Jump to content
aberdeen-music

prof_lofi

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    214

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by prof_lofi

  1. experimental showcase #2, jan 27th

    in Gigs & Event Announcements

    Posted

    hi everyone,

    hope everyone had a good new ye, i mean hogmanay.

    this is just a reminder about the experimental music showcase #2 on the 27th. this concert will feature field recordings from all across the u.k., and a live call in set!

    for more info, visit my site here: http://billthompson.org/experimentalmusicshowcase2.htm

    or go to the previous post here:

    http://www.aberdeen-music.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19471

    hope you can make it down,

    b.

    www.billthompson.org

  7. music theory

    in Musicians' Corner

    Posted

    . Were you at aberdeen college? Who was your guitar tutor there if so?

    no' date=' i did all my studying in the states (just got to the uk 6 months ago, and aberdeen 2 months ago)...

    i'm not sure who in town teaches in a similar method but i'm sure with all the music stores in town there's some decent teachers. the stuff my tutor taught me was fairly different than most though..i think that it was very influenced by ted greene, mick goodrick, mike stern...even pat metheny used this method (though i don't care for his tone) my tutors studied with a guy named jack petterson who is pretty well known amoungst jazz guitarists in the states..sort of a musician's musician type)...they had me doing lots of playing up and down one string...and really trying to understand the fretboard...neither one of them were really big on chops or flashy technique...just being musical and knowing what you were doing...

    b.

    [url']www.billthompson.org

  15. Pwm

    in Musicians' Corner

    Posted

    That hardly opens up huge avenues for discussion.

    sorry :) ...i didn't post the original graphic...but i'm reading it as a wave form where the left to right=time as well as frequency (the pitch of the wave), and the up/down, is how loud or quiet the wave is...much more description then this and my post gets...even...more...boring...i'm afaid ;)

  16. music theory

    in Musicians' Corner

    Posted

    hey dave,

    you're on in february...january we're having the field recoding (phonography concert) with submissions from all over the uk, then back to the live experimental shows after that...we didn't try to do one in december due to the holidays and busy schedules...

    and i think belew was actually in a beatles cover band :) and i know he played with zappa like so many guitar greats (steve vai and others...) now zappa...there was an orginal!

  17. music theory

    in Musicians' Corner

    Posted

    Musical theory wont make you more creative' date=' but it will HELP you become more creative......knowledge is power.[/quote']

    i agree...and theory is dry, it's just information...the creativity is what you do with it, how you apply it, etc... it gives you choices, makes you aware of options...usually when i learn something new and try to apply right off, or incorporate one of the exercises or whatever, it does sound a little rigid, or stale..academic, whatever, but later after i move on...and i use that same bit of information, but more intuitively, it comes out much better...but i wouldn't have been able to do that if i didn't learn the information in the first place...

  18. music theory

    in Musicians' Corner

    Posted

    hey prof' date=' where did you learn jazz theory. my teacher is working through the classical theory grades but we havent encountered jazz theory yet, does it appear in the grades or does it come from somewhere else?[/quote']

    ah, i'm pretty sure it's not covered in your system ie grade 1-8 theory...at least in the states, you have to take it as a separate class and often it's not even offered...i was just lucky to have good guitar tutors and then i went to a 'jazz' university...but it's very similar to regular theory, just applied and with some different names for things...

    like, for improv, jazz players often think in modes, which is covered in traditional theory but just not exploited as much...so, when you have chords of a key ii, V, I...often a jazz player will play dorian for the ii chord, mixolydian for the V, and ionian for the I...or he/she may just play 'in the key' and play dorian over all of it, or, he may play just off of chord tones of each chord (arpeggio)..so it's all the same stuff, but since jazz is so much about improv and applying theory on the spot, it's really geared for practical use etc....

    it's just like rock, where you're using the blues scale or pentatonic scale, but more advanced...now you learn how to use more complex scales/chords/substitutions etc...

    i don't know if anyone on the list remembers the band 'helmet' (i think they just came out with another cd recently) those guys were all big jazz-theory-heads, they just applied it to metal instead of jazz...even metalica and all the 'metal' bands use lots of traditional theory...that's where all the 'classical' sounding riffs come from...i much prefer helmet's use though to metallica's...

    the best book i've got about jazz theory is called 'the jazz theory book' by mark levine..it's really comprehensive..the other one is by 'scott reeves' and i think it's called 'improvisation' (this one requires you to be able or at least willing to read music though)...these are books that you really CAN work though on your own and apply (of course nothing beats doing it with other musicians)...but a little jazz theory goes a long way since it's meant to be practical etc...

    where are you studying?

