I like the idea of 4'33. The orchestra is silent, but what makes the piece come alive are the random sounds from the audience and whatever happens to make noise during the "silence". Every performance of it is unique and subtle.
The "gentrification" I see here in Los Angeles is that no one wants live music venues near them. They are OK "somewhere else" but "not in my neighborhood." When living communities pop up around venues, they find ways to make it hard for the venue to exist, and eventually shut them down. Other times, the land is so valuable, like along the Sunset Strip, that even successful venues are bought outright so they can be knocked down and something else built.
Adam if Mozart would come back to life for an hour and you had to choose three pieces of music from our times to play for him and impress him. What pieces would they be? Also as a bonus why you chose the pieces that you did?
jani14jani great fucking question. Answering fast and without thinking too much I would say: Instrumedley (Dream Theater), Bent (Gary Willis) and Godless Times (Rings of Saturn). What about you?
jani14jani Minimalist pieces. Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass or In C by Terry Riley. I'd be interested in what he thinks about abnormal structure applied to familiar instrumentation.
I would probably choose one pop song, one jazz piece and one modern classical piece. I know that was a really vague answer, but I think it would be good to show what most people listen to today (and some modern instruments and sounds), some improvising/virtuosity, and what modern "art music" is like. It would give a really good idea of how music has developed over the years.
I'd like to know what he thinks of the neo classical shredders like Malmsteen, and it would be funny to play some rap or pop. But since we got an hour this could be a movie, where Mozart comes back from the past into the future and goes on tour, or goes on America's Idol as a judge, or maybe no one believes its him because everyone plays Mozart, and he's rusty so theres guys that play better then him and etc.
12:42 I had that happen too with Dvorak symphonic poem opus 111 i believe, a hero's song. The main theme with the violins sounds like someone passionately screaming the title of the piece in the beginning
Speaking of drummers that take a melodic approach to the composition of their parts, Pompy of the Boston based psych math rock band, Bat House, is excellent at creating drum parts that accentuate the intricacies of the guitars and bass, propelling the songs to new heights. If you have never heard of them, you need to check them out. All four members are monsters of their craft.
Playing with confidence Yngwie Malmsteen is a great example for it. Like him or not you gotta admit that you get the vibe from his playing that he is totally unapologetic about they way he plays.
I agree. I bought one of his albums when first released. I hated it when I first listened to it. After a few more listens, I could appreciate the technical proficiency he was expressing and enjoy that aspect of it. But, I still feel that he focused some much on perfecting his technical proficiency and speed, that his work sacrifices the emotion and mood that it could have, and leaves it sounding sterile.
Yngwie is a musical firecracker, the first album was his be all end all. He was even at his best technically at that point. After that it was like a slow regression, the albums after that are just imitiations of the first one and his technical proficiency hasnt been nurtured over the years. But yeah the confidence was there and it used to be justified, now though... I dunno
I can be more bluntly about the title topic: In a world full of consumers that want to be entertained instead of enlightened, everything tends to stand and fall with marketing. It is a karmic trap that is there to contrast the two paths. Life as a captivating noisy carnival with novelties and scary-exciting rides, with challenging games and tons of fluff and illusion. What you describe as the audience wanting to have a deeper connection to the performance, thus wanting to see in addition to hearing, that, too, could be seen as a yearning for meaning, which is driven by fear and thus can be considered another desire for being entertained. Basically a more enriched spectacle so that people don't have to focus so much on one thing, which could turn into meditation, heh. We don't want that, now do we? "Networking" is the silent killer of friendship. What is built on career ambition for the purpose of making a living, recommended as an essential practice for that, can only develop into the idea of friendship, and for some of those relations there never comes a true test that challenges the basis, but on occasion it can happen, and in most testing cases leave people friendless in an instant, and only then do they realize what they've been doing all the time. Replacing of concepts has always been a powerful tool of deception and control. If you cannot directly kill something, then redefine it. Hooking into such structures works great as long as the soil it grows in prevails. An evolutionary advantage comes from adapting to the dominant rules of a system. But that is a shortsighted approach. 12:00 If someone commented "Dunning-Kruger!" on all of my videos, I would take it as a compliment. 😉 😁 (I have actually been the victim of this gaslighting by the mediocrity. ... Or let's say the pains of pushing back against it and part of it seeping in.) 16:04 I like how you read the mistakes in comments. Jazz musician - embracing randomness, mistakes, accidents, giving them value. After all, they are an essential part of a commenter's personal expression, and auto-correcting them could be seen as patronizing and also won't help them improve in case they don't like making such mistakes. (And it becomes amusing at 17:22. 😄 - Very cool - treating lazy internet writing styles exactly as the literal form of dialect that they are.) 20:53 Epitome of what I keep saying: *Corruption is a grassroots movement.* - How much hardship are we really willing to burden ourselves with in order to create a better future? - A selfish world will never become less selfish if people use the world's properties as excuse for adapting to it. And it is so easy to choose to believe that more idealism would be unsustainable. Other people choose idealism regardless and deal with whatever follows, and if enough people did that, everybody would experience relief from the fear structures. You have to face the fear to transcend it. You understand that in other situations. - Do you ever wonder about (what I like to call) your "karmic balance sheet"? What you ultimately leave the world with? It is very popular to focus a lot more on the good we do than on the bad we support in order to be able to do the good. This leads to a need for the few to go the other extreme and this is how humankind is cursing itself by killing its saints first. 21:55 Maybe, possibly, the teacher wanted to really test his confidence to see whether he can also keep it up under adversity.
Hey Adam, just wanted to say thank you for tackling genuinely interesting subjects and doing quality research beforehand. Even though nobody could be an expert on all the subjects you deal with, your videos have made me a lot more knowledgeable. I certainly enjoy the basic (but often misunderstood) theory stuff like "which key is the saddest" so thank you for dealing with that (:
It's always blown my mind when I've come across bands (usually pop punk, metalcore or scenester-type bands) that have about 40 minutes of original material and play the same 25-minute set the same way at every gig. I think of bands like Fleet Foxes that only have about 3 hours of released material and how monotonous it must be to have been playing the same 20ish songs live for over a decade. And that's a GOOD band with GOOD music. It must be agony to be in a touring band that has that little content.
About musicians exploiting mondegreens; I'm not sure if you can call it exploiting but in their song "Irish pub" by the Rumjacks there is a line that keeps repeating "whale, oil, beef, hooked" wich if you sing it an "Irish" accent (like they do) it sounds like "Well I be fucked". It's probably intentional because it's repeated several times.
15:00 This. I am a collegiate musician with this opinion. My lessons teacher is an incredibly active performer in two symphony orchestras as well as subs, gigs and teaches lessons even outside of my respective university. Obviously people you get University jobs are at the top of their field, but the professors I respect and can learn from are the ones that do quite a bit outside of school.
Hey Adam! I have a musicology degree here, and the question asking why musical taste changes is a good question. I think it has to do with an intersection of interests in music, but I think the main reason that change in music is inevitable is that we build upon what came before. For example, Baroque music is mostly stereotyped for being in minor keys, (sad sounding) and being overly complex, but an interesting twist for Classical music is that it is characterized by major keys, and simple phrases. So I think the best answer is that we would get bored of the music sounding the same for 100+ years so we change it up. P.S. the constant use of "the lick" to segue between questions kills me.
In regards to mondegreen, J Dilla used this effect in the song "Players" by Slum Village. The original sample says "Claire" but without knowing that it sounds like "player". Just in case anyone was curious to find any examples of this effect in music. Great song btw.
K, so, over 3 years later and I have to agree wrt 4:33 and 38th St. Guitars in NYC. I was privileged to see 4:33 performed in Santa Cruz, CA in the early 2000s at a concert by Fred Frith (and friends). It was much different than "listening" to a "recording" of it or watching a TH-cam video of it. Also, yes - 38th St Guitars was great when I visited. I only purchased a few interesting guitar pedals and cords, but I fondly remember it. I don't know how they're doing in these very strange times, but I hope it is well.
about what you're talking about at 5:48 , this may be unrelated, but that reminds me of how often when i listen to albums i connect the feeling of the songs with the feeling of the album cover. Different albums feel different to me depending on the cover art, even with similar music. I honestly generally try to avoid watching music videos because the visual association turns to the music video and the way i feel the song changes.
It is completely not a meritocracy. In decades on the road with a band, I can say I've met many artists that were soooo much better than that vast majority of what is successful, that you've never heard of, and we've all seen some of the garbage that gets signed. Talent appeals to a niche market.
