Sorry?
The feelings shown on your face are indeed "expressions".
Here are some common ones:
:D I am happy, or while playing guitar: I am happy while playing guitar.
:( I am sad. or while playing guitar: I must be playing something in D minor.
8) I am cool, or smug, or stoned, or while playing guitar: I am playing jazz...or Robin Trower.
:oops: I'm afraid I made a mistake, or while playing guitar: I am not getting lucky now, that's for sure. Dammit, I shouldn't have played so much Robin Trower.
Unless we are all talking about expression as it applies to the production of milk. In which case we would be talking about an all girl band, something completely different.
For instance:
:roll: Please stop staring at me while I feed my child and play guitar.
All perfectly good guitar expressions.
:lol: :lol: Too funny Nick!! :lol: :lol:
Dan
"The only way I know that guarantees no mistakes is not to play and that's simply not an option". David Hodge
:( I am sad. or while playing guitar: I must be playing something in D minor.
That was a good one ~ Made me laugh, and yet at the same time, made me think of Peter Green.... who was indeed a very sad person :(
Can someone please tell me what that's supposed to mean? How would you know if they are playing with expression, by the faces they make?
I keep hearing this argument and to me it's a bunch of non-sense. It might the listeners interpretation of what he's hearing but the guitar player is playing a bunch of notes.
I disagree.... The 'notes' are on the page, the guitarist is playing 'Music'.
And Music is a form of communication; A language if you will.
Here's something that are just words:
"Alas, Poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that."
-Hamlet, Act Five, Sc.1
Years ago, I had my (then 9 yr. old daughter) read that to me.... It couldn't have been more lifeless and drab and monotone.
I however have this passage memorized, and so after she read it to me, I asked her to follow along as I said it....
And say it with fire I did! :twisted:
That was a breakthru for her as far as reading aloud went.
I'm sure a properly trained Shakespearian actor could 'say' it with even more feeling!
Without the human element - Just words though.
Kinda like; If a tree falls in the forest, does it really make any noise????
Speaking of Peter Green, and of music being likened to a language, maybe this will help you to better understand....
Not too long ago, I posted here that Peter Green has the 'ability to translate feelings into sounds'.
Sounds like you might be trying to visualize musicians translating sounds into feelings.... When actually it's feelings into sound :wink:
If music be the food of love - PLAY ON!
Ken
"The man who has begun to live more seriously within
begins to live more simply without"
-Ernest Hemingway
"A genuine individual is an outright nuisance in a factory"
-Orson Welles
I agree with CitiZenNoir, inflection is everything. Check out this Shakespeare.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwbB6B0cQs4
OK, that wasn't Shakespeare, but inflection is just as important in comedy as in music. Why can one person tell a joke and bring down the house with laughter, while another person tells the same joke and gets blank stares?
DELIVERY
And the same with music. Some players know how to deliver, others don't. Check out Carlos Santana especially the solo around 1:33 in the song, if you think this is just notes, try to play it.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
That link didn't work for me........ what song was it?
Now lets clear this up....... I know music is subjective and that other people may not hear the same things as you do but the fact of the matter is if music is just someone "playing a bunch of notes" then why do you bother listening to it at all? Why can't people play ANY notes if thats what music is. The truth is in the case of a classical piece the composer chooses every note carefully and if he's writing for other instruments too it's even more work. In rock it's a bit different, I felt that with Trower he was improvising a lot of what he played of course I haven't seen him night after night so I could be wrong. Obviously he uses the same tools as any guitar player, scales, though he probably does it by ear a lot, chords etc. To me though the notes though important are only part of the game, the timing plays a big part too. It's why I find most tab (online) irrelevant unless you have a piece of audible music to match up with it. Anyway I can't agree with cnev you it just seems you're seeing music as too much of a science which in reality I don't believe it is, the majority of rock players use the same kind of scales so they know the "bunch of notes" that most people play but generally they all have different styles. Hendrix and Gilmour used many of the same notes but they're completely different, it's the way the individual puts it across. Of course there is no real meter by which we can judge expression everyone has different opinions on that but even a child could understand the basics of it by "that sounds sad" or "that sounds happy" and so expression in music is most likely more than just a theory.
together we stand, divided we fall..........
Citizen
If I can use Wes' term inflection that's not passion or emotion it's something different. Delivery has nothing to do with emotion or passion either. If someone wasn't delivering the music correctly which would be playing at the correct tempo etc. then they wouldn't be playing the piece correctly.
And flea I disagree with your disagreement of my statement..Ha but at the end of the day they are still playing a set of notes which eiter are played correctly, correct tempo, right delivery etc or they are not. The end result will elicit a reaction for the listener..you all are calling that passiionate playing, but that's your reaction to what you hear not necessarily the guitar players emotional state.
Put it this way if I had two versions of the same song and we played it and you couldn't see the guitar player and in one version he was sitting in a chair yawning while playing it and the other time he was jumping around really getting into but played the notes the same way with the same delivery, inflection etc...I'd bet you wouldn't know the difference.
Your analogy of reading Shakespeare is to me the same but diferent. The reason your young daughter's version of reciting Hamlet didn't sound right was because she wasn't reciting correctly there's a diffence there.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
ah, so what we should be saying is does the playing elicit an emotional response in the listener?
For some the answer will be yes and for some no. And that is why some people like some music and some don't.
ah, so what we should be saying is does the playing elicit an emotional response in the listener?
For some the answer will be yes and for some no. And that is why some people like some music and some don't.
Playing Columbo to make a fundamental point that so many seem to miss?
These threads on taste/expression/(alleged-)emotion/best-era-of-music are getting all mixed up among themselves.
(RJS08: Punk set coming -- you in?)
-=tension & release=-
Of course, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, The Vibrators?
I'm in.
