hit a wall, I either worked around it or turned my focus > in a different direction. I don't think I'd be as sonically unique if > I didn't hit as many walls. > --I think I do ok as a musician. In the improvised music world, people > like playing with me because I'm unique and I've learned how to adapt > quickly to what they're doing. > --I think I'm slightly more successful as a musician than I would be > if my skills were more standardized. (If I was doing stuff that more > people did, I don't think I'd measure up as well.) > --I think I'm happier to be in a non-music related profession. I don't > rely on my artistic energy to pay my bills. All my artistic energy can > be spent doing the things I want. > --Many of the music majors I know are struggling to remain in a > music-related profession, as if it would be a failure if they did > something else. > --I don't make a huge amount of money at my day job, but I make more > than many of my professional musician friends. > --I don't depend on music to "defend my existence". That's kind of a > biggie. As a teen, that was my only perceived value about myself. Now > I have a lot of skills that are independent of that. I might do ok in > a zombie apocalypse. > > The bad: > --I'm musically naive - very much so. If I happen to stumble on a > great melody, it's usually by accident. I'm sure I play a lot of > things that sound great to me, but are old news to people who have the > training. I get stuck in ruts very easily. > --I can't communicate my musical ideas very well. I can't write sheet > music. The best I can do is play it myself and hope other people can > imitate it the way I hear it. If I can't play it myself, then I'm > screwed. > --Sometimes when trying to get other musicians to play for me, > sometimes I'm frustrated that people don't think about things the same > way I do. For example, I want a written cue for: "Try to make it sound > like you're playing the drums from 16 feet away with 3 broomsticks > tied together. No, you're way too accurate. Really, you need to sound > like ... no, now you're just being silly. You need to sound like it's > a really clumsy interface, but you're doing the best you can with it." > --I'm the dumbest person in any band. Or at least I feel that way. I > learn pretty well by ear and trial & error, but that's a lot slower > than those who can read sheet music or be told "go from A chord to D > chord". > --I miss a lot of opportunities: I often have to miss out on playing > in improvised orchestras and other group-oriented projects because I > can't read their sheet music. Likewise, I've also been afraid to sign > up for collaborative residencies out of fear that I'd be the only one > there who doesn't speak the language. > --At this point of my life, it would be nice to know how to orchestrate. > > So, why don't I drop everything I'm doing and learn to read western > notation? I simply don't like the system. I think the musical staff > should be written chromatically, rather than requiring the reader > pre-memorize a pattern of valid notes (and then breaking that rule > with sharps and flats). I want the symbol for a half-note rest to > actually look like it takes more time than a quarter note rest. I'd > like to see notes take up as much room on a bar as their duration. (A > 1/4 note takes up 1/4 of the bar.) It would be nice if the shape of > the note represented the note's dynamics. > Lastly, I want intervals to be standardized. I want "a third" to be an > interval of 3 chromatic notes, not sometimes 5 notes and sometimes 4 > notes. Then people could memorize a major scale as "2,2,1,2,2,2,1" > (which people already understand). > > > -- > Matt Davignon > mattdavignon@gmail.com > www.ribosomemusic.com > Podcast! http://ribosomematt.podomatic.com > http://www.youtube.com/user/ribosomematt > > > Teddy Kumpel <teddykumpel@mac.com> was all: >> such an interesting topic... >> >> Matt... Do you think you still find music interesting BECAUSE you >> decided to stay away from institutional learning? I think you would >> have stayed interested no matter what... you just found all the music >> school stuff too far away from your goal and you didn't see the point >> at the time. Totally understandable... there were things in school I >> pushed away for the same reasons.... like learning George VanEps chord >> solos.... zzzzzz >> >> my thought about this whole thing is: >> >> if your goal is to be really really good at a very focused thing that >> doesn't have harmony that changes quickly, like ambient music, you >> probably don't need music school. >> >> if you want to have a diverse skill set, music school is probably right >> for you. I learned how to arrange for big band, how to compose a modal >> jazz song, how to hear every chord from every mode of the 4 main modal >> systems, all about jazz standards and chord substitutions, accompanying >> a singer in a duo, what swing is.... and a whole plethora of other >> things. I don't use them all every day now, 26 years later... but I >> sure have appreciated knowing all that stuff throughout the years. >> >> and.... really the number one reason music school is great: the fellow >> students... if you're at the right school... I guess, like anything >> else, some schools suck and some are good and therefore the quality of >> students attracted follows. >> >> Rick, your story is really awesome.... you sure are not a lazy man >> >> >