13:39: As a person that only a 5 to 6 hour drive to New York, I would like to say, gentrification did that to Philadelphia too. Although, we still have the Kimmel Center, the Opera House, and there's another place out in West Philly out by Parkside. On my area of the City (the Northeast), we don't have many musical theatres (and we really don't have Community theatres either). We had a whole avenue of the arts (I think it's still there for the most part), and Philadelphia (like New York) is know for Jazz, Rap, Hip-hop, Classical music, and gospel music. We also known for Broadway stuff. But all of that is starting to die in Philadelphia (like how it's starting to die in NY) because of gentrification. Adam, I'm not sure if you have ever been to Philadelphia, but I can say this, if you were around in the 80s and 90s (which I don't think you were, you barely looks 28), and you have gone to Philadelphia in that time frame, you will see that North Philly, Center City, Germantown, Chestnut Hill, West Philly, Olney, Logan, Hunting Park, Frankford, Kensington, Jutiana Park, Wissahickon, Torresdale-Nicetown, and a bunch of other neighborhoods and sections look nothing like how they used to back in the 1950s - 90s. They gentrified everything pushed out black people and pushed out some of our music halls (which we didn't have a lot of to begin with). So yes Adam, I can agree with you on this one.
Even though so much time has passed from the airing of this video, I'd like to comment some because it touches topic I'm passionate about: 1 --- as an amateur baritone I rarely experience the boredom in repeating the same pieces over and over. First because I'm free to choose them and I always choose pieces I like. Second, because there's always something you can add. I condider operatic singing as something you never really achieve completely. There's always the note where your pitch could be better or the passage where you could try not to take that breath to make it more fluid or the finale where your pianissimo still leaves to be desired. And if you're singing Mozart, for example, his operas are so *** rich and deep that you can keep on refining your interpretation even twenty years after your first performance of the aria. 2 --- about looks in music. I've been looking at the covers of classical music CDs and couldn't help but notice that the soloists that majors choose to promote heavily are always good looking. This is true for singers as well. In opera, directors are the real stars now and they want singers to be "believable" in their roles. This is a bunch of b***, because we woudn't have had Caballé, Sutherland, Horne and many other great singers of the previous generation if we had used this parameter. I also noticed that current instrumental soloists tend to do a lot of theatrics when they are playing. Their faces are constantly deformed in "very intense, emotional expressions" even when they are playing relatively simple passages as if they had to prove they are truly "feeling" the beauty of the piece. 3 --- gentrification: rich people - not only in the US, but in the US it happens more - want to live in trendy district but they want them sanitised. A lively district attracts also people, artists, etc. who don't have money. Not necessarily bad people, just people who are not your fashionable - and well to do - rising artist with the perfect smile. 4 --- performing for "bad" people. Patreon has changed things, but up to then, rich people were musicians' employers. Always have been. The difference is that in the past centuries those rich employers often dabbled in music themselves because music was part of rich people education. There have been kings and queens who were competent musicians. Even when they were not (Catherine the Great of Russia) they balanced their lack of competence with their ambition and gave their chosen musicians ample means and created a favourable environment. Now, most rich people are just oafs who just want to show off. But you need their money. That said, I wouldn't perform at political events if the politicians involved were revolting to me (a certain POTUS comes to mind).
To answer Troy Teter II's question about how mondegreens are used in compositions, J Dilla from Slum Village would sometimes take advantage of that tendency when sampling certain songs. He samples a song by Singers Unlimited called "Clair". He puts it in a song called "Players". The sample is slowed down so, because of the context, "Clair" is heard as "players".
21:32 I had somewhat similar experience as Mark. My first guitar teacher told me that I played guitar without any feeling. But, he never explained any further. It affected my self confidence in playing guitar for years. To get rid of his opinion, I try learning as much as I can about guitar both the instrument and how to play it. I listen to a lot of song. And also musical knowledge like what you explain in this video. From all of it, I begin to understand that each person has different way to enjoy music and playing guitar. Maybe because I enjoy and play music differently than him, he perceived it as lack of feeling.
Paul Gilbert addressed "playing with confidence" during one of his clinics. I'm going to paraphrase here, as I didn't record the session. Essentially, he said that a performing guitar player should "attack" his instrument. Rather than sitting (or standing) hunched over the guitar and tenderly, carefully playing each note with "perfect technique" and no soul, you should be confident that you're doing it right and just do it. If you've nailed your technique down through practice, and if you've memorized the music and your part in it, you can let yourself go a little. People can see when someone isn't confident. They're tense, withdrawn, and give absolutely no energy to the audience when they play. A confident musician will accept all the energy the audience has to give and give it back 100-fold. A confident musician can express themselves through the music, rather than simply playing something they've memorized.
Totally true about the viby-ness towards electric bass..I went to Trinity Laban in the UK and the tutors never stopped giving me shit about playing electric...despite me actually playing double bass quite a lot.
I feel like Kurt Cobain uses mondegreens in "Smells like teen spirit" when you hear a somewhat mesh between "Hello" and "How Low" And also in "You know you're right" but Nirvana, you can hear the same thing when he says, "Pain" sometimes sounding like "Hey." I think he did these things intentionally since there are more examples of this in his music but to a lesser degree, but definitely there. I am not 100% sure tho since it was never explicitly stated.
"Annie are you walking" by Michael Jackson and "stay in a lie" Bee Gees are good examples, those like Cobain were intentional. I always just called them 'double lyrics", as opposed to what Ive always called 'Double meanings' ike the Beatles 'we can work it out' was about relationships and politics and war on purpose but he couldn't write about politics, many metaphors are due to restriction and tabood in society, hence why "cross", "jesus", "train tracks", "hole", "ditch", "inside" are all SOMETIMES euphemisms for heroin.
Congrats on the button man! It's been a year since i've started following you and your contente really helped me growing up musically and getting my shit togheter with my projects! You really deserve that and more, keep 'em comin' pal!
Just another point about 'Cage's' 4:33. If you have anyone who insists that it is a piece of music, go and record a 'performance'. then make 3 or 4 other recordings of the same duration and ask them to identify which one is the 'piece of music'.
Hahahaha... I love that you read people's comments exactly as they write them. Im instead of I'm, and misspellings spoken phonetically. Keep up the excellent work Adam.
Inner Game Of Music (book) can help with question 1 as well. In general, focusing on timing, listening more closely to the other instruments, moving about more and not fret board gazing are good ways around song boredom, for me anyway.
Hey Adam or anyone really, I auditioned for my school's Jazz Band (as a guitarist) this past school year and got in but I don't officially start until this upcoming school year. I have been playing guitar for 3 years and I played violin for 4 years. The music director did invite me to play in the pit for a musical (In the Heights) my school did a week or so after my audition and I did. It went pretty well. I did struggle with learning the music due to not being able to read music well (I am legally blind but I have enough vision to read magnified print) So I would learn the songs by parts and play from memory but that took a lot of time. I was wondering if anyone had any advice or suggestions. I plan to talk to the director about using a tablet for digital sheet music to make things easier. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions, ideas, advice, ECT. Thanks sry this was so long
Jessica Wilson hi sorry for the late reply, it’s a shame that no one replied and I would like to hear how things turned out. If you still need an answer I have some advice that you may find useful. I’m not sure how useful ear training is on guitar, but for piano it’s pretty darn useful. I would try to learn jazz standards by ear (nothing crazy, maybe like one a month) and over time you will be able to play new songs super super fast. I find myself not really needing sheet music much anymore, just listen to the song and play along til I get it down. I would definitely start practicing that if you haven’t already, with all of your experience you should have a pretty good ear already, this will just help. Another thing that I do is make chord charts of my pieces. Guitar and piano are similar in this regard as we are both rhythm section and often function similarly in a band. Chord charts for me are so much easier to read than actual chords, so if that helps you see better then do that. Pairing this with improvisation is really good, whenever I have a solo part that I’m not too comfortable playing, I just make up my own. Sorry for the delayed response but I hope this helps, it’s amazing you’ve been able to overcome this obstacle. Good job.
You played in a musical with only a week or so of notice?! From memory?! I have a feeling you're going to do just fine. I think 47 has some great suggestions in their comment as far as chord charts go as well as the ear training. I have no idea what they are, but they sound like a good tool. I can't read music and pretty much only play for my cats. When I'm learning a new song, it helps me to type out the lyrics and then...I just remembered you are vision impaired...anyhow, I add the name of the chord (E, F, Am etc) above the word where the chord change happens. Probably doesn't help much with Jazz but maybe that sparks some other idea. Good Luck!
