For my first blog post on here, I thought long and hard about what I wanted to talk about it. There are many ways to incorporate music and philosophy, but I thought I'd start by tackling a question that I struggled with for quite a while, and maybe you have too. What exactly does it mean to be a musician? And furthermore, what does it take to be one? What makes a musician different from, say, a painter or a poet? Is there a difference? Can everyone be a musician? I hope to explore these questions and others throughout this blog.
"A person who makes music a profession, especially as a performer of music."
This is the definition of a musician as given by dictionary.com, and if you ask me it's pretty vague. So are Lil Wayne, the guy playing accordion on the street, a singer at Carnegie Hall, and Justin Bieber all musicians? And if so, are they all equal musicians? Who is to say who is the better, or more 'musical' musician? What measurements do we use to define a musicians 'musicality'? Is it their virtuosity, or their ability to make money with their music, or just their dedication to the art? The poetry or the price? The payment or the perspiration? The truth is, there is no objective answer to any of these questions, and the best I can do is try and give my perspective on the matter.
I'm extremely fortunate to have taken an Improvisation class at Rollins College (I'm a music major there, for those of you that don't know) with Dr. Chuck Archard, a world class musician and a great inspiration for all that get to meet him and see him play. He would always tell me, "Richard! Stop wigglin' your fingers!" I'll never forget that phrase, as long as I live. When I first started the class, I kept on playing what I knew when I would improv - certain phrases, or some fast runs up and down the fretboard (I had a good amount of facility under my fingertips at that point) but it never really satisfied Chuck. He kept saying that phrase to me, over and over, until I finally figured out what he meant. Improvisation is not about how fast you can play, or that what you play is 'correct'. It's about playing what you hear inside of you. About listening to the music of your soul and pouring it out through your instrument so the world can hear. To me, this is what makes someone a musician. Much like a poet takes in all he has suffered and puts it into words, or a painter takes it all he has seen and puts it into colors, so a musician needs to take in all they feel and put into sounds for the world to hear. And if they do this, who is to tell them they are not a true musician? For me, this is the best way to distinguish a true musician from a 'fake'. If someone claims to be a musician, but only performs and creates music for the money, or the fame, or whatever reason, they become what we call a 'sell-out' - but you can also call them businessmen, profiteers, entrepreneurs, what have you. People using music for profit. Does this mean that everybody who makes money from music is a sell-out? Of course not, but money is a means not an end for music. Musicians need money for CDs, recording time, shirts, promotion, roadies, gas, all sorts of things. But if the art of the music, the passion and the desire to express oneself, is put to the side, then money becomes an end instead of the means to get there. And then, well.. you're not a musician anymore. But then in this day and age of commercialized music and top 40 hits, how can one tell who is a true musician, and who isn't? Although I agree sometimes 'sell-outs' really are sell-outs, sometimes musicians just change their sound or desire to explore new sides of their creative passion. No one has the right to call someone a 'fake' musician, although our current music scene is more than likely saturated with them. The best thing to do then, is find those that are true musicians, those that pursue the art and the passion and desire to express their souls. How can we tell then, apart from the monetary or hidden gains of the musician, what a true musician sounds like?
As I said before, a true musician speaks from the heart. This is what makes music so beautiful, so rich, when it stems from the rivers of the soul of a true musician - it is pure. Something to marvel at. It is something from the beauty of the earth that makes us believe in magic and fantastic things and brings all the senses together into one grand package that is but invisible to the naked, yet invokes richer colors in the mind than even the most skilled painter. It combines sounds, forms, textures, and colors to create a story more detailed than even the most skilled writer can create. It is the highest of arts, and the most complex, yet it is beautifully simple in its design. It touches lives, stirs passions, and lives and breathes of its own accord. Music is all around us, though we may not have the capacity or patience to hear it. It is in the rustle of the wind and the wild, the babble of the stream, the laughter of small child, the footsteps on a crowded street. The bustling of the car engines, the crackle of an open fire... The sound of the breaking waves and the hidden notions of love and desire. There is music in everything we hear, and there are those that have the gifts and passions in order to hear it. This is what it means to be a musician - to discover this music. To feel the rhythm of the earth. To find beauty where most wouldn't. To explore the music of the ultimate soundtrack known as Life.
This is what it means to be a musician.
No comments:
Post a Comment