The Ideology of Musicianship and the Cultivating Of The American Mind

Education in Israel : Jerusalem, kid’s orchestra, circa 1940

As a medium-duty journeyman musician, music — as a business, as an art, as a curse, and as a blessing — has been hugely influential in my life. Starting with cello in orchestra at age 5 or so, and singing soprano in a boys choir until my voice cracked like dawn, the styles of music I was exposed to in my youth ran the entire gamut, with various adjectives to skew my attitude. Blues, for example, was cheap, dirty nightclub music. (Forgot to mention dad played sax and crooned in a nightclub when they met…)

The main point is that my ear was trained to hear musicianship and artistry in music. To hear tonality and tonal qualities. To listen to the interactions of the players. This is where I lament the condition of music in the 21st century. That conversation is gone in favor of ranch-flavored pablum formulated from previous hits and recycled through a well-established system of pattern recognition.

That is to say; there is no variety in today’s music.

My transition from an academic-based music career, or avocation, to a more realistic version of music as a product followed the ideology of musicianship above all else. Yes, Rush, Deep Purple, War, Duke, Wonder, Clapton… all the cats who displayed diversity in musicianship in their products. The range of tones, the ability to incorporate a wide-ranging Rolodex of musicians from around the world were instrumental to earning my hard-earned and scarce legal tender.

Performances, on the other hand, are an entirely different matter. It doesn’t take much more than a bloated ego to perform. Anytown, USA Tuesday Night Karaoke events are proof enough of that. On the high-end of that spectrum I will present AC/DC for an anecdote. Don’t get me wrong, AC/DC is one of the most amazing shows you can experience. My up-close experience was in Albuquerque in 1984.

I was a student at UNM and a student volunteer of the Popular Entertainment Committee. We brought all kinds of acts to our campus-owned venues. Popejoy Hall, where I had performed in operas with my mother, was hosting Al DiMeola, and our arena, “The Pit,” the very building, where the Wolfpack had won the NCAA tournament just the year before, was hosting AC/DC with Yngwie Malmsteen opening on the same night.

I had a student-venue pass. I came with the buildings. There was no “off-limits” to me. It. Was. AWESOME.

I got to see Dingbat’s set and a bit of AC/DC’s extravaganza before heading back to Popejoy Hall for the DiMeola show. Keep in mind that not all the jobs the student volunteers do are fun and glamorous. We are gophers and runners. Enter Dingbat Einstein in full leather regalia to catch the back-end of Al’s set. Woah. As a guitar player I was just itching to violate the integrity of being a good host; not asking for an autograph.

Thankfully, I didn’t need to. I did get to chat a moment with both. Yngwie’s thick Swedish accent was a challenge, but easily enough understood, as was my admiration for his musicianship utilizing classical forms, part of childhood upbringing. Al, as well, with his run of jazz material since my early days of discovering 8-tracks left in the car by my step-brother. The variety of musical styles and tones between these two men can’t be understated. Al gently took my nervously-curled program from my hands and penned a wonderful “Thank You” note, then handed it back to me, but not before Yngwie showed the same generosity, having seen me at The Pit earlier in the day as part of the crew laying the protective flooring and erecting scaffolding when he came to survey the venue.

Recently I was exposed to the American Music Award winners “Daft Punk.” So, beyond the “Tron: Legacy” soundtrack, not much there, really, musically. And here we enter the uncomfortable territory of quantifying the subjective. I hereby posit that music can quantifiably suck at the high-end and low-end of the musicality spectrum.

Points I consider to further the art of music are in 2 categories: lyrics and music. Not always do they come from the same person, but its not uncommon, either. James Taylor and Jim Croce come to mind when combining world-class musicianship with world-class songwriting abilities.

As to the former, lyrics are, as we learned from Dylan, are a form of literature. A good song’s lyrics should not require music. In fact, the terms used when describing poems and lyrics are of the same reference; verse and stanza most notably. Repeating sections, as a chorus, are not uncommon in poetry. And, as we can all attest from personal experience, Dylan was not the greatest musician or singer to ever grace the earholes, but the songs were really strong because the lyrics were strong. Dylan, therefore, passes as not-bad music.

To the latter I bring a number of examples if only because I am a musician, not a poet. While I, among others, can relate to many a lyric, producing them myself is quite the existential challenge. Since there are many examples, from those mentioned earlier and beyond, the cases musicianship driving the songs has many examples. Eddie Van Halen was what made Van Halen work. He knew when not to play, and how to play when the lyrics were being performed. He revolutionized the 4-piece band sound in so many ways, and it was due to the level of musicianship. The instrumental success in creating not-bad was largely left to the jazz players.