Haha, my favorite part of this video was ManelFogo's question, "im". Anyway, Adam, any thoughts on music in videogames, at all? I'm fascinated especially by how videogame composers worked with a lot of limitations in the NES - N64 era's, and still managed to create amazing music, and I feel that now that those limitations are gone, and a lot of videogames use full orchestra's for their soundtrack, some of the charm and creativity is also lost. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
You should check out "Sideways" youtube channel. He talks about music in movies and videogames, its an AWESOME channel. Adam if you read this you should check it out too
There's a channel called 8-bit Music Theory that analyses game music. It's only been active for a few months, so not a huge number of videos yet, but each one goes into a good level of detail. I particularly recommend his video on spooky music in Mario's haunted house levels, and the one on how Dark Souls' final boss music develops from simple building blocks.
I've never actually paid attention to the visual side of music. I love concerts only because I like seeing my favourite artists like 3 meters away from me and I very rarely watch a music video. The best way of listening to music for me is with my eyes closed, I feel I can really pay attention and connect with what I'm hearing that way
The pianist you described at 22:40 sounds exactly like a friend of mine. It's like he goes into a trance and ascends straight to the fifth dimension or something when he starts playing the piano
@6:44 It's not a definitive answer, but David Byrne gave a TED talk about the evolution of music as a function of the spaces in which the music was presented. It's magnificent! David Byrne: How architecture helped music evolve
Regarding 6:10, that reminds me of this one time my mother dragged me to an organ concert at the Regensburg Cathedral. Lots of really good music, but you can't see anything at all because the performer is hidden among the pipes. I was bored to tears by the end of it.
Great suggestion on 30th Street Guitars, I occasionally make pilgrimages up to Manhattan/Brooklyn to visit the music, record, and guitar shops. First time I went to 30th Street they noticed my Television (the band) shirt and they took me in the back to show me a guitar they got from Richard Lloyd who hand painted it. My suggestions would be Matt Umanov, Rivington, TR Crandall, and Chelsea Guitars, I haven't been to Rudy's since they relocated away from Times Square, but I'm sure they're still great, even the Sam Ash is above average. Retrofret, Main Drag, and Southside are he go-to places in Brooklyn. Another great video Adam, I wish I had a good question for the next video, I suppose I'll request a rig-rundown, as I'm not sure I've seen you do one, and quick search of your channel leads to a 4 year-old video. I suppose I might also implore you to maybe reach into the darker lustful side of yourself and ask you what gear you wish you had or are saving up for (I know of course it all comes down to the player not the equipment, but I find it hard to believe even you wouldn't have seen something at NAMM or elsewhere and just thought "I don't need that, but I NEED it").
And I'm a guitarrist who discobered synths 3 weeks ago. The idea is developing the think in real time, my own thinking (or of those who are interested) so copy and paste doesn't work: i'm showing the proces of adquiring and comprehending ideas. Thank you!
Hello Adam. New to the channel so I can better follow all the happenings at Guitcon, but have learned tons from your older videos. So happy for your success with getting a PLAY button and hope you find what you do rewarding.
Hey Adam, I have a question about making my own music. I always come up with a bunch of good riffs and licks that fit into a loose framework. However, I'm constantly struggling to make it all flow, like transitions and such. I always get super frustrated and psyched out when I try to write. Can you provide any general tips or advice? Huge fan and proud patron of your videos btw.
What I usually do is take time to plan stuff out on paper. I keep a notebook on my computer full of descriptions of what I want to do in each song. This makes it easier to work on the parts I'm sure about and then let the weaker parts work themselves out. Something else I do is write music away from my guitar (I'm a guitarist, can't actually get my bass tuned low enough to write with it, lol) My school is an hour from home so I like to take my laptop with me to write music. . Or even, spend some time just thinking through the song, imagining what I want the finished song to sound like. It's a lot easier to improvise in your imagination. Unfortunately, it's difficult to write things down that way!
Something else I thought of is, depending on the style of music you do, you may not need transitions as much as you think you do. Might be able to get away with just going all-out into the next thing. Maybe you can do the transition in post, with some clever editing (kind of a hack?). Unless of course, you're changing keys, then you might consider using pivot chords, or borrowed chords. Or just change keys gradually, one sharp/flat at a time maybe. Another thing is theme/variation. Lots of great songs' consistency emerges from the way the riffs are related- similar interval patterns, bass lines, rhythms... a favorite example of mine is _The Darkest Nights_ by As I Lay Dying. The groove/verse riff is actually pretty similar to the chorus lead riff, and the way it evolves through the song makes it feel like it's all the same idea from multiple different angles. Of course, working that way often leads to conventional verse/chorus/bridge song structures, which may or may not be what you want. Writing complex/unconventional song structures is just really difficult to pull off without making things a little chaotic. What kind of music are you working on? I tend to write metal myself.
For the first question, having theatre training really helps - and what I mean by that is, out yourself in the audience’s shoes! It might be the first time they are listening to your particular version, so keep it fresh and interesting for them!
Hi Adam, I have a suggestion about your filming. You should try to put your camera on manual focus and set aperture on a higher setting (smaller hole = more things in focus = deeper depth of field). Currently your camera is ever so slightly focusing when you are moving your head and it can be so distracting, and also it looks kind of "unnatural" if I dare phrase it that way. With a manual focus and aperture set right you would have a field from your nose to your ears always in focus, so your eyes will be always in focus which is normal when talking to another person. Even if the person is moving their eyes stay in focus so we perceive that as normal and natural. Sorry for the rant. Best wishes.
Have you ever put your music player on random tune (shuffle) mode, just for fun? If so, do you recall any hilarious combinations? I must admit that Laurel and Hardy songs followed by Conquering Dystopia blew my mind. Humor in music is a great topic for a video by the way...
As a songwriter, I find that Mondegreen (a word I just learned) is a useful way to accidentally write lyrical hooks. I usually do this at the gym, because the music is just kind of background noise, and I don't really listen too hard, but I'll occasionally mishear a lyric as another lyric and the song starts from there. It's sort of stealing, but so are most other songwriting techniques.
On the subject of the presentation of music, I totally agree. Seeing a band like Periphery on stage would feel way different if they were just playing those slaying parts looking at their fretboards. A lot of the energy of the show comes from how active everybody is onstage.
Hi Adam, about Meritocracy, I remember some news about the band "Death Grips" not showing up in some venues, but playing music thru speakers with negative reaction from the viewers! keep up the good work!
I completely understand the visual aspect of music. When I listen to Passionflower by Jon Gomm, I don't enjoy it anywhere near as much as when I watch it while listening to it. It puts into perspective how talented he is when you can WATCH him play all those melodies and rhythms at once, all whilst singing beautifully.
Hey, I have listened to a performance of 4:33. And it was awesome. And I respect it. I also dont think its music, and I don't think it diminishes the value of what it is (I think it's an interesting exercise in mindful noticing) to say so. I guess I'm in the camp with the guy that argued that what distinguishes music from sound is intent in composition and performance.
OK but define "intent." I think Cage's position (and that of many others, even though Cage took things to more of an extreme) was that music is "organized sound." So one of the simplest organizing principles was to place a time limit on it. This features prominently in many other pieces by Cage, but 4'33" is the only one where time is the ONLY organizing principle. I happen to agree with the definition of music as Organized Sound, and so I would describe 4'33" as the simplest/purest music by that definition (whether or not it's my "favorite" piece is a different question). And I believe that was John Cage's *intent*. The randomness in his music is applied intentionally. Defining music differently is, of course, possible, but that's a matter of opinion. So perhaps we can't definitively answer the question of whether 4'33" is music or not, but what's your idea of intent in music? Now, to include performance in your definition is interesting. Does that mean you would say that a piece of music isn't a piece of music unless someone is playing it? And that *intent* must therefore inhabit a performance, which of course cannot be the case in 4'33"? That's an interesting idea. I do generally conceive of art as something we DO rather than something which simply IS. So one might argue then that a composition is music when it's being written (while the composer is doing it) but not while it's sitting in a file cabinet. Then, of course, we have to consider if a painting is only art while it is being painted... It's a sticky wicket, but I think we also have to consider what art communicates and when. And the fact is a great work of art can communicate to us any time we think of it, not only when we are hearing/seeing/doing it. And therefore I must conclude that music is music whether or not someone is actively performing or writing it. It is what a work of art says to us which keeps it from being static. And we must also consider that as soon as someone other than the original artist perceives the work of art, the work can say things which the artist never intended, because we all bring our own "stuff" to the table. At some point the work sort of takes on a life of its own in this regard. And defining *intent* then becomes even harder because the intent of the creator can be overridden by the consumer, whether the creator likes it or not. Where we go with all that is anyone's guess. But it's an interesting question.
