[LAU] The democratization on music might not always be a good thing...

[David Santamauro]

On Thu, 4 Nov 2010 11:13:05 -0400
drew Roberts <zotz at 100jamz.com> wrote:

> On Thursday 04 November 2010 10:43:12 you wrote:
> > Hi Drew,
> >
> > On Thu, 4 Nov 2010 10:12:57 -0400
> >
> > drew Roberts <zotz at 100jamz.com> wrote:
> > > On Wednesday 03 November 2010 19:28:29 Leigh Dyer wrote:
> > > > I don't think there's any point worrying about music production
> > > > getting "too easy" or "too accessible" -- the ship probably
> > > > sailed on that when Tascam released the Portastudio, or when
> > > > Dave Smith and friends created MIDI. People have been making
> > > > trite music with the best equipment money can by for years, and
> > > > others have been making interesting music with toys and junk
> > > > for just as long. If this helps people express musical ideas
> > > > that they'd been unable to express beforehand, then that's
> > > > fantastic.
> > >
> > > To me, one of the problems comes down to the split between musical
> > > appreciation and creation and the technical abilities needed to
> > > perform what is imagined / conceived.
> > >
> > > Imagine if a novelist or poet had to practice for years to gain
> > > mastery over the pencil or keyboard in the same way a musician
> > > has to practice to gain mastery over their instrument.
> >
> > I see that analogy as very fitting but the conclusion as simply
> > wrong. A novelist or poet does, indeed, spend years (a lifetime
> > even) gaining a mastery of not only the "pencil",
> 
> I don't agree with this but let's remove even that and give them a
> personal recorder and a secretary to transcribe what they have
> written. So, the pencil mastery is no longer needed.

Even still, it isn't simply learning how to write and my blurb may
have focused to much on that. Nevertheless, you can't dictate a novel if
you don't know the words or how to use them correctly.

> 
> > but also the words and sentence 
> > structure.
> 
> But this is more parallel to the music side of things and not the
> mastery of the instrument side of things surely?

Is it? I find them intimately connected. Music is a language and
everything that applies to learning to communicate with words and
speech can be transferred to learning to communicate thorough music.

... but I do understand your point.

> 
> > My 8-year old daughter will attest to the difficulty 
> > involved and the years it takes to master moving her writing
> > instrument to produce the correct glyph--not to mention putting all
> > those glyphs together to form words, sentences and ultimately a
> > coherent story that expresses her intent.
> 
> Well, my son had enough facility with the crayon to make letters from
> a very early age.

As did my daughter, but she wasn't writing a phd thesis nor an opera.


> 
> And again, isn't the rest more on the music side of things as I
> mention above?

Again, I understand what you are talking about.


> >
> > > Tech that makes it easier to produce what is conceived are no more
> > > dangerous to good music than is to move to a pencil from a stone
> > > chisel and hammer.
> >
> > This is agree with wholeheartedly.
> 
> Indeed.
> 
> And yet I think we often have a fear of this and think it might give
> someone a mastery over the other side. It is as if e fear excellent
> voice recognition software will let anyone write the next great
> novel. Probably mostly when we are not thinking clearly but the fear
> seems to find expression often enough.

true, but also a bit of jealousy, no? Why should someone with no
musical skills other than the ability to operate computer software be
able to travel the same path as a someone trained for decades?

but I digress... 

David