E.D. Out.
Q: So... what's is the Great Staff's place relative to contemporary popular music?
A: The Great Staff became the orchestra’s universal method… I see that… Now see that rockers have an instrument that was first evolved in that world, but now its primary reading staff is no longer needed for the new art. Blues guitar went thru the bottom of classical guitar, and once down there humans found a new, uninhibited world that no one view controlled… The artist approached the non-acoustic instrument differently- it was way louder, way more sensitive, and sustained. Taken together, these new innovative changes made a big difference in the history of how it worked out… The guitar was perfect for invention... so the history shows...
Q: So... the guitar became an instrument used to expand theoretical boundaries, or, perhaps more accurately to expand musical boundaries that were before limited by classical theory?
A: So what I am saying is that when Western Music had to adapt to chromaticism, it went thru a period of birthing pains to try to graph the new possibilities that it offered. In order to put all of the numbers, letters and symbols on paper… the whole thing got messed up in application… THE GREAT STAFF IS MEANT- in its essence- ONLY FOR EASY USE IN THE KEY OF C MAJOR… So the "once simple thing" gets gummed up past belief with alterations, interval adjustment by symbol, reading the charts in real time… The whole thing is impossible basically… Unless you spend your life living with it in front of you... You can become a slave to the system, being inside it… Works great for an orchestra.... ultimately… Lost in it all is the world of the teacher of music, where the beautiful thing is still to be taught, but you are at a disadvantage with the attitude of the student, and a mess of lines and numbers and dots…
...to try to get the kid to see it…The concept of things… are made hard to understand because of the systems in place. The student goes for the effect of music every time… and that can limit things even in the short run… running positions only… trying to learn music by feeling it... Only seems to work for a while... I can see that there is a really cool underlying story to be told, but the student can’t get the stuff because of the complexity… At its core, music is pretty simple and easy… but in the effort to make it fit into a lot of different places and applications, that is the effort that failed… How did it end up? It ends up with me rewinding little licks from some guy on YouTube… just a camera in front of him playing something great- no talking, no writing, no papers… Not bad really. Hey at least as far as I go, the course of Western Music is “so past” a line/dot system locked hopelessly to an awkward adjustment of the key of C major. Of course, the violin and piano still use the reading system from the middle ages. No problem with me… just saying…
Q: I can see what you're saying... where does this place the individual versus the backdrop of musical history
A: I see today’s guitar student in the middle of the mess. He wants to learn guitar quickly, and play the center of the song, with endless improvisational choices… O.K. fine… But I can't explain the complexities to you without all of my charts and graphs… I am freaking stuck with them too, I always have been… understand where I am with doing it… So I ask you to put up with my attempt to explain… for as long as it takes for me to drill it into you… then you can go improvise with it all.. make your own music… to your own liking… Amen.. Good Plan? See how I tried to work it out so that you don't spend your life learning it all slowly on your own like I did… well, I am offering you a way out… that is why I am here… come to Heavy Guitar… get the guitar education that you need… that is what I think you should do… See, at my school I evolved a system that involves no formal reading. The great staff used for piano is to be shown for its advantages, but it is not necessary for our primary goals… What is necessary is that the student watch me point at diagrams, charts, guitar tab, and pictures that I use to teach. If you go to the music school in Boston to study classical guitar/piano/violin, well, I can guarantee that they will kick you out in no time if you do not “read music” to their standard. Hey... Not here!!! At my school all you do is watch me demonstrate, and then go forward into the music on your own… It is the way that improvised music is taught. Oh, people talk about it a lot… but you have to see it spelled out correctly… that is how music is taught… first, on an intellectual level where the concept is realized… Then playing and execution follow next… but are resultant upon a known understanding.
Q: Are you declaring the guitar the “winner” in the battle of the musical instruments?
A: Look, here is one thing I want you to know… Recently, I have begun to see a few things a bit clearer…about the evolution of the guitar. I want to address the great effort that was put forth to create the whole line of known, useful instruments found the world over during the past 10,000 years… the whole effort forced the whole “human family” line of musical instruments into existence. We all have a tendency, being human, to try to “figure out” any scientific endeavor by looking at the history of who, what, when and where… what instrument was played how by whom… what was the date the piano was invented?.. the harpsichord?… Yes, there is an existing list of 50 instruments, 50 cultures, over 50 centuries… I just want the whole thing to be seen as a whole single unified effort. Now, I know that the guitar is just one of a number of great instruments. Its just that the guitar has served as the evolved product. Never underestimate how sensitive the electric guitar can be… For me, the other available instruments are just outside of what is possible for me…The guitars I have are just more versatile and accessible than anything else I see.
Q: Explain, please. What do you mean by "more versatile" in a more specific context....?
A: Here is what I think happened. You have to see that the struggle “up to” the piano, up to the violin, up to the saxophone, up to the guitar… up to all of them… Put together, it all adds up to a single struggle… certainly there was a battle for each instrument… but taken as a whole, it can be seen as a single battle of the human to “make something” out of the natural, earthen materials that you can “play” music on: They wanted a musical instrument that had it all, for them. The players had quickly reached the limit of the instrument they already played!!!! Now they wanted more-- the guitar was driven into existence... It inherited the mantle of the violin. What the new electric offered is a new sensitivity, that surpasses the violin even at its greatest moments... Here is why: The violin stayed acoustic. The world of violin makes sure it is purely classic in every way, including the fact that the instrument must remain acoustically pure!!! The cool thing about the electric guitar is that the people playing and recording the guitar wanted more, and more and more invention... They had no prejudice against changing the instrument... With the guitar there was no anchor to its past that held it to the classic period exclusively. Certainly, the route of the American Blues from the continents to the American South, to Chicago, to all over the globe... that whole thing could not stand to be held back by the past in any way. To me that is what is beautiful about the guitar, and the future destiny of the thing. Nothing is going to stop the Grail.
(to be continued)
yesface