I am a music teacher in an elementary school. Even at this level I've always felt that I needed to perform. I always try to impress on my students that music is performance. I encourage them to take the risk of putting themselves out there to use what they have learned. In order to teach someone to be a musician I need to be a musician myself and for me personally that means performance.
I think the best thing for keeping old songs interesting - alternate tunings! You can do cool new fills, and really work to play the old parts just right....
As regards the visual aspects of performance. It is strange how music went from having a visual element to not and then a partial return. In the days before audio recording, listening to music involved sitting in front of musicians. Then came the age of radio and records when most of the worlds popular performers were never seen by listeners. This partially changed with the introduction of TV more so in rock/pop music with MTV. Now with the internet, the visual aspect has come full circle. When I was growing up listening to Blues, Rock, Jazz, Classical etc. music I built up quite a collection of records but never witnessed my favourite musicians perform except for rare TV performances. So I think that people of my generation had to evaluate the music solely on the music itself.
Mondegreens are super cool. One of my favorite examples is Cloud Nothings' "Pattern Walks", a song about a lot of psychological anxiety, in which "Pattern Walks" sounds a lot like "Padded Walls".
Thought on the first question: do anything you can to FEEL what you play and avoid just going through the motions. Connect with the audience, sing along to the bassline or melody, and try to let the emotion of the song move you in some way. Performance has a lot to do with feeling and conveying emotion
Your answer on image in music, and the French movement of loud speakers on stage, reminded me of the band Future Sound of London, and what they were doing in the mid 90s. They didn't perform gigs or festivals because they wanted to remove the ego and the image from their music. Instead they broadcast live performances over a data connection to radio stations. It was also an ethos of early acid house, the idea that the producers were faceless, and the DJ picked music based on merit and word of mouth.
My piano teacher was teaching me Debussy's Sunken Cathedrale and she was teaching me one of the performance techniques, and she told me to be careful of how quickly i move because even though i may produce the same sound in a recording but in a live performance if my hands move fast when it's supposed to give off a dreamy flowing texture then it can still distract dramatically from the desired effect
What I think is that 4'33'' is not as shocking as it was. If you go to a performance of the piece knowing that the performer is not going to play is not as incredible as the first time they did it when people thought that the piece was more convencional. I think that the interesting part about it is the idea and the shock value, like monochrome paintings... If you know what the artists were going for is not as shocking. Great vids!
Gentrification is affecting LA as well. The House of Blues in Hollywood shut down, a few other places are closing down(Blacklight District in Long Beach) as well as having larger venues disappear(Gibson Amphitheater torn down to make Harry Potter land). It's affecting other LA staples as well. The comic shop where the Nerdist essentially started shut down recently, and Amoeba, the biggest indie record store in the US, is being kicked out of their current, famous location.
Last subject: Confidence / Using your whole body. A great example is Stevie Ray Vaughan live around 1985 playing, say, "Voodoo Chile". Almost immediately into the song you can see his entire body is basically a vehicle through which the music flows - every note interpretation sounds perfect. It's almost as though he is possessed.
Some cultures were very strict with their music styles. To the point where you weren't permitted to play certain scales during certain times of the day, and in China that had the Huang Chung, or "Yellow Bell", which was tuned in accordance with the alignment of certain stars and all music was to be tuned to and based on that tonic. "A society whose music has order will be a society in order. A society whose music is rooted in chaos can only spawn chaos."
That's why I always roll a d20 with 10 representing 440hz to determine how I'm re-tuning my instruments when they go out of tune. Dissonance is the best.
"A society whose music has order will be a society in order. A society whose music is rooted in chaos can only spawn chaos." - maan that is some commie shit I tell you hwut.
As a musical theatre student, I find it the idea that music is less (not the right word, don't really know what would be) without its appearance and presentation. At the beginning of my first year of study, we had a lengthy discussion on whether the singing or the acting is the most important part of a musical theater actor. All but one of us were of the opinion that acting is the most integral. Now, of course, musical theater is slightly removed from the music scene, in that, depending on the show, it might be more theater than music (like I said, depending on the show, and n reality, it is its own category). However, the combination of a good musical performance and a good physical performance, be that from dancers, actors, scenography, costumes etc. or any combination of these, is what makes a musical good, in my opinion. There are soo many aspects to play with, not just music, and not even just music and acting. You can match and juxtapose different aspects to make the performance striking and memorable. One of the best examples of this is Wait for it from Hamilton. The music is perfectly matched to the character (please watch Howard Ho's videos on How Hamilton Works for more information), and the ensemble and orchestration on the chorus sound hectic. There is soo much movement in the music, and all the while on stage, Aaron Burr is standing still with the ensemble sitting down around him, no movement. The contrast makes the music that much more effective. I feel sooo strongly about this, I could have written on for pages and pages. I'm gonna stop now, though.
Another thing about Carlos' question is that music is always clothed in context. If a well loved band creates a mediocre song, it will be praised and analyzed above a brilliant song from a lesser known band, or one not generally known for their musical prowess. Most consumers of music are actually fans of pop-culture and music is just a part of that.
CONGRATS ON THE PLAY BUTTON MAN! I've been watching from the start and I'm so glad to see your channel grow into what it is now. Thank you for all of the incredible content, your's has easily become one of my favorite channels on the youtube. I do actually have a question for your next Q&A - I'm a bassist and have been in a creative slump lately. I want to get better at writing my own original music, but I feel like I don't have the tools to create compelling music that actually resonates with me - I might put together some satisfactory riff or phrase, but then it feels like I always write myself into a corner or something. I have little solid understanding of theory or harmony/melody interactions (I'm entirely self taught, no formal lessons), but I have good relative pitch and a solid ear in general. What would you suggest I do to better equip myself to write the music that I feel is within me? Learn another instrument more suitable for composing? Get some theory under my belt? Specific compositional tricks or techniques to use? Thank you again for any and everything Adam. BASS.
+Zachary hey man! Your question is a bit too long for me to include in the Q+A but I'll just answer it here. My big piece of advice is to learn piano, start picking up piano chops and composition becomes a lot easier. I've done about 90-95% of all my writing on keys because it makes a lot more sense from a compositional standpoint, and it will shine new light onto what you do on bass
On the topic of mondegreens I would argue that Burial has exploited this phenomenon using heavily pitch shifted and edited vocal lines to create ambiguous lyrical content that allows the listener to interpret the lyrics as they see fit. This, in combination with the texture of his music and the clever use of nostalgic sampling creates a very powerful and personal emotional experience.
Never stop reading the typos out loud. It are the best
*It's
@@nandankulkarni2628 that was the joke
@ Nandan Kulkarni : . . . Monty Pythons Flying Circus.
ahaha love the fact that he's not correcting the mistakes
What's Kraken? r/wooosh
I like the idea of 4'33. The orchestra is silent, but what makes the piece come alive are the random sounds from the audience and whatever happens to make noise during the "silence". Every performance of it is unique and subtle.
subtle until some idiot brings an air horn to the performance
or imagine the embarrassment if you had to let one rip!
Congratulations on getting the PLAY button Adam!!
Congrats, Rob Scallon.
lmao Jared's joke is everywhere
4'33'' ? I sometimes hum it to myself, but I'm always in the wrong tempo
The "gentrification" I see here in Los Angeles is that no one wants live music venues near them. They are OK "somewhere else" but "not in my neighborhood." When living communities pop up around venues, they find ways to make it hard for the venue to exist, and eventually shut them down.
Other times, the land is so valuable, like along the Sunset Strip, that even successful venues are bought outright so they can be knocked down and something else built.
a music channel that deserves its subs, very well
Thought I'd never hear Adam utter the words "Pussy nutella" - I was just proven wrong 😂
Adam if Mozart would come back to life for an hour and you had to choose three pieces of music from our times to play for him and impress him. What pieces would they be? Also as a bonus why you chose the pieces that you did?
jani14jani great fucking question. Answering fast and without thinking too much I would say: Instrumedley (Dream Theater), Bent (Gary Willis) and Godless Times (Rings of Saturn). What about you?
jani14jani I'd show him some GG Allin
jani14jani Minimalist pieces. Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass or In C by Terry Riley. I'd be interested in what he thinks about abnormal structure applied to familiar instrumentation.
I would probably choose one pop song, one jazz piece and one modern classical piece. I know that was a really vague answer, but I think it would be good to show what most people listen to today (and some modern instruments and sounds), some improvising/virtuosity, and what modern "art music" is like. It would give a really good idea of how music has developed over the years.
