All posts in Training

What makes music cool?
Is it the amount it sells? Is it how much it adheres to the musical conventions set in place by years of western musical history? Is it found in its uniqueness or difference from uncool music?

I think what makes music cool is who listens to it.
A friend introduced me to a website where it broke down a whole bunch of social groupings of people. It broke them into different fashion style, with their different heroes. But most interesting to me was the segregation of music. It showed the playlist of each grouping of people. Music is such a binding force. It connect people like very few other things can. In fact studies have shown the increased spike in oxytocin, the bonding or hugging hormone, that occurs when people sing together. This puts forward a compelling reasoning for the power of music to cement a group of people, to make them feel more closer and together. This handy bit of neurological magic can start to explain why some music is cooler than others. Is it a balanced musical reason? Nope…you just like that song that people similar you seem to like. Thus it is “cool”.

So is there such thing as musically cool music?
As a musician, I’m not convinced that we should ever subscribe to this concept of music being cool. Because if certain music is cool, that means that other certain music will be uncool. And as we just looked at, coolness may not be based on good musical choices. It might just be what your friends like. Or it might just be the musical preference of the people you aspire to be like. But if we can banish the concept of cool music, we might actually start to discover the strength, beauty and lessons to be learned from music destinations we may have never considered before.

And this is something amazing…
As you open yourself up to new styles and persuasions of music you progress along the path of MUSICAL MATURITY. It’s easier to be a one style musician. But if you put your hand up and say, “Yes, I’m a musician.”, you now belong to a school of subjects and studies that you will never be able to exhaust. It is a life long pursuit and will still be yielding surprises well into your 80th year of study. The truth is this: the better a musician you become, the more you will be able to learn, the more you learn, the greater a musician you become. I like to think of it as music’s infinite loop, its Ouroboros. And as you mature as a musician it brings finer light, life and detail into every style you play. How do you be a better pop musician? Do away with the concept of cool music and listen to country and jazz. How do you be a better indie singer/songwriter? Listen to more Bob Marley.

I Got New York (Black Eyed Peas vs. Frank Sinatra)

One of the greatest tools available to you as a musician is confidence. In fact, it should be as essential to you as scales. It should be as familiar to you as your repertoire. Why? Because music is a emotive nuance-driven force. There are so many variables to music, that to say that something has a great melody is not nearly enough. A great melody can be overshadowed by awkward phrasing which shaves milliseconds from notes, which is the actual physical sound. A millisecond difference in how your ears and brain perceive the vibrations of music, can drastically alter the fundamental experience of music. Our music is seemingly held captive by the tiny, almost imperceptible variations of time.

Okay…before I lose everyone in the psuedo-analyitical nature of the frames that hold our music…let’s bring it back to practise.

Confidence plays out in a really tangible way with drummers. A drummer without confidence does something funny. They will have a hint of hesitancy when they play. But what happens when a drummer is hesitant? What happens when the groove-machine is malfunctioning by milliseconds? The moment of connection between the drum stick and the drum skin is altered. It is usually played milliseconds later than it should have been. It is in this detail, this nuance that the drummer loses…”it”. Our highly evolved musical terminology has brought us to this wonderful realisation of ‘it”. The drummer either has “it” or he doesn’t. And a drummer who hesitates a little, hasn’t got “it”. A drummer who hesitates a lot, plays out of time. This “it”, I believe refers to Groove. But not some nebulous groove, to a central syncing up of the collective players in this musical outing. This is where confidence can come striding in.

Confidence, found upon skill, is going to help. And to a lesser extent; confidence, without skill is going to help. A drummer who believes in themselves will start to hit more like they should, no hesitancy, they are less likely to play out of time. This applies itself to all instruments. You are going to play better if you apply confidence, which in turn will lessen hesitation, and will cause the physical sound, the physical timing to change in your playing.

Nice thoughts, but how can this idea become attainable to me? …Good question…I’m glad you asked.

Firstly, practise.
There is no better source to draw confidence from than a awareness and assurance of your skill. If you can nail that solo, you can be confident about it. If you aren’t sure you are ready to play that solo in front of a crowd, your confidence is going to be affected. A honest evaluation that says your skill is at the level of what you are about to attempt to play, is the biggest vein from which to draw confidence.

Secondly, imagine.
Take a few moments before a gig or performance and just imagine. Put yourself in the place of where you are playing that which is ahead of you. See yourself nailing the bits that have caused you some worry. See yourself doing it effortlessly. This is a simple way of saying no to the stress and worry, and a practical outworking of “as a man thinks in his heart…”. Now, again, this skill will get you so far…but doesn’t negate the need, the absolute essential necessity of practise and preparation. But it will help! It will be the extra top-up that you need. It will be the thing that can help you calm and focus on the task at hand. It has been helpful for me.

How can you apply this to your musicality? What performances, services and assessments could this help you with?

Would love to hear your thoughts and perspectives on the matter.

How you craft a track as a band rather than a collection of single instruments.

One of the biggest killers to groove in music, to the unity that ties the elements of music together into a single event, is the lack of perspective. And it’s surprisingly easy to lose track of.

As band member, it is so easy to focus in on our particular instrument with too much emphasis and too high an opinion. But when creating music it is essential that we are able to step back and critique our instruments role in the piece of music as a whole. This is why bands will often work with a producer, who is able to see the whole picture, not just be lost in single parts.

This is the concept of musical servanthood. Musical Servanthood means sometimes you need to put down what you can be doing in order to do what must be done. It’s keeping in check the musical “ego”, so that what you do serves a greater cause. It’s being able to step back and play according to what the song requires.

Practically this means, even though you are a classically trained piano “shredder”, sometimes you need to play the pads (the synth equivalent of clouds). Even if you can teach Abe Laboriel a lesson or two, sometimes you need to play eighth notes all the way through this song. Sometimes you don’t…but it is determined by what the song requires. Often what the song requires is born out of what style is it written in. It is no use trying to play gospel chops in a folk song. Same time it is not musical servanthood when you are playing everything in straight eighth notes in a Israel and New Breed track.

Musical servanthood, laying down what you can play in order to play what must be played, is not a lack of creativity. I actually believe it is a fuller use of our creativity. It is redirected creativity. Your creativity isn’t going into how amazing a riff you can play so everyone knows how gifted you are. You creativity goes into conceiving the best riffs and best lines that will serve the song. Rather than making a song feel like a collection of soloists, try and make it about 1 band, 1 sound, 1 message through musical servanthood.

Some well crafted songs that show musical servanthood include:

Somewhere Only We Know – Keane

You Are The Best Thing – Ray LaMontagne