technically great or songs with heart???

[liamtw]

what do you prefer

bands with songs that are technically perfect such as say some dream theater songs or bands that strive to make "real" heart felt music???

just intrested

thanks

[Swingin' Ryan]

Aslong as "music with heart" doesn't just refer to a song with a lot of screaming, as it often does, then music with heart.

For example, Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan is better than any Dream Theater song.

[Stephen]

from the heart.....def 100%. although both togethercan be done well ie john frusciante

[Alan Cynic]

Seconding the above posts. Many of my favourite songs a re tehcnically weak, but are very direct.

Mind you there are plenty great songs which just happen to be technically perfect as well.

[liamtw]

yeh like john frusciante- shaddows collide is some of his best work technically but also has so much passion and feeling thats one of my fav albums of all time but then a technically great band like dream theater have some really moving songs like strange deja vu

[Alan Cynic]

Same with solo artists.....I like 'weak' players who wrote good songs...eg Daniel Johnston, Kevin Coyne, Devendra Banhart, the aforementioned Dylan etc but there are folks like Richard Thompson, Nick Drake, Bert Jansch et al who never allowed their virtuosity to get in the way of the song.

[Steve Temple]

Music is math. An emotive delivery or an honestly written song may provide catharisis for the artist, but it ignores the experience of the listener. It takes thought to create a melody to adequately seduce a listener, and even more thought to imagine a poetic abstraction that will reward the listener for listening, and provide a gift along with the seduction

Witness Siouxie and The Banshees and Joy Division for examples, the former for songs written subjectively, and the latter for songs that are delivered in a cold fashion, however honest their subject matter may be. Both are great because of this

[Alan Cynic]

I half-agree. Sometimes music is poetry (at least I hope that's the case!)

[Dayeth]

bands with songs that are technically perfect such as say some dream theater songs

Them...I like monster songs that you notice something new happening in them with every listen. I'd MUCH prefer a song that makes me think "god, that bits genius!" than anything else.

[The_Tank]

A little from column A and a little from column B...

[Guest Savant]

I like stuff that's technical - really enjoy listening to that, but it's nothing if it's not a good song. Strung Out and Thrice are 2 of my favourite bands because they've both mastered a balance of Feeling and Technicality.

[framheim]

i really hate overly technical music. it's just so self indulgent i can't get past it. i much prefer music to be made because it had to be, not because someone sat down and worked out precisely what note went where and how long the solo should be and with loads of flashy technical tricks. take godspeed you black emperor, a band who you can listen to forever and still notice new things in there everytime yet not technically flashy musicians. with great power comes great responsibility, and the ability to play an instrument fantastically well does not make a good songwriter. the ability to play an instrument fantastically well and not to rely on that, and in fact to use it subtly makes a great songwriter like jeff buckley. some of buckley's songs sound deceptively simple yet he was a virtuoso guitarist and arranger. he wrote songs with his heart and that shone through more than his technical brilliance.

although i would like to learn how to play guitar a little better myself, but merely to use my powers for good and not evil.

[psydoll]

If songs don't have heart then I couldn't care how technical they are as I'm not really going to be able to relate to them at all - a song having heart for me means that it sounds like the person who wrote it really loves what they're doing.

If they don't then why are they bothering to inflict it on my ears?

[Tav]

Even "simple" music such as Nirvana <I say this because Guitarist had a feature on their song structures> can be quite technical when you get down to it. The choosing of intervals and such like can appear to be genius when perhaps it was just luck...it gives you a heart felt song but theres also some technically great aspects...I guess this can apply to any well writen song though.

[trinitynscotland]

So true. I get that "heart" feeling listening to SYOD's Aerials. Just blows me away and really gets in "there".

Bobbie

If songs don't have heart then I couldn't care how technical they are as I'm not really going to be able to relate to them at all - a song having heart for me means that it sounds like the person who wrote it really loves what they're doing.

If they don't then why are they bothering to inflict it on my ears?

[Skin]

both have a time and a place.

sometimes ii want to listen to someone actually saying something they really care about - this does not include emo bands who really feel passionatley about how much they hate school - so i listen to neil young, steve earl etc

sometimes there's a place for extreme technicallity a la DT, Spiral Architect et al, and sometimes it's time forstraight up brutality. it's all there

[Guest Nikola Tesla]

Technicality is cool, but without any heart or soul music becomes devoid of that special element which can capture that song in a person's (in this case my) mind.

[Frosty Jack]

If by 'technical' you mean following the rules and formulas of music theory, then I find that that technicality can be achieved by playing from the heart whether you know it or not. But the reverse is not true i.e. heartfelt music can't be created by simply following the rules.

For example, my old singer wrote the most amazing songs, and when I analysed them, they followed perfect theory - 7ths resolving to dominant chords, unaccented passing notes developing into suspensions, the lot.

But if you asked him how he did it he'd say "erm, well I think I put that finger on that string for a bit, then..."

Now if i tried to write a song as beautiful as some of his by following a formula, it simply wouldn't work.

The rules exist for a reason, they're an outline of what could sound good, but you don't get any feeling out of a song if you don't put any in.

Start with the heart, let the rules follow you...

[NARC]

If songs don't have heart then I couldn't care how technical they are as I'm not really going to be able to relate to them at all - a song having heart for me means that it sounds like the person who wrote it really loves what they're doing.

If they don't then why are they bothering to inflict it on my ears?

This is true to an extent - but music is a trade off. You have to enjoy what you are doing but the whole point of making music is to expose it to other people's ears. So therefore you have to take into consideration what makes a "classic" song. But that doesn't mean you have to use music theory to get there though.

[Hog]

Sometimes the 2 can cancel each other out. I certainly agree with Alan Cynic, many beautiful songs are simple and rely mostly in raw emotion IMHO