General Music Chat

philbymon: though I don't doubt your chili and hotsauce is godly! Yum!!
Everything you mentioned is a craft not an art.

Art in new flavors and visually...

You are an artist of many hats Paul!

I guess I would consider a chefs work art.

Anything creative is art, I think, not to get anything started, I just think when you create soemthign from your imagination it is art. 12 bar blues provides a structure to hold the words up, although it gest redundant to me an original blues song came from somehwere.

I like to cook myself and recently had a couple of bannanas going bad. I was making a roast and put the sliced bannanas in there. They came out looking like black scallops, but they had soaked in the flavor of everything else I threw in there. My GF thought they were great and maybe the best part, cause it was an afterthought and a suprise the way they turned out. I dont know if I would quilify that as art or not, cause I threw them in cause I knew they would go bad in the next day or so, Why waste it when you can taste it?

I think lots of people on here are connected to their inner child and have the ability to tap into the music that surrounds us and turn it into thier own. I guess thats what I was trying to simplify and say fromt the first of this thread.

If you like this subject a great movie along these lines is "August Rush"

You are an artist of many hats Paul!

I wish I could say that was mine. It would save me $75 - $90 every time we wanted sushi.

I got that at the best Sushi restaurant in Roanoke. Ben Gui. Dude is a genius!
http://www.benguisushi.com/

Well you took the picture no?

I'm quite sure if you wanted you could make the same beautiful plate.

Naturally most of us here believe that music is the most important art but we're biased. I consider myself an artist who tries various mediums, music is but one of them (although most people prefer my music over my painting!).

I did take the picture. I would love to get into that art!! I too play with many art forms.

I played with my old drivers license here in mspaint.



And here is some real cheese from 89 when I was 18.

Paul thats great, but when I first saw the drivers License Andy Koffman came to mind!

Thanks, that's funny! From that pic I hear "the white prince", Michael Hutchins from INXS, and sometimes Robert Downey Jr.

It comes from Barry Manilow. He is music and he writes the songs...

LOL

That means that Barry Manilow is god too then!

Who knew?


You had me laughing my ass off Bob!

Good thing I wasn't drinking a soda, it would have come through my nose for sure!

LMAO!!!

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hell I don't get it either JW.
this is the first thing on my bio:

"I am but a slave to the song. I have no power. only the song has power. power to heal, to wound, to indulge. I make nothing. I only drink from the pool of the powers that be"

They just come. most times they come complete and it's a race to get it all down before it fades.

Of course, there are MANY forms of "art", just as there are many forms of beauty, and many forms of inspiration.

However...

Music is the highest and purest form of art. It is more powerful than ANY other form of art, it is the most primitive and ancient, it is most closely related to us than any other art form, and it is the ONLY art form we experience BEFORE birth.

No other art form even comes close to the relationship between humans and music.

As I have posted before, string theory, which is becoming widely accepted among the scientific community, proposes that all matter is formed at it's most rudimentary level by tiny strings, which vibrate. These strings vibrate in differeing ways, which produces the variations we see in matter itself.

We ALL know, as musicians, that VIBRATION is what produces sound itself, and makes music possible. Knowing that MATTER ITSELF is likely the result of vibrating "strings" brings a whole new understanding and appreciation for the power of music, the power of vibration.

As I state on my MySpace page...


CRAIG'S MUSICAL PHILOSOPHY:

"Above all, I believe that music has the power to heal and open hearts and minds. It is a universal language, which is understood regardless of language barriers, through emotion and the vibration of pitch and tone."

"In fact, according to "String Theory" which may be the holy grail of physics, uniting both Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, all matter at the sub atomic level, is actually made of "strings" that vibrate in differing ways to compose matter. In other words, all matter may be made of the same substance, but "vibrates" in different ways to produce the variations we see in matter. As any musician knows, it is "vibrations" which produce sound itself, and makes music possible. So, the universe itself, may in fact be, one enormous and incredibly beautiful symphony."

"My friend, you and I, are "movements" in the most complex and moving "symphony" ever composed!"

- Craig Maxim




In a sense, it could be said that we were CREATED using "Music".

