| The Ghost of RubangB said: Robert Fripp says when he first picked up a guitar he was tone deaf and could barely tune the thing. Now look at him. He teaches his own guitar class with his own invented tunings, and he's (IMHO) one of the greatest guitarists of the 20th century. And then there's jerks like Paul McCartney, who can't even read music but can write a song like "Yesterday" in his sleep, do backwards tape loops for "Tomorrow Never Knows," play every instrument on some of his solo albums, and put together the "Golden Slumbers Med ley." This is definitely my favorite thread. Thanks for all the great discussion on both sides everybody. |
Interesting thought, but does he say how easily guitar itself came to him? I have students that are pretty tone-deaf at first, but within a few months, can at least partially hear what they're doing (I teach trumpet/brass and piano). And even moreso with guitar, the more you play, and th more you tune, the easier it gets to hear the differences between notes at close frequencies.
I think this is different from raw talent. I know of musicians with perfect pitch that are very mediocre musicians. In the end, all that matters is reaching people. Regardless of how amazing a person's ear is, if their music doesn't reach people, it means nothing.
Haha, I've spent a lot of time writing music. In college, I mostly wrote jazz pieces. Big band, small group, whatever I wanted. I actually started working on a full big band + orchestral piece but that ended up scaring me so I ran away. But with some songs, I'd spend hours and hours and hours, and I might get some good feedback from people. This one song I wrote took about 5 minutes, and every time I play it, I get amazing feedback from it. Actually, I've written half of a song in my sleep as well, I suck at finishing lyrics though. That's just how music can be sometimes. Time/effort invested =/= quality of product.