  19. music theory

    in Musicians' Corner

    Posted

    hey bryn,

    i have a masters in music composition, so i'm pretty much a huge nerd :rolleyes::rolleyes:

    i had a great guitar teacher at college that structured all of his lessons sort of 'through' theory...so instead of the standard, let's learn this song/this lick approach, he made me learn three and four note chords and all their various voicings and inversions (an inversion is just the same chord but with a different note of the chord on the bottom other than the 'root', like the 3rd or 5th) up and down the neck, on every string set and diagonally...it was brutal (lol)...same for scales and arpeggios...but it was good, because when i took theory at uni, it was alot easier for me due to him.

    i do think that someone could learn this stuff by themselves, but it's just really tedious outside of a classroom or lesson environment...just because, well, it is :) it's sort of like learning computer programming...there are guys who can just work their way through a book and learn to program in 6 months by themselves...and then there's guys like me...who buy the damn $400 program and twiddle around with it until eventually a class comes around so i can pay another $400 to have someone make me learn it...

    and like catfood said, it's all relative...in uni, the theory you learn has more to do with the 'common practice era' i.e. what most people call 'classical' music...you can use it of course, but the whole perspective that it's taught from is through classical music, because that's where it's derived...so you have to take what you can from it and leave the rest for another day...

    for rock/blues/punk etc...another way is to study jazz, which for theory and from a rock musician's point of view is awesome, because those guys basically took standard 'common practice era' theory and hotwired the hell out of it! they figured out everyway to twist this and that idea/rule etc and so much of the music is just based on playing, that it's all very practical...so even if you don't want to be a jazz player, if you understand theory from a jazz perspective, it really opens up lots of options musically no matter what type of music you play.

    b.

  20. music theory

    in Musicians' Corner

    Posted

    Good post prof!

    Just like anything in life' date=' there are positive and negative sides, with music theory, I think it's down to the individual to take what works for them and use it as they wish in the music they write/perform... or to not use it, knowingly, at all.[/quote']

    thanx cat food...i agree totally.

  21. music theory

    in Musicians' Corner

    Posted

    i don't know bryn, i hear what you're saying and it logically makes sense..but every great guitarist/musician that i've studied has started off totally mastering someone else's style/music before becoming innovative and becoming known as the 'great' that they were...

    hendrix played the blues circuit as a session guitarist, clapton and page did the same, on wes montgomery's first gig he just played note for note copies of charlie christian solos he'd learned by rote, stevie ray vaughn totally mastered albert king's sound, george benson mastered grant greens licks and just played them faster, the stones learned the blues first, van hallen was a cover band before they 'made' it, coltrane learned parker, miles learned armstrong, bach learned vivaldi, beethoven learned cpe bach...in every style, there seems to be a lineage of influence where each person takes it further, or makes it their own but after they know the terrain...

    i think there's something about learning and mastering someone's style to get to their musical level, and then taking it even further and/or making it your own...i think, and this is just my experience with 'normal' music, that trying to be original by not learning/studying other music can really slow you down...it's kinda like solving problems that others have already done for you, or reinventing the wheel...

    just my experience anyway...

  25. music theory

    in Musicians' Corner

    Posted

    things that are good about music theory:

    it gives you names for things...that helps because now you can sort things out, chords, scales, progressions, forms, etc...80 % of it is vocabulary, the other 20 % is syntax.

    it can get you out of a rut...instead of playing by rote, you can use your knowledge to try something your fingers/ears wouldn't usually do.

    you can communicate with other musicians intelligently, and your music can be read/played by others.

    things that are bad about music theory:

    it can make you think there is only one correct way to write music...

    you can get too obsessed with 'writing by the numbers' or using really interesting theory that actually comes out sounding really contrived...

    it can block creativity if you always start with theory first....

    what i've found:

    study your ass off, learn everything you can, do the exercises, and when it comes to writing music, forget that you know anything and just write...that saying about learn all the rules and then forget about them means just that...once you've mastered them, they're in you, it becomes instinctive and you should just use what has sunk in...now when you 'break a rule' you know why, you are making a decision not just playing what placates the ears....at least that's how it's been for me...(of course most people don't consider what i do to be 'music' :))

×
×
  • Create New...