Before birth, we cannot "see" in the womb, but we can HEAR!!! There is a story I know of, where a woman was speaking to her mother on the phone. She was a mother herself and a housewife as her mother was. Her mother heard a certain song in the background, and recognized it. I don't recall which song it was now, but let's say it was "You are the Sunshine of my life". And her mom, said "Oh, you're listening to You are the Sunshine of my life!" and her daughter replied "Yes, it's been a rough day, and I don't know why, but whenever I listen to this song, it relaxes me and seems to make things better." - The mother replied "I know why. Because when I was pregnant with you, and I was feeling overwhelmed and stressed out, I would just STOP whatever I was doing, put that song on, close my eyes and just sit on the couch, take a deep breath, and listen to that song. It would calm me down, and just make me feel better."

It is understood medically, that fetuses have ears and can hear, while in the womb. But stories like this, takes that to a whole new level. The child, has HEARD, RESPONDED TO, and BEEN INFLUENCED BY... music, even at the fetal stage. This is VERY powerful my friends. VERY PRIMITIVE and makes the sense of HEARING one of our earliest and most influential senses.

What does "white noise" affect us? Because we are surrounded by amniotic fluids during our growth and development inside the womb. The most safe and secure we EVER were, was inside our own mothers. The fluid surrounds our ears, and it is white noise. Later in life, well after birth and even into adulthood.... "white noise" brings us back to that safe, warm, protected environment psychologically, and it relaxes us.

Additionally,

Music is our FIRST language, that we understand. Well before we learn languages such as French, German or English, our mothers speak to us in a sing/song language, that is UNIVERSAL.

ALL MOTHERS - EVERYWHERE - Sing this "language" INSTINCTUALLY, to their babies before they have learned to speak, and before they understand the words. Researchers have identified this "language" and found that it is not only universally SPOKEN by mothers everywhere, in every culture and language, but the children UNDERSTAND this language, no matter WHICH LANGUAGE it is spoken in! In other words, a aboriginal baby, will respond to this nonsensical sing/song language even when spoken by a British mother, using the English language.

MUSIC IS TRANSCENDENT!!!

Even as children, music is universally UNDERSTOOD and communicated through, even BEFORE any of the world's languages are learned.

Similarly, as adults too, we can hear a particular MELODY from a Chinese Opera Company for example, in their native language, and though none of us may know the Chinese language, WE WILL KNOW easily, whether the song is a happy song, or a sad song, or an angry song, etc...

WE CAN KNOW THIS - OUTSIDE OF KNOWING THE LANGUAGE SUNG!!!

So...

MUSIC:

In a sense, makes up the physical universe, makes up matter itself.
It is among our earliest USABLE senses.
It influences us, EVEN IN THE WOMB!
It is the FIRST LANGUAGE we speak, and communicate in.

And one final and powerful part of music as art...

IT PASSES THROUGH OUR BODIES!

Paintings can be seen. Sculptures can be touched. Food can be ingested, and go through our digestive tracks....

The vibrations of MUSIC, pass THROUGH every cell in our bodies. The sound waves, LITERALLY go through us! Whether someone wants them to or not. I can choose NOT to look at a painting. I can choose NOT to eat a pastry. I CANNOT REFUSE the vibrations of sound waves passing through my body, I would have to leave the room and maybe even the entire neighborhood and city, since sound waves go out centrically from a source and continue outward, through people, buildings, through the atmosphere.

NO OTHER ART FORM, is as intrinsically connected to us, even on a creational level, as music is.

NOTHING IS AS POWERFUL.

NOTHING IS AS MEANINGFUL.

NOTHING IS AS UNIVERSAL.


As Etu correctly pointed out. It REALLY is, artistically, our connection to the divine.

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Craig, thanks for postin that, I didnt want to cut and paste it.

Craig, thanks for postin that, I didnt want to cut and paste it.

Oh, you could cut and past anything you want brother. If I put it out there, it was meant for people to share.

But that was not the original article I had posted before. The only cut and paste was from the small MySpace quote.

This was all just from my philosophy and understanding of all this. I have posted most of it, in pieces here and there, at one time or another.

