Musical things I think about

There is no such thing as playing by ear.

The ear is only involved in the capturing of sound waves, it is then
processed by the brain. A musically trained brain will assess what it
hears then commit it to memory. It will then allow to access it for a

multitude of uses.

When a song is memorized it automatically tells of the chords used, the
structure of the melody, the rhythm style, the Genre etc.
When a musician reads a piece of music, it comes in through the eyes
and out through the fingers. Only the notes written on the page will be

heard. BUT..

When a song is played without the use of a written score, it is being
played from the musician’s knowledge. There is then a choice between
playing exactly what is written, or embellishing, or even reinventing it.

This is the start of creativity.

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Music has not been mathematical, Music has always been Sonic.
You can only stamp numbers on it after the event.

A traditional method of playing piano is to learn all keys first. This is a
slow process and difficult to find the good things to play. I found this hard
and not conducive. I chose to learn playing in three easier keys, that way
I found better sounding playing came much quicker. So when one has
good phrases and lines to play, it’s easier to transpose them into the

other keys.

Traditionalists teach absolute theory and rely heavily on a Modal system.
This means that you have to think about each note that you play to

ensure that it is theoretically correct.

The alternative to this is the ability to mentally predict the sound you will

play.
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Sayings.
(Mostly stolen)
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Musical things I think about

You have your way, I have my way, as to the right way, it doesn’t exist.

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There are two kinds of musician, those who are going somewhere and

those who have ended up somewhere.

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Don’t imitate, emulate.

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If you would like to know the effect that Choices have on your life, look at

yourself, what you see is the choices you have made.

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Aim for the top. If you only get halfway there you’ll still be ahead of

everyone else.
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When everybody starts agreeing with me, I know I’m wrong.

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Immature musicians imitate; mature musicians Steal.
Bad musicians deface what they take, good musicians make it into

something better, or at least something different.

A good musician melds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique,

utterly different from that which it was torn.

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God’s favourite people are the ones who don’t need him.

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