Aphex already did it

[toaoaoad]

2 hours ago, brian trageskin said:

if you haven't done so already, learn how to play piano or guitar. study rhythm and harmony. learn how to improvize. should keep you busy for a while lol 

listen to jazz [...] and classical, contemporary, baroque. listen to blues, gospel, bluegrass, country. listen to music from other parts of the world too. should keep you busy too lol

oh and don't give me any of that "oh but i listen to all kinds of music man" crap because that's not true. if that was true you wouldn't be aiming to achieve afx level of goodness because you wouldn't give 2 shits about that

Tregaskin makes some bold statements lol but I 100% second this part. Some people resist getting a "proper" music education because they fear that it will somehow "stifle their creativity". Not saying this is your take on it but it's a common opinion I've heard, mostly from singer-songwriter types who all write the same song over and over lol.  The fact is you're most likely working within the Western system of music (with significant African influences) whether you're consciously aware of it or not, so you might as well learn how it works. The bit about "stifling creativity" has more to do with having to slow down and maybe backtrack a bit as you break down things you already "know" and look at them in a new way, from the ground up. Some people find that process really painful but that mostly has to do with ego. The process can actually be incredibly fun, especially if you're coming from a place of feeling blocked - what better time to reframe everything you know? In the end you are liberated by knowing the rules because then you know how and why to bend or break them. (Bebop first, and then free jazz lol)

Of course if you already play an instrument/have studied music then completely ignore this lol. Maybe it will be helpful to someone else who reads it. 

Another exercise that I've found really helpful is to try to write something bad on purpose. Make the stupidest most derivative track you can think of. Concerned that aphex has already done everything (he hasn't btw)? Then make a track that sounds as much like you're copying aphex as possible. Chances are you will do something original by accident. It's reverse psychology and it works, and even if you really succeed in making a really bad track you'll probably have more fun in the process, because you release the need to make something good, which is the cause of suffering. Plus the more bad tracks you make the more likely it is that eventually you'll make a good one. 

tl;dr Most of all it should be fun. If music is something you really need to keep in your life, find a way to make it fun again. If it's not fun anymore then you're right to focus your attention somewhere else for a bit. Who knows how you might feel later on, or when inspiration might strike again. 

[Brisbot]

I don't agree. It's more like he just did his version of it. 

I love aphex as much as the next guy here but if you really think this then maybe it's time to take a break from Aphex and listen to other artists who have their own unique sound that Aphex probably wouldn't be able to emulate without sounding like himself in some way.

[Braintree]

You should make music because you like to, not because you'll be any good at it.

[zlemflolia]

nothing can get you into the music making mood more than listening to shitty music which is actually really good

[dingformung]

25 minutes ago, toaoaoad said:

(Bebop first, and then free jazz lol)

If you are a jazz musician that order makes sense. I guess. But as a listener that doesn't need to concern you

[toaoaoad]

2 minutes ago, dingformung said:

If you are a musician that order makes sense

fixt 

[dingformung]

Okay, got it. DON'T ever listen to free jazz before you listened to A LOT of bebop

[Himelstein]

Don’t give up, especially not during Covid. Everyone is pissed and the negativity is boiling over the top. At least wait until the world is back to as normal as it can be before making or even considering any huge life choices. 
 

If you listen to enough music you will find stuff afx was influenced by, just like every artist going back though existence. Heaven 17, Steve Roach, Orbital, Cluster...... of course I do get it. I remember when druqs came out I was like “well, that’s it.” And I guess in some ways there hasn’t really been anything that has blown me away (progress-wise) in the realm or “pushing the boundaries of electronic music” but there is so much more to music.

I agree to learn a new instrument, or device. Get into modular gear, pedals, or something that you’ve never experimented with. It’s like playing with toys or video games. Just because those He-man figures are boring you, maybe try transformers. 

[toaoaoad]

1 minute ago, dingformung said:

Okay, got it. DON'T ever listen to free jazz before you listened to A LOT of bebop

lol

I was kinda just pulling your tits there but yeah - the thread is about a musician considering giving up music, and my response was about studying music. So it makes sense, from the perspective of studying music, with the intention of learning how and why it has historically been done the way it's been done, and then seeking to find your own voice within that context, to do things in that order. 

You're making an argument that has more to do with being a listener. Obviously a listener can do whatever they want, I figure that goes without saying. 

[dingformung]

Just now, toaoaoad said:

You're making an argument that has more to do with being a listener. Obviously a listener can do whatever they want, I figure that goes without saying. 

I'm making no argument, I was responding to:

3 hours ago, brian trageskin said:

listen to jazz (not free jazz, free jazz is terrible and has no application - listen to bebop) and classical, contemporary, baroque. listen to blues, gospel, bluegrass, country. listen to music from other parts of the world too. should keep you busy too lol

And wondered why he thinks there is no application for free jazz as a listener.

[toaoaoad]

5 hours ago, toaoaoad said:

Tregaskin makes some bold statements lol

 

 

 

EDIT:  btw maybe it wasn't immediately obvious but I had [edited out] that part of BT's post when quoting/agreeing with it. I get where he's coming from but I suspect he's also trolling a bit lol (and yall took the bait) 

Edited March 9, 2021 by toaoaoad

[Psychotronic]

Only if you give up you can free yourself from the pressure of making music and really be a musician. You need to let loose and remove any kind of restraint or control over yourself mentally and physically. Only if you loose your humanity and identity fully, then the door opens.

