LHR
Too serious, probably. Someone needs to buy him a Ramones record, maybe.

You could be right about being too serious. That is generally how you can recognize graduates of the School Of Hard Knocks. But I am already a fan of the Ramones...and you are right, nature only has a few ideas that are iterated over and over in different configurations, one of them being QUANTITY vs QUALITY.

Quality is the way of the feminine reproduction system. People who advocate for that strategem are essentially feminine in their approach.

The masculine way is the way of quantity. Produce trillions of spermatazoa and hope for the best.

Seamoor Glas
The Iterators

I don't think I've ever spent more than 10 mins on a song I've written. It would probably take away from the whole trad feel the Aquanauts were going for. Plus I'd rather chase women, gamble, drink or do something else with my time. I thought only hippies needed to get into a mood to write music?

I've probably written a dozen surf songs and each one being a direct ripoff of some other song I like. There's no art to this!

"as he stepped into the stealthy night air... little did he know the fire escape was not there"

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zak
Analyze less, play more.

Ok. I will take your advice to heart.

But I am an Analyst by trade. It's in my job title. It's what I do for a living.

“The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual's own reason and critical analysis.” --Dalai Llama

Seamoor Glas
The Iterators

Joelman
seamoorChill man.
Zak is just???????? Zak.

Let me state for the record that I have always appreciated the Treblemakers and admired Zak as a guitar player.

It doesn't bother me that somebody doesn't agree with me, like my style of self expression or care for my music. It's a free country.

But it does bother me to be goaded into playing Charlie Brown--and be encouraged to kick the football, and have it jerked away.

"Here comes Charlie Brown. Good Ole Charlie Brown. How I hate him!"
--The first Peanuts comic strip

Seamoor Glas
The Iterators

seamoor

PolloGuitar

seamoor
I originally wrote was that 'good taste' is the enemy of creativity.

Actually, Pablo Picasso wrote that.

I think Picasso's actual quote was:
'The chief enemy of creativity is "good" sense.'

Nope-
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/21840.html

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This post has been removed by the author.

Last edited: Sep 23, 2009 17:43:03

zak
What I'm getting at in my characteristically undiplomatic way is that he quest for "uniqueness" and "originality" in an intellectualized and analytical manner is futile. Last time I checked surf music or guitar instrumentals were a sub-genre of rock'n'roll, and intellectualizing rock'n'roll seems kinda counterproductive to me. It's not high art, it's entertainment. Usually of the low-brow variety. People should dance to it, not contemplate the mysteries of the universe. Everybody steals and borrows from someone else, regardless of whether or not they admit it. Creativity does not exist in a vacuum, it is formed by what you hear, what you like, and even what you don't like.

I don't disagree with what you are saying at all--although, I don't see a big categorical difference between entertainment and 'high art'. Of course everybody steals and borrows and recycles--that is precisely how nature recycles all of life. I believe it's one reason why the image of the Frankenstein monster, stitched out of stolen parts, refuses to die...

But here is another metaphor, the image of the Tree. The tree has roots that CONVERGE on the central trunk, and DIVERGE from the trunk in their branches. This is exactly the same pattern of the nervous system.

The scientists that study creativity for a living say that creativity consists of two separate processes, 1 a process called divergence, which is accumulating materials, resources, bits, pieces, fragments components by decomposing a problem, breaking it down, deconstructing it, then 2, a process called convergence where all of the broken down materials are converged into a brand new form, or configuration.

CP Snow went further than this, in his famous essay The Two Cultures where he pointed out that the science and math departments of Universities had a culture of convergence, while the humanites departments had a culture of divergence. If the Pentagon had gone to a group of Poets in the early 40's and said they wanted to build the ultimate bomb--the poets probably would have said: why do you want to do that?
Instead, they went to mathematicians and physicists, who raced to the blackboard to converge on a solution, which was in keeping with their culture. Only after the first successful test of Trinity did they begin to wonder whether building the bomb had been such a good idea.

Some people are primarily convergers in their problem solving. Some are primarily divergers. But both are needed for creative solutions.
I'm not trying to elevate surf music to high art. I am merely pointing out that trying to create new tunes can stimulate the brain in ways that have benefits in other aspects of your life.

My whole point was that it didn't matter if the result was any good. It was making the effort that paid off. That was my whole point in a nutshell. Making the effort isn't analytical.

Seymour Glas
The Iterators

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Last edited: Sep 23, 2009 17:46:29

zak
That depends entirely on your motivation. Some people play music to be "cool" or to get their egos stroked, or to get themselves laid. Some people play music for some inner sense of contentment or escapism. In essence I agree with that statement...but playing music can have equally negative effects on your life. It's like being a door-to-door salesman, in some ways: you have to be able to deal with hearing "no" a thousand times for every "yes" and for some that means depression and a sense of failure. Which is why I said that of what you do brings you pleasure, it shouldn't matter what I or anyone else things. If you feel like you've created something sublime and the next person that comes along calls it a great big steaming turd, it shouldn't faze you.

Well, You are right. There are lots of reasons why people play music, and I'm not claiming that cultivating your creative problem solving skills is the most important reason. I totally agree that performing original works in public is like running an old fashioned gauntlet, you gotta be pretty tough to keep at it--and only a lucky few can actually make a living out of it.

All I am saying is that, for guys that will never try to take it pro, exploring the realm of song writing may put you in touch with some of what you find exciting about music.

And you're right, it should not matter what someone else thinks--the most important opinion is your own--and what the artist needs is clarity of perception--ruthless accurate perception of the quality of their work--if they are ever to improve. And by artist I only mean the person laboring to produce something out of their own judgement and discretion.

Seamoor Glas
The Iterators

zak
No amount of poetry, good, bad, or in-between, would have ended WWII.

True--the only point was that after Trinity, all the physicists circulated a petition calling on Truman not to use the bomb, after they had all rushed to the board to be the first to get the right answer to the problem posed to them by an authority--good little Convergers that they were...

Circulating a petition would have been the first thing the poets would have thought of...

Anyway there is a legend I have been trying to locate the documentation for about a gifted Violinist from one of the Death Camps who was brought in to entertain at a Nazi Officers dinner--legend has it he played a tune so lacrimose, so sorrowful, that one of the Nazi commanders was compelled to go outside and blow his own brains out with his service revolver. Now--an army of such fiddlers, delivered to a set of co-ordinates at a specific time...would make an interesting weapon...

Seamoor Glas
The Iterators