King Frederick William II was a patron of music and his relationship with Mozart is shown in "Amadeus." There's a priceless scene after Mozart debuts one of his pieces and King Frederick says, "It would be perfect except for one thing."
"What could that be, sire?" inquires Mozart.
"Too many notes," replies King Frederick with a flourish. With that, he was off and away.
The story is almost certainly apocryphal as King Frederick William II was not the buffoon the movie portrayed him to be. He looked like a musical clod who was hopelessly ineducable but in actuality he was a talented cellist. He was fat and he was lazy as a statesman but he had many women and loved music. How bad could he be. (Wiki: King Frederick William II of Prussia)
If there are too many notes is irrelevant as, at the top of the mountain, the only thing that's real is the guitar. There's no-one to hear it but that's irrelevant also as the only one who has to hear is you. There is always the possibility you could climb back down and ask if your music has too many notes now but there is no way they could know. So you stay on the mountain where the air is clean and pure and there is the magnificent silence.
(Ed: what's so magnificent about it?)
There's more music in silence than anywhere else. It's not Dorian, Mixolydian, or something only Chick Corea could play. It's every possible music you can imagine. Where else would it be. The only step after that is to chart it on paper.
Listening to silence is unclear to me as it's so long ago that I don't remember if I always did it or it is something I taught myself to do. There are things I had assumed about the perception of music in others but they did not turn out to be true so I wonder. Another assumption is that the hook from a popular song affects everyone the same way and you have the notes of that hook bouncing off the walls in your head for hours, days, weeks ... If that's not true then listening to silence may sound unusual. I really don't know.
Assuming it is true, if you have the time and the patience, you can focus on that hook or whatever notes you like. Play it back by thinking about it. As you start to control the perception of it, you can move it around, add to it, do whatever you like. I really don't believe this is a special skill but rather most people don't do it or don't realize they can.
Something possibly similar is looking at the trees at the bottom of Lotho's backyard in Winter. To all appearance, it's Death. There's a row of tall, skinny trees, probably poplars, and there's scarcely a leaf left on any of them. You might as well be looking at a Moon landing for all the chance of seeing any life.
If you wait patiently and without moving, you will see the life emerge and there's a great deal of it but you won't see anything if you just blow right past. It's the same with silence as many people are even afraid of it, equating it with loneliness. When you get past feeling lonely and have the time and patience, focus on the silence in the same way as those trees and wait for the life to emerge only this time you will put it there.
Some will remember all of a song on one hearing and they don't forget any they have heard. I can't do it and I've wondered if such an ability is really a gift as it would be almost impossible to surprise you. What it confers is that on hearing just about anything, you can play it. Pianists are usually the best at this.
(Ed: so what?)
Genetics, man. Genetics.
Why should humans be able to do this at all. We don't need music to catch animals and eat them. We don't need it to grow crops. We just don't fookin' need it ... but we need it. So why is that.
My favorite example is at Guitar Center. Go out there and watch one of the drum kits they have set up for drummers to evaluate. Every single person who looks at those drums will tap on one of them. I love it that we need this but I have no idea why we need it.
Part of the reason is that drums are the only instrument people can try a sound without it doing something that will embarrass them. If they had the same confidence with other instruments, they would be doing it all over the store and that would be wildly cool to hear although probably not so much if you worked there and listened to it all day long.
(Ed: does it matter?)
I believe it does but it may be better not to know why as to some extent that may widen what you try to accomplish. But ... definitely ... not with too many notes.
"What could that be, sire?" inquires Mozart.
"Too many notes," replies King Frederick with a flourish. With that, he was off and away.
The story is almost certainly apocryphal as King Frederick William II was not the buffoon the movie portrayed him to be. He looked like a musical clod who was hopelessly ineducable but in actuality he was a talented cellist. He was fat and he was lazy as a statesman but he had many women and loved music. How bad could he be. (Wiki: King Frederick William II of Prussia)
If there are too many notes is irrelevant as, at the top of the mountain, the only thing that's real is the guitar. There's no-one to hear it but that's irrelevant also as the only one who has to hear is you. There is always the possibility you could climb back down and ask if your music has too many notes now but there is no way they could know. So you stay on the mountain where the air is clean and pure and there is the magnificent silence.
(Ed: what's so magnificent about it?)
There's more music in silence than anywhere else. It's not Dorian, Mixolydian, or something only Chick Corea could play. It's every possible music you can imagine. Where else would it be. The only step after that is to chart it on paper.
Listening to silence is unclear to me as it's so long ago that I don't remember if I always did it or it is something I taught myself to do. There are things I had assumed about the perception of music in others but they did not turn out to be true so I wonder. Another assumption is that the hook from a popular song affects everyone the same way and you have the notes of that hook bouncing off the walls in your head for hours, days, weeks ... If that's not true then listening to silence may sound unusual. I really don't know.
Assuming it is true, if you have the time and the patience, you can focus on that hook or whatever notes you like. Play it back by thinking about it. As you start to control the perception of it, you can move it around, add to it, do whatever you like. I really don't believe this is a special skill but rather most people don't do it or don't realize they can.
Something possibly similar is looking at the trees at the bottom of Lotho's backyard in Winter. To all appearance, it's Death. There's a row of tall, skinny trees, probably poplars, and there's scarcely a leaf left on any of them. You might as well be looking at a Moon landing for all the chance of seeing any life.
If you wait patiently and without moving, you will see the life emerge and there's a great deal of it but you won't see anything if you just blow right past. It's the same with silence as many people are even afraid of it, equating it with loneliness. When you get past feeling lonely and have the time and patience, focus on the silence in the same way as those trees and wait for the life to emerge only this time you will put it there.
Some will remember all of a song on one hearing and they don't forget any they have heard. I can't do it and I've wondered if such an ability is really a gift as it would be almost impossible to surprise you. What it confers is that on hearing just about anything, you can play it. Pianists are usually the best at this.
(Ed: so what?)
Genetics, man. Genetics.
Why should humans be able to do this at all. We don't need music to catch animals and eat them. We don't need it to grow crops. We just don't fookin' need it ... but we need it. So why is that.
My favorite example is at Guitar Center. Go out there and watch one of the drum kits they have set up for drummers to evaluate. Every single person who looks at those drums will tap on one of them. I love it that we need this but I have no idea why we need it.
Part of the reason is that drums are the only instrument people can try a sound without it doing something that will embarrass them. If they had the same confidence with other instruments, they would be doing it all over the store and that would be wildly cool to hear although probably not so much if you worked there and listened to it all day long.
(Ed: does it matter?)
I believe it does but it may be better not to know why as to some extent that may widen what you try to accomplish. But ... definitely ... not with too many notes.
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