Interviewing/playing as well as my influences

[alex matson]

It's been quite a while since I've posted. Not that anyone should care, but I've finally realized a longtime ambition of moving to Portland, and so far have been very impressed with the people, especially musicians I've met here. I've got a typically (for me) long list of questions, but for now will stick to just a few.

1. I often feel like interviews with musicians I like ask questions that aren't relevent to those who aspire to write/perform good music. Assuming I could contact and interview a few of the musicians I have in mind, do you guys think there would be a likely place to publish them? Is there already a good place for this, besides songwriting magazines?

2. (Portland specific) I've struggled with technique on the piano (my main instrument) and the guitar for years. Can anyone recommend good local teachers?
I'm not trying to be a virtuoso, just competent enough to play well, and being self taught has left me with technique that makes things a lot harder and less interesting than they should be. After playing in bands for years on keys, I still deal with clams, sore wrists, and most importantly, the inability to conceptualize and play music more complex than your basic rock song. For example, I can figure out and play Led Zep's 'Rain Song', but I'd like to write at that level. And the bands I play in typically never even use 7th chords, which a quick glance into a Neil Young songbook shows are essential to making the songs what they are. I'm pretty burned out on a strict diet of cowboy chords. To listen to a song like 'Night Meets Light' on the Dixie Dregs album What If makes me feel at once transported, amazed and like a hack.
It's an ambition of mine to be able to bring more musical sophistication to songs that go down like a Tom Petty song. Like cooking up something nutricious and delicious. I tend to be analytical about these things, and I realize that's only part of it. But fer Christsakes, How did all these guys from the late sixties and beyond learn to play so well and so soulfully?

[Brian Brock]

1. You could publish your interview right here. If you want money for it, I dunno.

2. You could learn every Neil Young song in your songbook, or at least play through the entire book once a day. I did this with a Beatles songbook (well, ok, I only played about 20 or 30 songs) every day for a year. Helped me a lot with chords and with writing. This can also help you learn to read music, which is cool. Whatever you do, don't let some hack teacher make you stop doing the things that make your playing your own.

b

[philbo]

On technique and sore wrists/arms/whatever:
It might be worthwhile to pay a good piano teacher to watch you play for an hour with an eye towards the mechanics of your style. You could unknowingly be doing serious damage to your tendons and nerves by using bad technique. Really.


On Composition:

Yup - Beatles.
I got a songbook with all of their songs (as of 1966) when I first started playing guitar. Even with it's flawed and slightly bastardized piano arrangements, it taught me more about chords, music theory and composition than anything else I ever ran into.

Their later stuff (Rubber Soul & after) is even more interesting from a compositional viewpoint than the stuff before. But there is a lot to be learned from all of it.

Others to study:
Pink Floyd (especially Animals, Wish You Were Here, Dark Side of the Moon)
Alan Parsons
Yes
Zeppelin
Beach Boys (breaking down their vocal harmony parts is a true lesson in arranging)
The more recent Aerosmith stuff - - 'What It Takes' is a beautifully done rock composition.

Not to preach to the choir, but a little legwork is required to find out what's been done already, why it worked, and what rules are implied by it, before you can hope to successfully stretch or break those "rules".
________
Milf tube

[Brian Brock]

As far as learning technique to keep from damaging yourself, I would suggest that some classes in tai chi, yoga, or the Alexander technique would be more effective, as long as you are intelligent about applying your good use of the self to your daily actions including music. A lot of musicians are so careful to use the proper technique that they cause themselves damage.

The important thing is to allow your fingers and feet to be natural extensions of your arms/legs. No strangely bent joints, no leaning over in a weird position while you play. Keith Jarret, famous for his contortious performances, had such bad back problems he had to be driven around lying in the back seat at one point. Good piano player though.

[YOUR KONG]

But fer Christsakes, How did all these guys from the late sixties and beyond learn to play so well and so soulfully?

Well, my own personal and non-citable research indicates that it was by A) taking apart their favorite songs, as others on this thread have said, and B) jamming with people with similar goals.

I think B is crucial - it's what did it for me. I may not have been wanted to write JUST LIKE the people I was playing with, but walking with someone else on the same path (as a weird metaphor) definitely got me further along...even if I *didn't* like what they were doing, the process of figuring what why I didn't like it and what I would have liked better was educational...