I might be biased, but I loved the episode. And I'm glad you chose this topic to write about, because it certainly seemed to be a theme over the episode that we kept going back to!
I'm a musician, I once loved entertaining people as much as playing, now I only play to entertain myself. Like most musicians, if I was stranded on a deserted Island I'd do everything I could to make something to play music with, short of that I'd make all the music in my head.
Still I'd miss playing music WITH people terribly. Playing with others is a great feeling (when everyone knows their part and it's really working good), it's almost a fusion of the minds, you can literally feel a connection with each other, close to spiritual I suppose. I also suppose this is why hippies like drum circles and churches have you sing too, right?
I wonder why I've never really enjoyed either of those two? I'm guessing it has to do with the level of the skill involved. I might enjoy being part of a choir if they were talented enough though, never tried that.
Still, the act of creation is what I enjoy about music the most. Even when I entertained my favorite part was playing originals or a cover which I'd re-made into my own style. Playing music that sounded like the original was never much fun for me, I can do it and I'm a natural mimic, but I kind of hated the act of imitation.
I'm not even sure that recording music was ever a good idea. I'm sure it helped spread appreciation for different forms of music, but at what cost? Are we more creative because we endlessly listen to the same electronically recreated "performance", have our composers been putting out better music today than prior to recordings? Is the music today more "Human" or more Synthetic? I put performance in quotes because half of them couldn't actually perform the same songs live if they tried without electronic aid.
To be fair I'm sure I picked up some of this thinking from C.S. Lewis. who I loved from a very young age and not just his "children's" books.
> Still, the act of creation is what I enjoy about music the most. Even when I entertained my favorite part was playing originals or a cover which I'd re-made into my own style.
Same here! I had no interest in being a "human jukebox" (as I called it). I still play my own songs in my kitchen; don't write much anymore, though. Did you ever record some of your songs?
I did, we used to give them out or sell CD's at some of our shows and recently I tried to track down some copies but to no avail, I probably have some on old hard-drives or even cassettes someplace. I've been ask recently if I wanted to do some recording, so far I've resisted. The last few times I've been talking into performing live were for benefits, we funded our after school program for three years in a row that way, then covid, hit and funds came in from Uncle Sam instead.
I had CDs, too. Brought them with me everywhere; always had some in the Jeep, just in case. Don't have the CDs or the Jeep anymore. The songs I recorded and released are on streaming platforms. Recordings are nice to have, but I'd rather pick up the guitar and play and sing something live, even for my own enjoyment in my kitchen.
Sorry to hear about Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam butted in to a lot more things since putting forth the #COVIDHoax.
I might be biased, but I loved the episode. And I'm glad you chose this topic to write about, because it certainly seemed to be a theme over the episode that we kept going back to!
We did talk about this theme a lot! The challenge was paring down all my verbiage to make suitable excerpts. Thank goodness for ellipses . . . :-D
I'm a musician, I once loved entertaining people as much as playing, now I only play to entertain myself. Like most musicians, if I was stranded on a deserted Island I'd do everything I could to make something to play music with, short of that I'd make all the music in my head.
Still I'd miss playing music WITH people terribly. Playing with others is a great feeling (when everyone knows their part and it's really working good), it's almost a fusion of the minds, you can literally feel a connection with each other, close to spiritual I suppose. I also suppose this is why hippies like drum circles and churches have you sing too, right?
I wonder why I've never really enjoyed either of those two? I'm guessing it has to do with the level of the skill involved. I might enjoy being part of a choir if they were talented enough though, never tried that.
Still, the act of creation is what I enjoy about music the most. Even when I entertained my favorite part was playing originals or a cover which I'd re-made into my own style. Playing music that sounded like the original was never much fun for me, I can do it and I'm a natural mimic, but I kind of hated the act of imitation.
I'm not even sure that recording music was ever a good idea. I'm sure it helped spread appreciation for different forms of music, but at what cost? Are we more creative because we endlessly listen to the same electronically recreated "performance", have our composers been putting out better music today than prior to recordings? Is the music today more "Human" or more Synthetic? I put performance in quotes because half of them couldn't actually perform the same songs live if they tried without electronic aid.
To be fair I'm sure I picked up some of this thinking from C.S. Lewis. who I loved from a very young age and not just his "children's" books.
> Still, the act of creation is what I enjoy about music the most. Even when I entertained my favorite part was playing originals or a cover which I'd re-made into my own style.
Same here! I had no interest in being a "human jukebox" (as I called it). I still play my own songs in my kitchen; don't write much anymore, though. Did you ever record some of your songs?
C.S. Lewis . . . I used a C.S. Lewis quote to jumpstart an article a couple of months ago: https://goodneighborbadcitizen.substack.com/p/cs-lewis-npr-wikipedia-and-left-brain
I did, we used to give them out or sell CD's at some of our shows and recently I tried to track down some copies but to no avail, I probably have some on old hard-drives or even cassettes someplace. I've been ask recently if I wanted to do some recording, so far I've resisted. The last few times I've been talking into performing live were for benefits, we funded our after school program for three years in a row that way, then covid, hit and funds came in from Uncle Sam instead.
I had CDs, too. Brought them with me everywhere; always had some in the Jeep, just in case. Don't have the CDs or the Jeep anymore. The songs I recorded and released are on streaming platforms. Recordings are nice to have, but I'd rather pick up the guitar and play and sing something live, even for my own enjoyment in my kitchen.
Sorry to hear about Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam butted in to a lot more things since putting forth the #COVIDHoax.