Date sent: Sat, 4 Dec 99 23:01:30 -0000
From: "Nicola E."
To: "Vocalist" <vocalist>
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

The following recently appeared on another musical mailing list. I
thought it might be interesting for those on Vocalist to read, as it
relates to some of the recent discussions on Vocalist. (I'm posting it
with the author's permission, and he asked that I didn't include his
name/email).

Nicola


>The assumption that music is a 'gift' is as much bunk as is 'sight reading
>will hinder my style'.
>
>Anyone can learn to do music. Anyone. The reason some people do it better
>than others is because they have more ambition. They practice the stuff
>that's important to them, rather than trying to do everything all at once.
>The people who make poor musicians are the same group of people who are poor
>at anything -- they are those who want everything, and they want it
>yesterday.
>
>Back to the point of B.B. King, he has absolutely no formal training, and
>every blues musician thinks he's a genius. But there was a time when he
>couldn't do music, either. He paid his dues in front of a record player,
>trying to imitate the ones he learned. Charlie parker -- same thing. He was
>awful. Then what happened? He decided he was going to practicing 11 to 12
>hours every day. Now people assume he's a musical prodigy. A 'born natural
>talent'.
>
>How much time do you think Mozart's father made him sit on the piano bench
>as a young boy? But forget about that -- 'cuz he's a 'born natural talent'.
>
>And, yes, there are those who practice and practice and practice and just
>don't get it. That's because of one thing and one thing only -- they
>practice mechanics without having any idea of how to apply them. Then there
>are those musicians who learn just a little bit of info -- a scale or a riff
>-- and spend hours learning how to apply it. Those musicians get much
>further, because...well, what's the use of learning something if you've got
>no idea of what to do with it?
>
>As for the sax player you know, who doesn't pick up his sax for a week and
>then plays as if nothing's changed, welcome to the world of blues/rock sax
>playing. All they need to remember are the riffs and licks, and the rest is
>pure application. Same with jazz, and all other forms of music. But I can
>tell you this -- and this from experience -- they stop progressing after
>they stop practicing.
>
>As for the education thing, I'm all for it. Any serious student of music
>should learn as much as they can. But every time they learn something, they
>should also spend time learning how to apply it.