My Approach to Music

I'm not looking to audition to join someone else's band and learn a bunch of cover tunes, just to be a short-term "rock 'n' roll bar whore". I haven't the time or inclination for this, and historically, folks that have truly believed in their own creative worth over the last thirty or forty years generally haven't wasted their time or talent on this route, e.g., Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Kiss, Twisted Sister, Megadeth, Metallica.

Black Sabbath (blues), The Grateful Dead (a.k.a. "The Warlocks", started as the house band at Ken Kesey's "Acid Tests") and Journey all started out as "jam" bands. Doing this with the right attitude, that is, to openly explore musical ideas and to get a feel for each other's styles, is where the creative seed really germinates in music.

I could be considered among the second generation of "art-school" students to dabble in rock 'n' roll. I graduated from the High School of Art & Design in 1979 with a focus in commercial photography. In 1984, I received my degree in Business Management - Accounting from Five Towns College, then a two-year private college in Long Island, NY. In addition to regular business courses and core academics, my curriculum included a concentration in music business which included the courses: "Basic Music Theory", "Record Promotion and Broadcasting", "Recorded Music Business", "Independent Record Production" and "Popular Song Lyrics". Since then, my old alma mater has become a four-year college in Dix Hills NY, and now offers baccalaureates in Audio Recording Technology, Broadcasting, and Film/Video. I know what it takes to promote original music: but courage is the first ingredient that most people lack.

I've studied (and applied) basic music theory: first informally in private lessons, and then later taking a classroom theory course during my first semester at the school, so I that wouldn't be forever stuck plodding incessant root notes to whatever chord the guitarist might be playing. If you look at Five Towns' offerings, you'll see that jazz theory and improvisation have been a big part of the school's thrust from its inception. I took the music business focus so I could understand not only what it really took to promote original music, but to know enough about the music business so that I wouldn't be exploited because of my own ignorance.

Now, I think that loose jamming is great, but at the volumes most folks like to play at these days, it's damn near impossible to clearly hear what the notes are in the chord, and thus, be able to know what to play against them. I don't know why most guitarists feel violated if they have to tell you what chord they're playing, especially if you've never played with them before: no lead sheets, no indication of what key they're in, and no hint as to what the chord changes are: as though the implication is, "Guess - if you're a real musician, you'll figure it out!". Or there's a two-minute tutelage in a slew of riffs and intricate changes that probably took this guy weeks or months to figure out initially.

This strikes me as some kind of reverse ersatz musician's machismo. In a case like this, the jam might more likely end up sounding like something closer to the near-atonal rhythmic cacaphony of the avant-garde jazz of the "Sun Ra Arkestra" than the classic jams that would erupt during the break of "Whole Lotta Love" or "Dazed and Confused" on a 'hot' night at a Led Zeppelin concert. If you really want to make music, check your ego at the door. It's about teamwork and cooperation: not dazzling the other guys with your technique - where's your soul? Where's the feel? Where's the groove?

I can tell the difference between consonance and dissonance in music, provided that the volume and the overtones don't make it all bleed together. Higher volumes are for AFTER everybody knows the song. I've run into a few folks who try to practice at concert volumes in the basement. Save that for right before, and during the live gig. During practice, all the musicians should be facing one another for cues, and to work out song changes. When the songs are well rehearsed and the entire band is tight, that's when it's time for the guitarists and the singer to take "stage positions" facing out toward the "audience", and turn up the amps and PA.

Don't get me wrong - I truly look forward to collaborating as an equal partner with other mature, confident, talented and creative musicians. But I'm not the "dumb bass bitch", that is, some organic automaton whose job it is to slavishly devote himself to listening to recordings, in order to absorb, almost note-for-note, music composed by others. Those artists to whom so many people devote their energy to copying, found that their path to success resulted from them devoting their creative energies to composing, recording and promoting (through live performances) their own original material, not by slavishly duplicating the works of others.

Now that's not to say that if any musician comes across a song that really touches them, one they feel that they can make their own, then THEY SHOULD DO EXACTLY THAT. If a song speaks to an artist deeply in his heart and soul, then they shouldn't duplicate it, but rather, reinvent it. That's where the "art" comes into music, is in the feel, the rendition of the music. Far too many folks have the mechanics down, while they have no real clue about how to truly "groove" a tune they've learned to play. In cases like these, you might as well call a DJ in to pop in the CD, and lip-sync to it. (Can anyone say, "Milli Vanilli"?) At least karaoke, by its nature, is an honest indulgence that makes no pretensions to being "original".

When I practice, my focus is on working out ideas, rhythms, sounds, runs and grooves that I can later integrate into my original songwriting. I listen to music to get its "gestalt": that is, to get an instinctive 'feel' of the music's style, rhythms, and melodies by immersing myself in it, which later influences what comes out in my songwriting. This is not the same as the rote learning of songs I've heard.

I've been amazed (and somewhat disappointed) to work with guitarists who were surprised that when I asked them what chord they were playing on a certain section, I wanted to know if it was a major or minor. Well, when you play more than just the tonic against the chord, it (the chord's third) makes a difference as what other notes you can play against it. I build my lines mostly on intervals, chord arpeggios, and if I have enough time to work it out in rehearsals, melodic or chromatic passing tones.

I've found it necessary to elaborate on my philosphy of original music, because of the frustration I've experienced at the hands of others, who have arrogantly chosen to unilaterally define what constitutes a "true musician", based on their own, arbitrary, ego-centric perspective: while they themselves may often have little or no creative spark, sense of groove or rhythm, or musical training.

And if reading this hasn't completely turned you off or scared you away, then let's talk about making original music.