Autechre Some thoughts on technicality as part of the process of music

Like I said, I'm not gonna go out to look to cite examples but I just stumbled into this thread.

  On 6/29/2012 at 6:58 PM, xclark said:

Richard James cannot read conventional musical notation and he cannot play a keyboard so, in order to make the piano and prepared piano pieces that appear on 'Drukqs' he prepared his Diskclavier according to the principles established by John Cage and programmed the playing using a computer.[/i]

  On 6/29/2012 at 7:26 PM, Audioblysk said:

He has admitted in a couple interviews he's pretty ignorant of music theory so this would make sense.

  On 6/29/2012 at 11:40 PM, vasio said:

All true, RDJ said in a interview that he couldn't play the keyboard, nothing new

omg aphex can't play a piano. leave that to the weirdos in the relevant subforum.

I wouldn't have said 3/4ths of what I said in thread if it wasn't for responding to Mary C and Sweepstakes. Mary C was all like 'I don't care that Jimi Hendrix didn't practice academic music theory and played by ear, give me examples of artists I would care about that have little interest in music theory.'

Wasn't going to go quoting interviews, scouring the web and shit but I saw that popular thread floating in the recent posts and it's quite relevant to said arguments.

That thread pretty much became an extension of this discussion in a super fan boy way of people saying it doesn't matter what you know, or how many technical skills you have, the devices you use, it's about the end result, the music.

Mary C? OH IT GET ITS A GAY JOKE.

Wow, you're a cool guy!

I don't care about Aphex either so up yours

I know a lot of theory but I find I never really use it for much besides guitar playing (and even then only like 1/3rd the time). Like if I sit down & think "okay time to write a song in this scale with this chord progression" I'll totally but if I sit down & think "okay time to write a song about a grizzly bear coming out of an igloo wearing a stovepipe hat & a Lincoln beard" then bam PRESIDENT ICEBEAR TRAX COMIN RIGHT UP

let the record show that by "theory" I mainly had in mind things like, you know, knowing what key you're in, or what a 5th is. Not things like analyzing whether to use a neopolitan sixth in the 47th measure. I don't even know if that's possible (it certainly sounds boring). Even if it is possible, it probably wouldn't aid the acid composer too much.

As an anecdote for why I think this sort of thing can be important: A few years ago, I met a gentleman on watmm who claimed to have been making electronic music for upwards of five years. He was a very big aphex twin fan, and in fact used the knowledge that RDJ "never learned music theory" to actively avoid knowing any "music theory" himself, claiming that knowing "music theory" would stifle his creativity. His melodic compositions... left more than a bit to be desired. One day I suggested that he try layering the same notes over one of his melodies, but one octave higher. He had no idea what an octave was, and told me to quit trying to talk down to him with theory, lol*. I explained it to him. That is the kind of "theory" that I think people shouldn't actively disregard. It's a pretty extreme example, but seriously. Knowing the definition of an octave is not academic superiority.

*This same guy used to talk down to me for using presets on some of my synths!

That is all I was getting at earlier. And so now I will add: Don't disregard potentially helpful knowledge just because RDJ didn't bother with it either.

That's all. Seriously.

I agree with all the other things that have been said about experimenting, etc. That's where the real fun is. I also agree that I find the math and physics of sound really quite nice and intriguing, and I guess it's easy to assume that others must find it interesting as well, but that is clearly not the case, lol. It's all good.

I've learned quite a bit of music theory and I'm not scared of it. I used to love to talk music majors about music theory but, in the end, I never find it relevant to consciously think about any theory when I'm writing, practicing or playing music. For some people I could see how it could be very helpful, in the 17 years I've been writing songs etc. it's not yet seemed to be something I naturally want or need to be apart of my process.

Again, yeah, I'm just saying follow your heart, if your drawn to learning and practicing a lot of music theory then go for it, you might find it very beneficial. If you're not lost, feel competent in what your trying to do, completely content in your skill set... and you're not interested in it, maybe now is not the time to actively search out music theory.

Different strokes for different strokes.

  On 6/30/2012 at 11:56 AM, Dan C said:

Mary C? OH IT GET ITS A GAY JOKE.

Wow, you're a cool guy!

I don't care about Aphex either so up yours

Wasn't really paying attention to your name, thought you were Gary C.

To be fair i think a lot of (but not all) music theory majors are really kinda pretentious

God fucking damn it. Learn theory, don't learn theory. It doesn't matter. The music is out there, just waiting for you to use your marvelous powers of mind to bring it to life so that it can be enjoyed. That is the only thing that matters in this measly fleeting existence.

Dem octaves

I was basically trying to say what Chimera said, I'm done with this thread. Thanks for da church.

Sorry for capitalizing your name, I know some people think that's offensive. Ha.

Looks like the discussion is over but I am bored so Im going to post in here. I started dinking around with DAWs 3 years ago with zero experience in music and last year I started learning piano and some of the basic music theory principles that are in the lesson books for beginners. Becoming aware of scales, chord progressions, and the mechanics of tension and resolution has made playing around with music software so much more enjoyable. If I don't have any ideas I can use those rules as framework to get started, or if I have a part that sounds like complete crap I can use them to hammer it into shape. I doubt that the great musicians who play by ear are oblivious to these things, if you're going to make a career of music the very basics are essential and probably unavoidable if you are working alongside trained musicians.

Yeah I think both have their pros and cons

I spent a lot of time trying to teach myself how to write melodies. Learning what keys work with what other keys and in what situations.

But with even the small amount of knowledge I picked up came habits. When you know what works sometimes you just reach for that without thinking rather than fucking around and coming up with something completely outlandish.

having said that though, I'd love to learn more music theory. I'd love to have a tight grip on chose changes. When to use them, how to make a melody naturally progress through the change etc etc

  On 7/1/2012 at 12:16 AM, chimera slot mom said:

God fucking damn it. Learn theory, don't learn theory. It doesn't matter. The music is out there, just waiting for you to use your marvelous powers of mind to bring it to life so that it can be enjoyed. That is the only thing that matters in this measly fleeting existence.

Thoroughly enjoyed this post sir.