[brian trageskin]

1 hour ago, dingformung said:

Fair enough, but how does that make free jazz "not applicable"?

not applicable in most situations for musicians

34 minutes ago, dingformung said:

If you are a jazz musician that order makes sense. I guess. But as a listener that doesn't need to concern you

even as a listener, that's doing things backwards imo: say you know nothing about  j  a  z  z  but you're curious about it. if your 1st contact with  j  a  z  z  is  f r e e  j  a  z  z , you might get the impression that jazz is about either going batshit crazy on the sax in a surrealist manner, or playing elevator music that for some reason some old farts seem to appreciate. following that impression your curiosity for jazz might be ruined and you might move to something else

the problem here is that your brain couldn't make much sense of what was going on when joe saxo did his thing because there's no frame of reference: no tonal direction, no repeating patterns, no sense of structure overall, it's all very chaotic to your ears.

as a listener, what's there to learn or gain from that? saxophone go brrrrrrr? no man, you're doing it backwards. get familiar with more conventional music languages first and then go listen to john zorn go berserk. doing so is more likely to broaden your horizons and deepen your understanding and appreciation of music. imo

 

[Himelstein]

I almost said to read the Arcana: Musicians on Music books edited by John Zorn, because they have so much useful info for this type of dilemma, or line of thinking. I love Zorn and all that Tzadik stuff. Definitely another cool little esoteric chunk of the underground music world. Maybe the furthest underground you can even go, while still having people like Dave Lombardo or Bill Laswell contributing.

[brian trageskin]

1 hour ago, toaoaoad said:

Another exercise that I've found really helpful is to try to write something bad on purpose. Make the stupidest most derivative track you can think of.

yeah that approach is quite popular on the web these days. it's a brilliant idea imo. a youtuber i like in the music theory community is ben levin, who has this punk ethos/devil-may-care attitude towards music making. his music is terrible imo but he couldn't care less, it's all about the process and getting shit done 

 

[ignatius]

nothing really mattress. for cereal. do what you fungible NFT about it. 

[psn]

I like Mononeon's Art Manifesto. 

[J3FF3R00]

8 hours ago, dingformung said:

Aphex Twin's rhythms are bad imitations of African music. Even their sound design is better (advanced physical modelling)

Stockhausen agrees with you...

Stockhausen On Aphex Twin (1995):

“I heard the piece Aphex Twin of Richard James carefully: I think it would be very helpful if he listens to my work Song Of The Youth, which is electronic music, and a young boy’s voice singing with himself. Because he would then immediately stop with all these post-African repetitions, and he would look for changing tempi and changing rhythms, and he would not allow to repeat any rhythm if it were varied to some extent and if it did not have a direction in its sequence of variations.”

 

Funny thing is, after KS said that, Richard started recording more songs with his own voice, as well as kid voices. 

Edited March 9, 2021 by J3FF3R00

[Zephyr_Nova]

Aphex Twin, while great, covers such a narrow spectrum of electronic music, let alone music as a whole.  So rather than quit music, maybe just take a break from the Aphex and tap into the endless inspiration out there beyond teh phex.  He hasn't really covered that much ground, he's just good at putting his stamp on whatever it is he's doing.  Find your stamp!

[drillkicker]

If you're thinking about quitting music, you've been making it for the wrong reasons and you probably don't understand what music really is.  Personally, I see it as a form of therapy.  It's a means of comforting myself when I have nothing else.  It's a form of prayer at times, at other times it's simply something to keep my mind and body busy.  It isn't something I can live without.  I have tried to do so and always found a way to keep making music even I've deprived myself of all instruments.  The same will probably happen to you.

I wonder, if you were to quit music, what would you replace it with ?  You mentioned making money, but that doesn't fill the role in your life that music currently occupies, unless of course you were making music for the wrong reasons.  Even ancient nomads found the time and energy to make music in between hunting and foraging.

6 hours ago, brian trageskin said:

ree jazz is terrible and has no application - listen to bebop

Coltrane would disagree with you, and I guarantee that he knew more about jazz than you do.

[cruising for burgers]

IF A TREE FALLS IN THE JUNGLE DOES IT BREAK OR BECOME STAIRS???

_Stockhausen

 

[Alcofribas]

love to be on the music forum discussing what order you’re supposed to listen to music in. such stimulate. wow

[brian trageskin]

24 minutes ago, drillkicker said:

Coltrane would disagree with you, and I guarantee that he knew more about jazz than you do.

coltrane can suck my balls

[dingformung]

28 minutes ago, J3FF3R00 said:

Stockhausen agrees with you...

Stockhausen On Aphex Twin (1995):

“I heard the piece Aphex Twin of Richard James carefully: I think it would be very helpful if he listens to my work Song Of The Youth, which is electronic music, and a young boy’s voice singing with himself. Because he would then immediately stop with all these post-African repetitions, and he would look for changing tempi and changing rhythms, and he would not allow to repeat any rhythm if it were varied to some extent and if it did not have a direction in its sequence of variations.”

 

Funny thing is, after KS said that, Richard started recording more songs with his own voice, as well as kid voices. 

What kind of "post-African repetitions" is Stockhausen talking about? The repetitiveness and lack of BPM changes are the least African part about AFX' music. What's wrong with repetition anyway?

[brian trageskin]

i know nothing about jazz btw. jazz sucks anyway