Slow_Hand's recent activity
-
Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
-
Comment on A redditor explains how modes work as a musician in ~music
Slow_Hand LinkAs a lifelong musician with a degree in music and a heavy emphasis on composition, modes are something that I'd never felt I had a confident grasp perceiving or applying in my music. Recordings...As a lifelong musician with a degree in music and a heavy emphasis on composition, modes are something that I'd never felt I had a confident grasp perceiving or applying in my music.
Recordings famous for their modal innovations - such as Miles Davis' 'Kind of Blue' - felt like they were going over my head. The music was plainly beautiful, but an intuitive understanding of it's innovations and what made it stand out from its' contemporaries is something that I still don't fully hear, despite having a technical understanding. This record was 60 years ago, so my hunch has always been that it's innovations have been thoroughly integrated into popular music in such a way as to seem unremarkable to anyone who grew up with contemporary music.
Like growing up with a heliocentric perception of the universe instead of one in which the Earth is the center of the universe. It's hard, having been born into that understanding, to see why anyone could ever think of the Earth as the center. I have trouble flipping my perception.
Since then musicians like James Brown have boiled their songs down to a single tonal center with no chord changes. This idiom in turn became a foundation for hip-hop, which commonly skips harmonic movement in favor of "flat", modal-sounding, tonality (no harmonic progressions).
Curiously, we're in a period of western popular music in which I perceive a 50/50 split between those who write in a modal style with no harmonic movement - think hip-hop and James Brown style funk - and those whose writing style is based on a more harmonically-propelled framework - think The Beatles or jazz standards based on showtunes.
That said, the author of the linked response has done a tremendous job of explaining how to better orient your thinking towards modal music and has inspired me to approach it again and work towards a stronger grasp.
I've just finished up 'Non-Violent Communication' by Marshall Rosenberg after having it gifted to me by a friend. As someone who's historically been insensitive to people's intentions and emotions unless they're beating me over the head with them, I found it to be a useful read that helped me to recognize the subtext of what people are saying. It's also helped me to tune my own use of language in such a way that I'm not being unnecessarily accusatory or provocative towards others. This is the kind of thinking that you'd expect when dealing with a therapist whose intention is to listen deeply and openly. I've found it very helpful in improving my empathy towards others. My only complaint is that it's formatted and written like a fluffy self-help book, which initially turned me off. However, if you take the time to go through the exercises slowly and really intuit them it should really pay off.
I'm slowly finishing up 'The Personal MBA' by Josh Kaufman, which is basically cliff notes for the world of business. Everything from financial concepts, to sales, to management principles, to psychological phenomena (personal and for dealing with others). It's been immensely helpful for someone such as myself who's auto-didactic and also new to the world of business. The book includes a bibliography at the end with recommendations for the books that the author read for his research that will allow for a deep-dive into specific topics, once you're ready to go beyond the scope of the book.
Lastly, I'm currently re-reading 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' by Douglas Adams out loud to my girlfriend whenever she comes over, since she's never read it and enjoys when I read to her.