I'd like to know what he thinks of the neo classical shredders like Malmsteen, and it would be funny to play some rap or pop. But since we got an hour this could be a movie, where Mozart comes back from the past into the future and goes on tour, or goes on America's Idol as a judge, or maybe no one believes its him because everyone plays Mozart, and he's rusty so theres guys that play better then him and etc.
11:22 "kruger-dunnings" Oh lordy! XD
12:42 I had that happen too with Dvorak symphonic poem opus 111 i believe, a hero's song. The main theme with the violins sounds like someone passionately screaming the title of the piece in the beginning
Speaking of drummers that take a melodic approach to the composition of their parts, Pompy of the Boston based psych math rock band, Bat House, is excellent at creating drum parts that accentuate the intricacies of the guitars and bass, propelling the songs to new heights. If you have never heard of them, you need to check them out. All four members are monsters of their craft.
Playing with confidence Yngwie Malmsteen is a great example for it. Like him or not you gotta admit that you get the vibe from his playing that he is totally unapologetic about they way he plays.
I agree. I bought one of his albums when first released. I hated it when I first listened to it. After a few more listens, I could appreciate the technical proficiency he was expressing and enjoy that aspect of it.
But, I still feel that he focused some much on perfecting his technical proficiency and speed, that his work sacrifices the emotion and mood that it could have, and leaves it sounding sterile.
Yngwie is a musical firecracker, the first album was his be all end all. He was even at his best technically at that point.
After that it was like a slow regression, the albums after that are just imitiations of the first one and his technical proficiency hasnt been nurtured over the years.
But yeah the confidence was there and it used to be justified, now though... I dunno
I can be more bluntly about the title topic: In a world full of consumers that want to be entertained instead of enlightened, everything tends to stand and fall with marketing.
It is a karmic trap that is there to contrast the two paths. Life as a captivating noisy carnival with novelties and scary-exciting rides, with challenging games and tons of fluff and illusion.
What you describe as the audience wanting to have a deeper connection to the performance, thus wanting to see in addition to hearing, that, too, could be seen as a yearning for meaning, which is driven by fear and thus can be considered another desire for being entertained. Basically a more enriched spectacle so that people don't have to focus so much on one thing, which could turn into meditation, heh. We don't want that, now do we?
"Networking" is the silent killer of friendship. What is built on career ambition for the purpose of making a living, recommended as an essential practice for that, can only develop into the idea of friendship, and for some of those relations there never comes a true test that challenges the basis, but on occasion it can happen, and in most testing cases leave people friendless in an instant, and only then do they realize what they've been doing all the time.
Replacing of concepts has always been a powerful tool of deception and control. If you cannot directly kill something, then redefine it.
Hooking into such structures works great as long as the soil it grows in prevails. An evolutionary advantage comes from adapting to the dominant rules of a system. But that is a shortsighted approach.
12:00 If someone commented "Dunning-Kruger!" on all of my videos, I would take it as a compliment. 😉 😁 (I have actually been the victim of this gaslighting by the mediocrity. ... Or let's say the pains of pushing back against it and part of it seeping in.)
16:04 I like how you read the mistakes in comments. Jazz musician - embracing randomness, mistakes, accidents, giving them value. After all, they are an essential part of a commenter's personal expression, and auto-correcting them could be seen as patronizing and also won't help them improve in case they don't like making such mistakes. (And it becomes amusing at 17:22. 😄 - Very cool - treating lazy internet writing styles exactly as the literal form of dialect that they are.)
20:53 Epitome of what I keep saying: *Corruption is a grassroots movement.* - How much hardship are we really willing to burden ourselves with in order to create a better future? - A selfish world will never become less selfish if people use the world's properties as excuse for adapting to it. And it is so easy to choose to believe that more idealism would be unsustainable. Other people choose idealism regardless and deal with whatever follows, and if enough people did that, everybody would experience relief from the fear structures. You have to face the fear to transcend it. You understand that in other situations. - Do you ever wonder about (what I like to call) your "karmic balance sheet"? What you ultimately leave the world with? It is very popular to focus a lot more on the good we do than on the bad we support in order to be able to do the good. This leads to a need for the few to go the other extreme and this is how humankind is cursing itself by killing its saints first.
21:55 Maybe, possibly, the teacher wanted to really test his confidence to see whether he can also keep it up under adversity.
Congrats on the 100k, you certainly deserve it. You've got a wealth of musical knowledge and I appreciate that you're sharing it here.
Hey Adam, just wanted to say thank you for tackling genuinely interesting subjects and doing quality research beforehand. Even though nobody could be an expert on all the subjects you deal with, your videos have made me a lot more knowledgeable. I certainly enjoy the basic (but often misunderstood) theory stuff like "which key is the saddest" so thank you for dealing with that (:
It's always blown my mind when I've come across bands (usually pop punk, metalcore or scenester-type bands) that have about 40 minutes of original material and play the same 25-minute set the same way at every gig. I think of bands like Fleet Foxes that only have about 3 hours of released material and how monotonous it must be to have been playing the same 20ish songs live for over a decade. And that's a GOOD band with GOOD music.
It must be agony to be in a touring band that has that little content.
About musicians exploiting mondegreens; I'm not sure if you can call it exploiting but in their song "Irish pub" by the Rumjacks there is a line that keeps repeating "whale, oil, beef, hooked" wich if you sing it an "Irish" accent (like they do) it sounds like "Well I be fucked". It's probably intentional because it's repeated several times.
"If you see Kay" is another, old one.
Leo Comerford Or "If You Seek Amy" if you're Britney.
The Superman theme (1978) by John Williams sounds a little like it's saying "SU-PER-MAN!" even though there are no lyrics.
15:00 This. I am a collegiate musician with this opinion. My lessons teacher is an incredibly active performer in two symphony orchestras as well as subs, gigs and teaches lessons even outside of my respective university. Obviously people you get University jobs are at the top of their field, but the professors I respect and can learn from are the ones that do quite a bit outside of school.
Hey Adam!
I have a musicology degree here, and the question asking why musical taste changes is a good question.
I think it has to do with an intersection of interests in music, but I think the main reason that change in music is inevitable is that we build upon what came before. For example, Baroque music is mostly stereotyped for being in minor keys, (sad sounding) and being overly complex, but an interesting twist for Classical music is that it is characterized by major keys, and simple phrases. So I think the best answer is that we would get bored of the music sounding the same for 100+ years so we change it up.
P.S. the constant use of "the lick" to segue between questions kills me.
In regards to mondegreen, J Dilla used this effect in the song "Players" by Slum Village. The original sample says "Claire" but without knowing that it sounds like "player". Just in case anyone was curious to find any examples of this effect in music. Great song btw.
Also Kanye West, "Where the islands" becomes "thirty hours"
K, so, over 3 years later and I have to agree wrt 4:33 and 38th St. Guitars in NYC. I was privileged to see 4:33 performed in Santa Cruz, CA in the early 2000s at a concert by Fred Frith (and friends). It was much different than "listening" to a "recording" of it or watching a TH-cam video of it. Also, yes - 38th St Guitars was great when I visited. I only purchased a few interesting guitar pedals and cords, but I fondly remember it. I don't know how they're doing in these very strange times, but I hope it is well.
about what you're talking about at 5:48 , this may be unrelated, but that reminds me of how often when i listen to albums i connect the feeling of the songs with the feeling of the album cover. Different albums feel different to me depending on the cover art, even with similar music. I honestly generally try to avoid watching music videos because the visual association turns to the music video and the way i feel the song changes.
Enema Of The State from Blink-182 is one of my favourite examples of the album-cover-art phenomenon :)
It is completely not a meritocracy. In decades on the road with a band, I can say I've met many artists that were soooo much better than that vast majority of what is successful, that you've never heard of, and we've all seen some of the garbage that gets signed. Talent appeals to a niche market.
Bless you and your big head.
13:39: As a person that only a 5 to 6 hour drive to New York, I would like to say, gentrification did that to Philadelphia too. Although, we still have the Kimmel Center, the Opera House, and there's another place out in West Philly out by Parkside. On my area of the City (the Northeast), we don't have many musical theatres (and we really don't have Community theatres either). We had a whole avenue of the arts (I think it's still there for the most part), and Philadelphia (like New York) is know for Jazz, Rap, Hip-hop, Classical music, and gospel music. We also known for Broadway stuff. But all of that is starting to die in Philadelphia (like how it's starting to die in NY) because of gentrification. Adam, I'm not sure if you have ever been to Philadelphia, but I can say this, if you were around in the 80s and 90s (which I don't think you were, you barely looks 28), and you have gone to Philadelphia in that time frame, you will see that North Philly, Center City, Germantown, Chestnut Hill, West Philly, Olney, Logan, Hunting Park, Frankford, Kensington, Jutiana Park, Wissahickon, Torresdale-Nicetown, and a bunch of other neighborhoods and sections look nothing like how they used to back in the 1950s - 90s. They gentrified everything pushed out black people and pushed out some of our music halls (which we didn't have a lot of to begin with). So yes Adam, I can agree with you on this one.
