Web Resources For Visionary Musicians
Written by Michael Garfield Thursday, 14 May 2009 00:31
If you guys (whomever you are) are anything like me, you're avid learners, constantly on the lookout for new knowledge to assimilate and work into your music. The most voracious creative minds display a kind of indiscriminate eagerness for anything that might be eventually reworked into some useful form. The creative process is messy, and inspiration comes from everywhere.
The best ideas come from an utterly universal fascination with music production in any form – acoustic, electronic, vocal, purely conceptual, whatever. A musician's life (especially for a musician on the boundaries and fringes) is as much about learning and integrating new skills and ideas as it is about actually delivering awesome music...and so I'm keen to fold as many different micro-utilities away into my toolkit as possible. Because I never know when some breakbeat is going to get stuck in my head and re-emerge as a guitar rhythm...or when I'll wish I knew how to build my own speakers so I could get an utterly unique tone in my performances...or when all that throat-singing practice in the car will actually bear fruit in the next Great American Pop Song. Learning to LOOK at music leads to new LISTENING experiences. And so on.
Here are a few sites that have inspired me to various degrees (some are merely "huh-worthy," while others are incredible learning resources I've never managed to fully explore). May they carry you deeper into the uncharted waters of your own visionary music...
Brian Grover's Crash Course In Khoomei
Overtone singing, also known as throat-singing, is an awesome vocal discipline in which the harmonic overtones of one's voice are separated and amplified to create strong over- and under-tones in harmony with the fundamental frequency. It was discovered independently by numerous cultures – most of whom lived in frigid polar environments and used it to keep themselves warm – but the Tuvans of central Asia developed it to a remarkable degree, sometimes creating three- and four-part harmonies with a single human body. Brian Grover's mp3 lessons help teach you how to master the fundamentals of this practice. Even if you don't become the next Congar Ol Ondar, you'll still gain valuable insight into the nature and utility of your voice. Plus, you'll probably gain the superpower of being able to scare people's pets.
David Byrne's Survival Strategies For Emerging Artists
This wired.com essay by epic innovator and general badass, Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, not only gives us noobs a thorough rundown on the state of the music industry today, but also goes into great depth about the history of popular music, the nature of record companies, and the various distribution strategies for contemporary artists (plus, which are better choices for whom). It's a very lucid, very engaging report on topics that most other people manage to make extraordinarily boring. Highly encouraged for anyone trying to find their way in the mysterious, changing landscape of the 21st Century music business.
Mr. Fastfinger & GuitarShredShow
Mix Kyle Gass from Tenacious D with Samurai Jack and what do you get? Mr. Fastfinger, who is, paradoxically, both a Finnish electric guitarist AND an anonymously Oriental cartoon guitar guru whose website teaches us young grasshoppers to shred like 7th Degree Black Belts. I really have to give Fastfinger credit – the site is not only engaging and hilarious, but a genuinely worthwhile learning tool. Good stuff. More useful for beginners, but still worth revisiting (even just for laughs) no matter what your level of mastery.
Little-Scale: Water Music
From Sebastian Tomczak's blog little-scale, in which he has given us full plans to build one of the most unique musical instruments I've ever seen: the Toriton, a device that digitally scans the movement of water and translates it into song. You "play" the water itself, and its splashes create melodic output. Predictably impossible to control with the repeatability of something like a piano, but still fertile ground for interactive installation artists and computer geeks alike. Videos on the site let you check out just what this thing is capable of...utter weirdness, apparently.
Shred Academy
When you're ready to take your fretboard work to a level of utter transcendental glory, consider spending some time at the Shred Academy, where badasses like Niels Vejlyt teach you the arcane secrets of guitar wizardry (equally applicable to the bass, banjo, viola, or magic pipe). Loads of helpful videos that I have barely begun to explore demonstrate in exquisite detail a range of techniques I'd never even considered for my own playing. This is like Home Depot for building a temple of music.
Create Digital Music
The title says it all: this is an EXCELLENT source for information on the gear, methods, and mythos of digital music. Interviews with pioneering artists, reviews of new software and equipment, tutorials, event news...if you're into making electrons make noise, here's a must for your RSS feed aggregator.
Brian Grover's Crash Course In Khoomei
Overtone singing, also known as throat-singing, is an awesome vocal discipline in which the harmonic overtones of one's voice are separated and amplified to create strong over- and under-tones in harmony with the fundamental frequency. It was discovered independently by numerous cultures – most of whom lived in frigid polar environments and used it to keep themselves warm – but the Tuvans of central Asia developed it to a remarkable degree, sometimes creating three- and four-part harmonies with a single human body. Brian Grover's mp3 lessons help teach you how to master the fundamentals of this practice. Even if you don't become the next Congar Ol Ondar, you'll still gain valuable insight into the nature and utility of your voice. Plus, you'll probably gain the superpower of being able to scare people's pets.
David Byrne's Survival Strategies For Emerging Artists
This wired.com essay by epic innovator and general badass, Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, not only gives us noobs a thorough rundown on the state of the music industry today, but also goes into great depth about the history of popular music, the nature of record companies, and the various distribution strategies for contemporary artists (plus, which are better choices for whom). It's a very lucid, very engaging report on topics that most other people manage to make extraordinarily boring. Highly encouraged for anyone trying to find their way in the mysterious, changing landscape of the 21st Century music business.
Mr. Fastfinger & GuitarShredShow
Mix Kyle Gass from Tenacious D with Samurai Jack and what do you get? Mr. Fastfinger, who is, paradoxically, both a Finnish electric guitarist AND an anonymously Oriental cartoon guitar guru whose website teaches us young grasshoppers to shred like 7th Degree Black Belts. I really have to give Fastfinger credit – the site is not only engaging and hilarious, but a genuinely worthwhile learning tool. Good stuff. More useful for beginners, but still worth revisiting (even just for laughs) no matter what your level of mastery.