But I appreciate the thread renewing the discussion. Gav me a chance to reflect on it all some more.

That didn't really answer "where does music come from" though, as much as answering WHAT music is, and WHY it is so powerful.

I'll be adding a little more later, if that's cool.

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Craig for me. I mean I get inspired in a variety of ways. My gf and I talk about all kinds of stuff and some phrase will come up, something like "Be a good girl and roll over" or "Be a good boy and roll over", which just leads to a flow of words ideas and emotions that I feel I should capture somehow. Like a lighting bug and i need to do something with it before it dies on me.

One of the songs i just wrote, she always says Im the love of her life and I refer to her as my Sunshine Soulmate, so I wrote a song SunSHine Soulmate, you will hear it soon. Then theres this thing I wrote These Guns Are Loaded, I remember reading about a guy walking into a church somehere and unloading his gun twice and walking down the street only to be killed by the police, and it just came to me in a flash and I just happened to write it down. It fit the music I posted here and i will record my vocals on it tonight. Another one Rock N Roll Ho, the last gf I had couldnt stand the word HO or Whore, which I understand why she couldnt stand it, but I would always say, that I am a Rock N Roll Ho. I just took an AC/DC sounding thing and recorded it, what you hear on the demo and while I was at it I recorded some vocals to get the idea of the song. Its jsut one of those rockin anthem sort of things written to get the crowd up. I actually on guns and ho, made up the music with no intent on the vocals and recorded the base tracks cause i was going to let our singer fill it is, since he hasnt gotten around to it I mgoint to finish it and just keep it for my own. Save The Last Dance, I specifically was going after a slow dance number for my band cause we dont have any, of course they didnt want anything to do with it, so Ive got a nice little slow dance song in my bag of tricks. It was written from observations I made sitting in bars and looking at guys and gals hooking up near closing time. I would call it a forced manufactured song meant to fit a format.

If you listen deeper in my player theres the song The Day That Jesus Died, I originally called it Lies and it had some nasty lyrics about pain and suffering form a loved on that I was going thru at the time. I dumped the words and used the bible to write it. Funky Bee is another about a person that you cnat trust with information or secrets, something I wnet thru at that time, but it moved me at the time. I cant even relate to the emotions I was feeling then, but something pushed me to do the song.

Lots of times I turn on an electric guitar and amp and just start practicing scales or cover songs and I stumble onto a variations. The groving stuff like guns, I turn on my phone voice note and jsut record it as Im putting it together and then over time fill in the gaps. I do this cause it just has a good feel to me, doesnt mean its good or anything jsut that I like the feel.

Ive had a lot of female pain and heartache over the past 6-7 years and that has transfered itself into lyrics to songs. A lot of time I willjust get a melody going and fill in behind it. Or I might jsut paly a standard prgression and get new words for it.

Its just hard to explain where this comes from. I mean, like I said I think its just floating around in the cosmos on some station that maybe only I can tune into. If I dont grab it it is gone as quick as it came.

I think that most of my life and even now Ive stayed young at heart, either thru music, racing motorcycles, fighting, shooting guns, racing cars, all the extreme stuff I used to do, snow boarding, skate boarding, BMX, I draw but on a very rudimentary scale, poetry, or hell even word play in conversation, cooking, traveling and I guess since the wife dumped me the pursuit and quest for knowledge on how to really make a woma happy. In short Ive kept the inner child open. When I go to partys that have kids around 9 times out of 10 I wind up playing with the kids cause i find the basic grownup talk boring to me.

I think all creative artistic people have kept this line of communication open somehow, maybe its spiritual maybe it just is, but some of us are in tune and not scared to try to capture this stuff while its happening.

But when I really think about it, where and why does it happen? Im not questioning it because without all my crazy stuff I do I think I would be very boring or maybe even postal, cause I have that side too, but the pursuit of art and beautiful things keeps that side in balance somehow. Plus Im a super competitive person and want to be the best at anything I do, not that I am, but I do push hard in that way.

Im rambling again, sorry its just cool to hear other peoples take on this stuff.