Even though so much time has passed from the airing of this video, I'd like to comment some because it touches topic I'm passionate about:
1 --- as an amateur baritone I rarely experience the boredom in repeating the same pieces over and over.
First because I'm free to choose them and I always choose pieces I like.
Second, because there's always something you can add. I condider operatic singing as something you never really achieve completely. There's always the note where your pitch could be better or the passage where you could try not to take that breath to make it more fluid or the finale where your pianissimo still leaves to be desired.
And if you're singing Mozart, for example, his operas are so *** rich and deep that you can keep on refining your interpretation even twenty years after your first performance of the aria.
2 --- about looks in music.
I've been looking at the covers of classical music CDs and couldn't help but notice that the soloists that majors choose to promote heavily are always good looking. This is true for singers as well. In opera, directors are the real stars now and they want singers to be "believable" in their roles. This is a bunch of b***, because we woudn't have had Caballé, Sutherland, Horne and many other great singers of the previous generation if we had used this parameter.
I also noticed that current instrumental soloists tend to do a lot of theatrics when they are playing. Their faces are constantly deformed in "very intense, emotional expressions" even when they are playing relatively simple passages as if they had to prove they are truly "feeling" the beauty of the piece.
3 --- gentrification:
rich people - not only in the US, but in the US it happens more - want to live in trendy district but they want them sanitised. A lively district attracts also people, artists, etc. who don't have money. Not necessarily bad people, just people who are not your fashionable - and well to do - rising artist with the perfect smile.
4 --- performing for "bad" people.
Patreon has changed things, but up to then, rich people were musicians' employers. Always have been. The difference is that in the past centuries those rich employers often dabbled in music themselves because music was part of rich people education. There have been kings and queens who were competent musicians. Even when they were not (Catherine the Great of Russia) they balanced their lack of competence with their ambition and gave their chosen musicians ample means and created a favourable environment.
Now, most rich people are just oafs who just want to show off. But you need their money.
That said, I wouldn't perform at political events if the politicians involved were revolting to me (a certain POTUS comes to mind).
To answer Troy Teter II's question about how mondegreens are used in compositions, J Dilla from Slum Village would sometimes take advantage of that tendency when sampling certain songs. He samples a song by Singers Unlimited called "Clair". He puts it in a song called "Players". The sample is slowed down so, because of the context, "Clair" is heard as "players".
21:32 I had somewhat similar experience as Mark. My first guitar teacher told me that I played guitar without any feeling. But, he never explained any further. It affected my self confidence in playing guitar for years. To get rid of his opinion, I try learning as much as I can about guitar both the instrument and how to play it. I listen to a lot of song. And also musical knowledge like what you explain in this video. From all of it, I begin to understand that each person has different way to enjoy music and playing guitar. Maybe because I enjoy and play music differently than him, he perceived it as lack of feeling.
Paul Gilbert addressed "playing with confidence" during one of his clinics. I'm going to paraphrase here, as I didn't record the session.
Essentially, he said that a performing guitar player should "attack" his instrument. Rather than sitting (or standing) hunched over the guitar and tenderly, carefully playing each note with "perfect technique" and no soul, you should be confident that you're doing it right and just do it. If you've nailed your technique down through practice, and if you've memorized the music and your part in it, you can let yourself go a little.
People can see when someone isn't confident. They're tense, withdrawn, and give absolutely no energy to the audience when they play. A confident musician will accept all the energy the audience has to give and give it back 100-fold. A confident musician can express themselves through the music, rather than simply playing something they've memorized.
Totally true about the viby-ness towards electric bass..I went to Trinity Laban in the UK and the tutors never stopped giving me shit about playing electric...despite me actually playing double bass quite a lot.
I feel like Kurt Cobain uses mondegreens in "Smells like teen spirit" when you hear a somewhat mesh between "Hello" and "How Low"
And also in "You know you're right" but Nirvana, you can hear the same thing when he says, "Pain" sometimes sounding like "Hey." I think he did these things intentionally since there are more examples of this in his music but to a lesser degree, but definitely there. I am not 100% sure tho since it was never explicitly stated.
"Annie are you walking" by Michael Jackson and "stay in a lie" Bee Gees are good examples, those like Cobain were intentional. I always just called them 'double lyrics", as opposed to what Ive always called 'Double meanings' ike the Beatles 'we can work it out' was about relationships and politics and war on purpose but he couldn't write about politics, many metaphors are due to restriction and tabood in society, hence why "cross", "jesus", "train tracks", "hole", "ditch", "inside" are all SOMETIMES euphemisms for heroin.
one more example: "love reign o'er me" by the who. you never kmow if hes saying "love, rain on me" or "love, reign o'er me". rly great song
As a keyboardist myself, that last question felt extra useful. Thanks for all the great work Adam. Much appreciated.
"It's not something to complain about. It's something to grapple with." Great advice in any situation I'd say.
Congrats on the button man! It's been a year since i've started following you and your contente really helped me growing up musically and getting my shit togheter with my projects!
You really deserve that and more, keep 'em comin' pal!
Just another point about 'Cage's' 4:33. If you have anyone who insists that it is a piece of music, go and record a 'performance'. then make 3 or 4 other recordings of the same duration and ask them to identify which one is the 'piece of music'.
Hahahaha... I love that you read people's comments exactly as they write them.
Im instead of I'm, and misspellings spoken phonetically.
Keep up the excellent work Adam.
Congrats, Adam! Really pleased you're getting some perks for your content!
12:51 Julian Casablancas from The Strokes actually uses this resource a lot
Congrats! Love your channel man
Congrats on the Play button Adam! You deserve it!
Inner Game Of Music (book) can help with question 1 as well. In general, focusing on timing, listening more closely to the other instruments, moving about more and not fret board gazing are good ways around song boredom, for me anyway.
Cool painting, bro.
Hey Adam or anyone really, I auditioned for my school's Jazz Band (as a guitarist) this past school year and got in but I don't officially start until this upcoming school year. I have been playing guitar for 3 years and I played violin for 4 years. The music director did invite me to play in the pit for a musical (In the Heights) my school did a week or so after my audition and I did. It went pretty well. I did struggle with learning the music due to not being able to read music well (I am legally blind but I have enough vision to read magnified print) So I would learn the songs by parts and play from memory but that took a lot of time. I was wondering if anyone had any advice or suggestions. I plan to talk to the director about using a tablet for digital sheet music to make things easier. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions, ideas, advice, ECT. Thanks sry this was so long
Jessica Wilson hi sorry for the late reply, it’s a shame that no one replied and I would like to hear how things turned out. If you still need an answer I have some advice that you may find useful.
I’m not sure how useful ear training is on guitar, but for piano it’s pretty darn useful. I would try to learn jazz standards by ear (nothing crazy, maybe like one a month) and over time you will be able to play new songs super super fast. I find myself not really needing sheet music much anymore, just listen to the song and play along til I get it down. I would definitely start practicing that if you haven’t already, with all of your experience you should have a pretty good ear already, this will just help.
Another thing that I do is make chord charts of my pieces. Guitar and piano are similar in this regard as we are both rhythm section and often function similarly in a band. Chord charts for me are so much easier to read than actual chords, so if that helps you see better then do that. Pairing this with improvisation is really good, whenever I have a solo part that I’m not too comfortable playing, I just make up my own.
Sorry for the delayed response but I hope this helps, it’s amazing you’ve been able to overcome this obstacle. Good job.
You played in a musical with only a week or so of notice?! From memory?! I have a feeling you're going to do just fine. I think 47 has some great suggestions in their comment as far as chord charts go as well as the ear training. I have no idea what they are, but they sound like a good tool. I can't read music and pretty much only play for my cats. When I'm learning a new song, it helps me to type out the lyrics and then...I just remembered you are vision impaired...anyhow, I add the name of the chord (E, F, Am etc) above the word where the chord change happens. Probably doesn't help much with Jazz but maybe that sparks some other idea. Good Luck!
that last question is why I love bands/artists such as AC/DC, Buddy Rich, Foo Fighters etc. When they play, they really play!
You got 1 million because your intentions are pure... thanks for the great content.
Haha, my favorite part of this video was ManelFogo's question, "im". Anyway, Adam, any thoughts on music in videogames, at all?
