| | | Hey Friend,
Want some?
Saturday, glorious Saturday!
There's just something about having a day where you can veg out...
I sat down to start writing and intended on playing some concentration music - you know some Baroque in the Largo tempo. It tends to help me focus in on the task at hand and hopefully write something inspiring.
Is it working? Maybe, maybe not...
That's because as soon as I went to search for some Baroque on Youtube, I got enticed by the suggestions to watch videos by a few bands I really like.
I've been a fan of Good Charlotte and Simple Plan for some time now, and they have new albums out, so I was rocking out a bit to their stuff.
I'm also looking forward to going to the Weezer and Panic! At The Disco show in June with my daughter.
Now I'll bet if we were chatting at a table together I'd see your brow wrinkle ever so slightly, a question mark hidden behind your eyes.
Pop?! Pop Punk?! Emo?! Classical?!
Oh yes, all that with a twist of 90s Grunge angst...
Makes a pretty tasty drink if I do say so myself!
Guys! These are all just labels tagged on a musical style. Labels meant to categorize bands in the hopes that like-minded people would gravitate towards that genre based on liking another band that has a similar sound.
And preventing other people from discovering their music. We all tend to form opinions about music based on our exposure to it. And sometimes we don't even hear the music before we've formed our opinion. We look at an album cover or read some article in a magazine and dismiss the artist without ever hearing a single bar of their music.
As musicians, we need to get past the labels and use our own critical listening abilities to determine the merits of a band.
Your tastes will change, too. When you open yourself up to trying different things, you may not like something the first pass through.
Everything changes over time. I've found that for me, I need to allow music to marinate sometimes - I can't just consume everything raw like sushi (in fact, I can't eat any sushi!).
I have to keep coming back to certain music for it to start growing on me. Sometimes, it's quick to happen. Other times, it takes years.
I remember when KISS became huge with the "Destroyer" album. I was in elementary school - Fifth or Sixth grade. I have to say I was turned off by the album cover at the time - probably because their image and stage personae looked demonic. Total judgment based on a clever marketing plan to get maximum exposure. And my churchy upbringing.
It wasn't until years later when my band ended up playing "Detroit Rock City" that I learned to appreciate the songwriting skills of the band.
I would have felt the same way about Alice Cooper had I seen a picture of him. But I heard his music before I could discriminate based on a picture and, while it wasn't a style I had any experience with, I liked what I heard. I remember hearing "School's Out" in a friend's basement for the very first time. This was probably one of the first hard rock songs I can remember liking.
Nowadays, I like finding new musical styles. Sure, there's stuff I always come back to, but it's good to add new genres to the eclectic mix.
New music fuels inspiration and ideas. It adds beats and chord combinations and melodies to the mental database. All this goes into the cauldron that is your mental melting pot and gives your brain material to work with.
Okay, time for me to fly...
I'm gonna go listen to some Kanye West...
Just kidding - gotta draw the line somewhere!
Peace~
Dave
P.S. When you're stretching your musical palette with a new genre, you can use power chords to play along with a song. Power chords let you learn the general structure of the song - think of it like a framework. They're a great tool to build your confidence and get you playing now. You can learn more at Easy Power Chords.
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