Comments on: Natural mystic – a series of posts on art and creativity

By: Szavanna

Szavanna — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:09:17 +0000

Hi Silvio – thanks for reading this post – it is really a long one. I just read it again and I still agree with everything – hm it was only 2 years ago actually that I wrote about this.

I am really fascinated about the many forms music takes as one travels around – to different places, different continents, different cultures, different situations etc.

“the same tune can make you laugh or cry” – I love this amazing no? Actually it is just so interesting to see how sounds and music affects us – how we suddenly get out of our “sober” self – and suddenly we have feelings of all kinds …. how we feel like dancing ( or arguing hehe ) as soon as it starts – as soon as the music starts – suddenly there is a new world around us ….

By: Silvio Rugani

Silvio Rugani — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:53:07 +0000

The post also makes me think about jazz – but then almost anything makes me think about jazz :-p

On teaching:
Jazz is traditionally passed down directly from teacher to student. Ask any professional jazz player and they’ve always studied under some other professional jazz player. Besides personal teacher-student relationships, Jazz players also have various influences that they might talk about, or that the listener might recognize. “Influence” in the jazz world means that musicians pick up things like phrasing ideas, harmony ideas, rhythm ideas, and performance techniques from a hand full of their favorite players.

On improvising:
Jazz is above all an improvisational form of music. Jazz tunes (songs / compositions) can be very interesting in themselves, but in the jazz world, the most important function of a composition is to serve as a springboard for the jazz musician to improvise from. The best jazz tunes are the ones that provide a foundation for innovative improvisation. Depending on the mood of the jazz musician and how he interprets the tune in a particular performance, the same tune can make you laugh or cry.

By: Silvio Rugani

Silvio Rugani — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:38:02 +0000

There is a hidden depth to this post because, while it doesn’t directly ask why and how music originally came into being, it makes observations that provoke the reader to ponder those questions. For example, your observations about “music as teacher” makes me think of how information and history must have passed down through generations before people became literate. History was passed down in the form of song because it’s easier to remember and repeat stories that are set to rhyme and music. Whatever music has become in the modern world, it must have its roots in the transmission of tribal history.

We can imagine the evolution: the best teachers were the ones that could best express history through song, and could perform the song so as to captivate his audience. Students learned the song of their teachers, but also the musical technique of their teachers. The student improves upon the teachers technique and then teaches those improvements to his own students.