I'm fascinated especially by how videogame composers worked with a lot of limitations in the NES - N64 era's, and still managed to create amazing music, and I feel that now that those limitations are gone, and a lot of videogames use full orchestra's for their soundtrack, some of the charm and creativity is also lost. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
You should check out "Sideways" youtube channel. He talks about music in movies and videogames, its an AWESOME channel. Adam if you read this you should check it out too
Started watching his first video, and I'm already hooked. He can thank you for another subscriber. :p
VGMusic Explorers I'm glad you like it!
There's a channel called 8-bit Music Theory that analyses game music. It's only been active for a few months, so not a huge number of videos yet, but each one goes into a good level of detail. I particularly recommend his video on spooky music in Mario's haunted house levels, and the one on how Dark Souls' final boss music develops from simple building blocks.
VGMusic Explorers
Also checkout extra credits' video about music.
your videos are giving real value to my bandwith. thank you for the brilliant posts!
I've never actually paid attention to the visual side of music. I love concerts only because I like seeing my favourite artists like 3 meters away from me and I very rarely watch a music video. The best way of listening to music for me is with my eyes closed, I feel I can really pay attention and connect with what I'm hearing that way
The pianist you described at 22:40 sounds exactly like a friend of mine. It's like he goes into a trance and ascends straight to the fifth dimension or something when he starts playing the piano
Congratulations on the TH-cam award! Yours is a very salient channel. Thanks!
so much value...Adam. you are truly influencing people. perfect job! keep it up. loving the style!
@6:44 It's not a definitive answer, but David Byrne gave a TED talk about the evolution of music as a function of the spaces in which the music was presented. It's magnificent!
David Byrne: How architecture helped music evolve
Regarding 6:10, that reminds me of this one time my mother dragged me to an organ concert at the Regensburg Cathedral. Lots of really good music, but you can't see anything at all because the performer is hidden among the pipes. I was bored to tears by the end of it.
Man that last part..about confidence and physicality (?)... That advice totally helps alot for amateurs like me.. thanks adam!
Awesome Clerks reference ! :D
One of my favourite movies.
Wow, the drum concepts about your drummer, that really changes everything I know
Do you even Dunning-Kruger bro?
DUNNING-KRUGER!!!!!
Great suggestion on 30th Street Guitars, I occasionally make pilgrimages up to Manhattan/Brooklyn to visit the music, record, and guitar shops. First time I went to 30th Street they noticed my Television (the band) shirt and they took me in the back to show me a guitar they got from Richard Lloyd who hand painted it. My suggestions would be Matt Umanov, Rivington, TR Crandall, and Chelsea Guitars, I haven't been to Rudy's since they relocated away from Times Square, but I'm sure they're still great, even the Sam Ash is above average. Retrofret, Main Drag, and Southside are he go-to places in Brooklyn.
Another great video Adam, I wish I had a good question for the next video, I suppose I'll request a rig-rundown, as I'm not sure I've seen you do one, and quick search of your channel leads to a 4 year-old video. I suppose I might also implore you to maybe reach into the darker lustful side of yourself and ask you what gear you wish you had or are saving up for (I know of course it all comes down to the player not the equipment, but I find it hard to believe even you wouldn't have seen something at NAMM or elsewhere and just thought "I don't need that, but I NEED it").
Congratulations!!! Certainly NOT an accident! Keep up the good work!
And I'm a guitarrist who discobered synths 3 weeks ago. The idea is developing the think in real time, my own thinking (or of those who are interested) so copy and paste doesn't work: i'm showing the proces of adquiring and comprehending ideas.
Thank you!
Hello Adam. New to the channel so I can better follow all the happenings at Guitcon, but have learned tons from your older videos. So happy for your success with getting a PLAY button and hope you find what you do rewarding.
Hey Adam, I have a question about making my own music. I always come up with a bunch of good riffs and licks that fit into a loose framework. However, I'm constantly struggling to make it all flow, like transitions and such. I always get super frustrated and psyched out when I try to write. Can you provide any general tips or advice? Huge fan and proud patron of your videos btw.
Check Rick Beato's video "what every pro musician should know". It should help a lot
What I usually do is take time to plan stuff out on paper. I keep a notebook on my computer full of descriptions of what I want to do in each song. This makes it easier to work on the parts I'm sure about and then let the weaker parts work themselves out. Something else I do is write music away from my guitar (I'm a guitarist, can't actually get my bass tuned low enough to write with it, lol) My school is an hour from home so I like to take my laptop with me to write music. . Or even, spend some time just thinking through the song, imagining what I want the finished song to sound like. It's a lot easier to improvise in your imagination. Unfortunately, it's difficult to write things down that way!
I have guitar pro on my computer which definitely helps too. Thanks for your perspectives!
*Observe some of the handful of bands that do transitions and song structure well.* It could take you weeks or longer.
Something else I thought of is, depending on the style of music you do, you may not need transitions as much as you think you do. Might be able to get away with just going all-out into the next thing. Maybe you can do the transition in post, with some clever editing (kind of a hack?). Unless of course, you're changing keys, then you might consider using pivot chords, or borrowed chords. Or just change keys gradually, one sharp/flat at a time maybe. Another thing is theme/variation. Lots of great songs' consistency emerges from the way the riffs are related- similar interval patterns, bass lines, rhythms... a favorite example of mine is _The Darkest Nights_ by As I Lay Dying. The groove/verse riff is actually pretty similar to the chorus lead riff, and the way it evolves through the song makes it feel like it's all the same idea from multiple different angles. Of course, working that way often leads to conventional verse/chorus/bridge song structures, which may or may not be what you want. Writing complex/unconventional song structures is just really difficult to pull off without making things a little chaotic.
What kind of music are you working on? I tend to write metal myself.
For the first question, having theatre training really helps - and what I mean by that is, out yourself in the audience’s shoes! It might be the first time they are listening to your particular version, so keep it fresh and interesting for them!
your channel is amazing, one of the most interesting on youtube.
your approach to music theory and writing is very useful.
Hi Adam,
I have a suggestion about your filming. You should try to put your camera on manual focus and set aperture on a higher setting (smaller hole = more things in focus = deeper depth of field).
Currently your camera is ever so slightly focusing when you are moving your head and it can be so distracting, and also it looks kind of "unnatural" if I dare phrase it that way. With a manual focus and aperture set right you would have a field from your nose to your ears always in focus, so your eyes will be always in focus which is normal when talking to another person. Even if the person is moving their eyes stay in focus so we perceive that as normal and natural.
Sorry for the rant.
Best wishes.
Also a photographer, and I disagree. Comes down to personal preference. I like the small aperture and shallow depth of field.
Congrats on the Play Button! Learning a lot from your videos!
Have you ever put your music player on random tune (shuffle) mode, just for fun?
If so, do you recall any hilarious combinations?
I must admit that Laurel and Hardy songs followed by Conquering Dystopia blew my mind.
Humor in music is a great topic for a video by the way...
Dude, your videos are so so good! Lots of knowledge behind. Thank you!
As a songwriter, I find that Mondegreen (a word I just learned) is a useful way to accidentally write lyrical hooks. I usually do this at the gym, because the music is just kind of background noise, and I don't really listen too hard, but I'll occasionally mishear a lyric as another lyric and the song starts from there. It's sort of stealing, but so are most other songwriting techniques.
On the subject of the presentation of music, I totally agree. Seeing a band like Periphery on stage would feel way different if they were just playing those slaying parts looking at their fretboards. A lot of the energy of the show comes from how active everybody is onstage.
Hi Adam, about Meritocracy, I remember some news about the band "Death Grips" not showing up in some venues, but playing music thru speakers with negative reaction from the viewers! keep up the good work!
I completely understand the visual aspect of music. When I listen to Passionflower by Jon Gomm, I don't enjoy it anywhere near as much as when I watch it while listening to it. It puts into perspective how talented he is when you can WATCH him play all those melodies and rhythms at once, all whilst singing beautifully.
Hey, I have listened to a performance of 4:33. And it was awesome. And I respect it. I also dont think its music, and I don't think it diminishes the value of what it is (I think it's an interesting exercise in mindful noticing) to say so. I guess I'm in the camp with the guy that argued that what distinguishes music from sound is intent in composition and performance.
OK but define "intent." I think Cage's position (and that of many others, even though Cage took things to more of an extreme) was that music is "organized sound." So one of the simplest organizing principles was to place a time limit on it. This features prominently in many other pieces by Cage, but 4'33" is the only one where time is the ONLY organizing principle. I happen to agree with the definition of music as Organized Sound, and so I would describe 4'33" as the simplest/purest music by that definition (whether or not it's my "favorite" piece is a different question). And I believe that was John Cage's *intent*. The randomness in his music is applied intentionally. Defining music differently is, of course, possible, but that's a matter of opinion. So perhaps we can't definitively answer the question of whether 4'33" is music or not, but what's your idea of intent in music?
