RE: It's always been you teaching you - you are alone but this is not a handicap - it's freedom
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I learned violin in school, and could only read music to make what some called music. I didn't enjoy it, but I endured for seven years only because I had a crush on Mr. Purga, my violin teacher.
We'll skip the part where I tried to learn a second time from a classical teacher who had me glued to a piece of paper before I could draw my bow across a string, and I did not enjoy it all over again.
Into the world of klezmer music I landed, where we learned everything by ear. No paper in between me and the music, which I now know is a kind of barrier for me. I learned that being able to play by ear is NOT something that some folks are just born being able to do, but that the skill takes every bit as much time to learn as does learning to play beethoven from a sheet of paper, as you describe in your video.
Now I am trying to get some chops going as a singer. Knowing how to read music has been enormously helpful in learning the structures of the tunes, and in getting exact with the notes. But when I get up in front of an audience, I go without a piece of paper to rely on, not even lyrics. Those times I have tried to keep the paper crutch on stage, I could not make music, not the kind I can make if I KNOW the piece. One has to have worked and worked to KNOW the piece, and this work shows in the final product.
as @tarazkp might say, the journey is what matters, and what makes the work transcendant.
I know violinists who can only play the piece they are paper-glued to at that moment. Once the recital or concert is over, the music they worked so hard on disappears, and in a month or so they can no longer even play it. Whereas, I can still play stuff I learned 30 years ago, not well mind you, but I do remember the tunes and can toss them off. Much like the songs we all learned, by ear, as kids and we still know.
Learning by ear is extremely important, and is rarely taught to our children these days, like many other useful skills. Might all be part of the great dumbing down, don't get me started on that.
Some good perspectives there - for certain different learning styles for different people that have different learning centres and senses activated more than others.
I suppose my bias is more in sympathy your comments - but I do mention the dominance of the classical/traditional written music world in this derogatory fashion for a reason - because it really does need to be put in its place.
It is valid, yes. It is wonderful for those whose minds work in this particular way - but it does not make them better or 'real musicians'.
The ear training method is very important, I agree. But I superimpose that with something which I also promote and commented on briefly towards the end - the 'feel' training method.
Find the music through feel. Imagine that only you and the instrument exists - there is no sight or seeing or images - there is only tone and darkness.
What tone do you feel?
Setting aside a part of practice that allows a kind of 'flow music' to flower from the being - or at least allows a fertile ground in which it can root and do so - is an important part of development and discovering the capacity of the mind to harness and channel the energies, elements and spiritual world around us.
I have a particular view on music which I discovered some Sufi sects promote - in that music is a spiritual discipline of its own order and requires no dogma outside of itself. The study of it and the complexities of tone and the immersion of the being within tone - far exceeds the requirements for a school of life.
hm. Lots to think about here. I feel this when I sing well, that there is just me and my body letting the music make itself, a lot like freewriting. Music is some kind of portal, I know that. I enter a different reality when I do it well. I think I might even make music so that I can go there. It's an intelligence that is not of this reality. Or a supra intelligence, that we are being systematically deprived from developing. With AI. auto tune and all the other technology out there to tinker with the product, I'll bet many of the artists now are not making the music entirely themselves. Maybe this is why I can only truly enjoy live music.
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment! It's wonderful to explore things in an 'inquiry of the mind' fashion - where we detach from the outcome and just flow with a shared intention/goal.
I can see humanity is craving authenticity and this may result in a technophobic minority coming to the fore. Let's wait and see what happens in this interesting world we've found ourselves in!
In the meantime, let's be ourselves and assist others to do the same in whatever shape/way/form that may be.
Kindest regards,
Monty
amen