Little-Scale: Water Music
From Sebastian Tomczak's blog little-scale, in which he has given us full plans to build one of the most unique musical instruments I've ever seen: the Toriton, a device that digitally scans the movement of water and translates it into song. You "play" the water itself, and its splashes create melodic output. Predictably impossible to control with the repeatability of something like a piano, but still fertile ground for interactive installation artists and computer geeks alike. Videos on the site let you check out just what this thing is capable of...utter weirdness, apparently.
Shred Academy
When you're ready to take your fretboard work to a level of utter transcendental glory, consider spending some time at the Shred Academy, where badasses like Niels Vejlyt teach you the arcane secrets of guitar wizardry (equally applicable to the bass, banjo, viola, or magic pipe). Loads of helpful videos that I have barely begun to explore demonstrate in exquisite detail a range of techniques I'd never even considered for my own playing. This is like Home Depot for building a temple of music.
Create Digital Music
The title says it all: this is an EXCELLENT source for information on the gear, methods, and mythos of digital music. Interviews with pioneering artists, reviews of new software and equipment, tutorials, event news...if you're into making electrons make noise, here's a must for your RSS feed aggregator.
How To Use "Chord Association" To Write Music
Emon's blog Guitarkadia is a lovely, idiosyncratic feed of cool stuff (mostly, but not entirely, related to guitars). This short article on using the emotional connotations of musical chords to write a song isn't especially world-shaking, but does offer ideas for some very fun creative songwriting exercises. (Instead of writing a song from the theory out – "A, Dm, Bb, F7" – try writing it from the FEELING out – "bravado, tenderness, hope, mystery.") The rest of the blog is peppered with equally interesting tidbits of songster wisdom.
Emon's blog Guitarkadia is a lovely, idiosyncratic feed of cool stuff (mostly, but not entirely, related to guitars). This short article on using the emotional connotations of musical chords to write a song isn't especially world-shaking, but does offer ideas for some very fun creative songwriting exercises. (Instead of writing a song from the theory out – "A, Dm, Bb, F7" – try writing it from the FEELING out – "bravado, tenderness, hope, mystery.") The rest of the blog is peppered with equally interesting tidbits of songster wisdom.
John Cage (@ Wikiquote, @ Youtube)
John Cage was a freakin' genius who challenged our most basic preconceptions of western music. He was also a Zen practitioner, so this modest introduction to his mind is doubly handy for getting you to think about composition in new ways. One of my favorites:
"A finished work is exactly that, requires resurrection."
Future Of Sound
I'm better of just reading you their mission statement:
"A finished work is exactly that, requires resurrection."
Future Of Sound
I'm better of just reading you their mission statement:
"Future of Sound is a not-for-profit organisation that provides a forum for the discussion of new and convergent art forms. By creating immersive experiences using state of the art sound technology Future of Sound showcases leading practitioners in the fields of music and audio design, collaborating with artists and scientists...Future of Sound's aim is to introduce artists working with interdisciplinary art forms to each other, and to create a wider audience for and awareness of new convergent art forms."
Not only do they put on INCREDIBLE concerts and workshops, but their site links to a veritable bottomless treasure chest of cool ideas. If it's inspiration you're looking for, you've come to the right place. Discovering new modes of interdisciplinary art is what these people do for a living!
The Geometry Of Music
Dmitri Tymoczko's professional page at Princeton.edu offers his papers on the visualization of musical intervals and harmonies in multi-dimensional geometry. Hearkening back to the long-neglected wisdom of the Pythagoreans and other brilliant synthesizers, Tymoczko's work allows us to SEE the music we make or hear, to understand the sense of harmony with our eyes...very few things in this world are as fundamentally important to a person's understanding of the sacred potential of the musical language. Plus, he offers ChordGeometries, a program that allows you to diddle around in these mathematical musical spaces on your own computer.
How To Make A Wine Jug Surround Sound System
Once you're writing and performing totally original music, it'd be a shame to have to play it through the same old speakers that everybody else uses. Which might be why wine-o-saurs Carlo Rossi (no kidding!) has made available their instructions for how to convert a closet full of empty wine jugs into a ballin' 6.1 surround sound system. Glass speaker bodies virtually guarantee an awesome new sound for even familiar tunes. Plus, you get to learn volumes about electronics that just might give you a fantastic idea for your next android symphony.
Not only do they put on INCREDIBLE concerts and workshops, but their site links to a veritable bottomless treasure chest of cool ideas. If it's inspiration you're looking for, you've come to the right place. Discovering new modes of interdisciplinary art is what these people do for a living!
The Geometry Of Music
Dmitri Tymoczko's professional page at Princeton.edu offers his papers on the visualization of musical intervals and harmonies in multi-dimensional geometry. Hearkening back to the long-neglected wisdom of the Pythagoreans and other brilliant synthesizers, Tymoczko's work allows us to SEE the music we make or hear, to understand the sense of harmony with our eyes...very few things in this world are as fundamentally important to a person's understanding of the sacred potential of the musical language. Plus, he offers ChordGeometries, a program that allows you to diddle around in these mathematical musical spaces on your own computer.
How To Make A Wine Jug Surround Sound System
Once you're writing and performing totally original music, it'd be a shame to have to play it through the same old speakers that everybody else uses. Which might be why wine-o-saurs Carlo Rossi (no kidding!) has made available their instructions for how to convert a closet full of empty wine jugs into a ballin' 6.1 surround sound system. Glass speaker bodies virtually guarantee an awesome new sound for even familiar tunes. Plus, you get to learn volumes about electronics that just might give you a fantastic idea for your next android symphony.
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