Now, to include performance in your definition is interesting. Does that mean you would say that a piece of music isn't a piece of music unless someone is playing it? And that *intent* must therefore inhabit a performance, which of course cannot be the case in 4'33"? That's an interesting idea. I do generally conceive of art as something we DO rather than something which simply IS. So one might argue then that a composition is music when it's being written (while the composer is doing it) but not while it's sitting in a file cabinet. Then, of course, we have to consider if a painting is only art while it is being painted...
It's a sticky wicket, but I think we also have to consider what art communicates and when. And the fact is a great work of art can communicate to us any time we think of it, not only when we are hearing/seeing/doing it. And therefore I must conclude that music is music whether or not someone is actively performing or writing it. It is what a work of art says to us which keeps it from being static. And we must also consider that as soon as someone other than the original artist perceives the work of art, the work can say things which the artist never intended, because we all bring our own "stuff" to the table. At some point the work sort of takes on a life of its own in this regard. And defining *intent* then becomes even harder because the intent of the creator can be overridden by the consumer, whether the creator likes it or not. Where we go with all that is anyone's guess. But it's an interesting question.
So now a million, keep it up!
I am a music teacher in an elementary school. Even at this level I've always felt that I needed to perform. I always try to impress on my students that music is performance. I encourage them to take the risk of putting themselves out there to use what they have learned. In order to teach someone to be a musician I need to be a musician myself and for me personally that means performance.
Congratulations for de 100k play button! Your channel is awesome!
I think the best thing for keeping old songs interesting - alternate tunings! You can do cool new fills, and really work to play the old parts just right....
As regards the visual aspects of performance. It is strange how music went from having a visual element to not and then a partial return. In the days before audio recording, listening to music involved sitting in front of musicians. Then came the age of radio and records when most of the worlds popular performers were never seen by listeners. This partially changed with the introduction of TV more so in rock/pop music with MTV. Now with the internet, the visual aspect has come full circle. When I was growing up listening to Blues, Rock, Jazz, Classical etc. music I built up quite a collection of records but never witnessed my favourite musicians perform except for rare TV performances. So I think that people of my generation had to evaluate the music solely on the music itself.
I really enjoy your these multi-subject videos, thank you!
Congrats! Now, give us all that jazz!
Mondegreens are super cool. One of my favorite examples is Cloud Nothings' "Pattern Walks", a song about a lot of psychological anxiety, in which "Pattern Walks" sounds a lot like "Padded Walls".
Thought on the first question: do anything you can to FEEL what you play and avoid just going through the motions. Connect with the audience, sing along to the bassline or melody, and try to let the emotion of the song move you in some way. Performance has a lot to do with feeling and conveying emotion
Your answer on image in music, and the French movement of loud speakers on stage, reminded me of the band Future Sound of London, and what they were doing in the mid 90s. They didn't perform gigs or festivals because they wanted to remove the ego and the image from their music. Instead they broadcast live performances over a data connection to radio stations. It was also an ethos of early acid house, the idea that the producers were faceless, and the DJ picked music based on merit and word of mouth.
My piano teacher was teaching me Debussy's Sunken Cathedrale and she was teaching me one of the performance techniques, and she told me to be careful of how quickly i move because even though i may produce the same sound in a recording but in a live performance if my hands move fast when it's supposed to give off a dreamy flowing texture then it can still distract dramatically from the desired effect
What I think is that 4'33'' is not as shocking as it was. If you go to a performance of the piece knowing that the performer is not going to play is not as incredible as the first time they did it when people thought that the piece was more convencional. I think that the interesting part about it is the idea and the shock value, like monochrome paintings... If you know what the artists were going for is not as shocking. Great vids!
No self doubt equals no growth, so true.
your talk on confidence was amazing. i feel as if u helped me understand a nagging problem i've had for decades in 1 minute
Gentrification is affecting LA as well. The House of Blues in Hollywood shut down, a few other places are closing down(Blacklight District in Long Beach) as well as having larger venues disappear(Gibson Amphitheater torn down to make Harry Potter land). It's affecting other LA staples as well. The comic shop where the Nerdist essentially started shut down recently, and Amoeba, the biggest indie record store in the US, is being kicked out of their current, famous location.
please do Adam at 19:30 more often please. Hilarious! I'm watching over and over and it's just as funny the 6th time
He just said “bass for the win”, all this time I’ve thought FTW was “f*ck the world”
Last subject: Confidence / Using your whole body. A great example is Stevie Ray Vaughan live around 1985 playing, say, "Voodoo Chile". Almost immediately into the song you can see his entire body is basically a vehicle through which the music flows - every note interpretation sounds perfect. It's almost as though he is possessed.
Some cultures were very strict with their music styles. To the point where you weren't permitted to play certain scales during certain times of the day, and in China that had the Huang Chung, or "Yellow Bell", which was tuned in accordance with the alignment of certain stars and all music was to be tuned to and based on that tonic. "A society whose music has order will be a society in order. A society whose music is rooted in chaos can only spawn chaos."
That's why I always roll a d20 with 10 representing 440hz to determine how I'm re-tuning my instruments when they go out of tune. Dissonance is the best.
"A society whose music has order will be a society in order. A society whose music is rooted in chaos can only spawn chaos." - maan that is some commie shit I tell you hwut.
As a musical theatre student, I find it the idea that music is less (not the right word, don't really know what would be) without its appearance and presentation.
At the beginning of my first year of study, we had a lengthy discussion on whether the singing or the acting is the most important part of a musical theater actor. All but one of us were of the opinion that acting is the most integral. Now, of course, musical theater is slightly removed from the music scene, in that, depending on the show, it might be more theater than music (like I said, depending on the show, and n reality, it is its own category).
However, the combination of a good musical performance and a good physical performance, be that from dancers, actors, scenography, costumes etc. or any combination of these, is what makes a musical good, in my opinion. There are soo many aspects to play with, not just music, and not even just music and acting. You can match and juxtapose different aspects to make the performance striking and memorable.
One of the best examples of this is Wait for it from Hamilton. The music is perfectly matched to the character (please watch Howard Ho's videos on How Hamilton Works for more information), and the ensemble and orchestration on the chorus sound hectic. There is soo much movement in the music, and all the while on stage, Aaron Burr is standing still with the ensemble sitting down around him, no movement. The contrast makes the music that much more effective. I feel sooo strongly about this, I could have written on for pages and pages. I'm gonna stop now, though.
Another thing about Carlos' question is that music is always clothed in context. If a well loved band creates a mediocre song, it will be praised and analyzed above a brilliant song from a lesser known band, or one not generally known for their musical prowess. Most consumers of music are actually fans of pop-culture and music is just a part of that.
When you were talking about the drummer following the singer, it made me think about how Keith Moon did the same for Roger Daltrey's vocals.
people being dunning-krüger about dunning-krüger? well i never!
CONGRATS ON THE PLAY BUTTON MAN! I've been watching from the start and I'm so glad to see your channel grow into what it is now. Thank you for all of the incredible content, your's has easily become one of my favorite channels on the youtube. I do actually have a question for your next Q&A - I'm a bassist and have been in a creative slump lately. I want to get better at writing my own original music, but I feel like I don't have the tools to create compelling music that actually resonates with me - I might put together some satisfactory riff or phrase, but then it feels like I always write myself into a corner or something. I have little solid understanding of theory or harmony/melody interactions (I'm entirely self taught, no formal lessons), but I have good relative pitch and a solid ear in general. What would you suggest I do to better equip myself to write the music that I feel is within me? Learn another instrument more suitable for composing? Get some theory under my belt? Specific compositional tricks or techniques to use? Thank you again for any and everything Adam. BASS.
+Zachary hey man! Your question is a bit too long for me to include in the Q+A but I'll just answer it here. My big piece of advice is to learn piano, start picking up piano chops and composition becomes a lot easier. I've done about 90-95% of all my writing on keys because it makes a lot more sense from a compositional standpoint, and it will shine new light onto what you do on bass
Thank you, Mr Neely!
I listen to these and subconsciously got better at improvising. Thanks
On the topic of mondegreens I would argue that Burial has exploited this phenomenon using heavily pitch shifted and edited vocal lines to create ambiguous lyrical content that allows the listener to interpret the lyrics as they see fit. This, in combination with the texture of his music and the clever use of nostalgic sampling creates a very powerful and personal emotional experience.