artificial, contrived rules in music



Hi All,
    This is a real interesting thread that Mike, somewhat inadvertantly
started. (As the conservative talk shows say, quoting Reagan, "There he goes
again!")   This thread is deep!  My comments are at the bottom.

Mike Curtis wrote:
>
> Never make artificial, contrived rules that restrict your field of
> play.

Pat Missin wrote:

>Whilst I appreciate the point you are making and for the most part
agree with it, I feel obliged to comment that making artificial
contrived rules to restrict your field of play can sometimes be a very
valuable creative exercise.

fjm wrote:
>Indeed, some of the best music to come from fluent musicians is when they
artificially and contrived to limit their available note selection over a
simple
progression for example.


I think Mike's comment could be refurbished by saying "Don't blindly accept
limitations, consciously choose them."  Of course that is not what he
literally said, but maybe over a beer it might have progressed to that.

Continuing with what the other guys were saying, the funny thing about
limitations is that they are ... ah ...  limitations and ... liberating!
You may play a lot of blues because it gives you a familiar structure to
improvise around.  The structure is a limitation.

But it frees you to work on tone and improvisation.

Some people who accept no melodic limitation, to my ear, have accepted a
tonal limitation.

Generalizing what we learn from the harmonica to life, if you only have a
finite amount of time, and finite health, then it is wise to choose your
limitations wisely.  It makes sense to "pick the low hanging fruit", and go
after the harder stuff (choose which limitations to break) carefully.  If
you reach too high, that high fruit may be the only one you get.

If you reach too low, you may have worms in your fruit.

The diatonic harmonica is a metaphor for life itself:  the little instrument
has limitations, and yet broad unexplored horizons if you choose to not
fight the limitations. It's like a piano with missing keys that plays like a
trumpet.

 Also, sometimes if you the wrestle with the low fruit long enough, a high
one will drop on your head.


Rick B
www.bluesharp.org





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