There are those who took musicianship beyond the bounds of what could be qualified as effective music, but far exceeds the requirements for artistic development. Chick Corea, one of the most amazing musicians to ever grace the planet, took the piano in places never dreamed possible. Notes and tones and runs that defied comprehensions, and, therefore did not land well with a large audience. There are many musicians of this caliber I admire greatly, while at the same time. I full understand why the weren’t as successful in album sales as they were in leaving a wealth of material artists will be studying for the rest of time. It was pure art. It was art because it hadn’t been made, yet. It is incredible work, much of which I don’t understand, but I do appreciate it for the artistry behind it.

In the middle are cats like Sting and Clapton who matured throughout their careers, redefining themselves time and again to allow their musicianship to expand. “The Dream of the Blue Turtles” could not have been released during the “Outlandos De Amour” period as the sounds were just not going to work for either project, and the audience would be left really confused because… are you ready for it?

A nefarious, formulaic addiction had infected the American music conscience beyond salvation. We now expect the chorus to come after the 2nd verse, which has a bit of a hook-break between verse one and verse 2. This is one component of a playbook of hit-making secrets in the dark underbelly of made-for-public-consumption entertainment factories. I will harken back to AC/DC. Not the greatest musicians in the world, not the most artistically-derived lyrics ever penned, but they are still one of the top-grossing acts of all time. How does such a level of admittedly mediocre musicianship and inane blathering sell so well? One secret has become a running joke among “educated” musicians: AC/DC has only ever written one song, but it is 7 albums long.

The consistency of these formulae is on blatant display in the country music chart toppers. There are hundreds of videos online where the presenter overlaps hit songs, sometimes 7 or 8 at a time, and demonstrates how close the formulas are to each other. There is a very narrow window of difference between them. These presenters will then randomly cut parts from the songs, which are synchronized, and the result sounds like a hit song with very little variation when cutting from one song to another. In these cases the lyrics are not doing much to further separate of the songs. Common themes, nouns, elements, and adjectives are a few of the changes to an overall landscape that is as mundane as it is repetitive.

Now that we, Hominus Americanus, are completely anesthetized to art in musical form, I would like present a solution. It won’t be fun, and won’t be quick, but it will help in more ways than can be encapsulated in this insignificant rant: let your kids be horrible screeching little monsters. Hell, pick up an instrument and make some horrible sounds yourself. Get into the stream of progressing; sucking a little less each day. Developing more than a passing understanding of making music, but the “soft-sided” benefits that enhance logic, reasoning and recognizing abstract patterns. There are memes that encourage writing a poem, even if its a bad poem. Learn how to play songs you like, make songs of your own. Express yourself.

Only through the cultivation of musical appreciation can we avoid the Cheetos of art that is currently of popular dietary concern. Just as we are becoming more aware of the effects of processed foods and lack of exercise as counter-productive to the human condition, so, too, are these elements true of the artistic expression required for proper mental health. Mental obesity I would liken to the ill effects of things like violent or dark thoughts, extremism and the like.

And I won’t limit it to music, it’s just the strongest example I have experience with. On paper, I share many of the same childhood elements with a majority of killers and criminals. The encouragement to explore music is, I honestly, truly believe, what altered my path. My brother is extremely gifted in both visual art across a multitude of mediums as well as songwriting on par with today’s best. He is another testament to my point.

What happened? From the time the child can hold a crayon we give them reams of dried, pressed and bleached tree pulp to freely express themeless and explore their connections and capabilities as freely as we let them crap their brightly-colored, and often emblazoned with copyright-controlled and fully-licensed characters from hit block-buster movies elastic form-fitting shit-snatchers.

Education happens. From age 6 every child in this country is required to enter into an establishment of education that is recognized and accredited by the state. The focus in the establishment is the maintenance of a bloated and under-guided administration of ridiculous confusion. I cannot and will not continue much further down this rabbit hole other than to recognize and explore a few of the points raised in those conversations.

Educators are required to continue their education. This is fine, but its expensive. This, coupled with the recently-excluded tax deductions for purchases required for an effective classroom environment, makes teaching a not-so-lucrative career, and nobility, for all its values, won’t pay the bills. Another aspect raised in the education conversations is the budgets of various sectors of the administration. The two biggest money-grabbers among most of the “notable” schools in the country are administration and sports, football receiving the lion’s share.

Think about the latter for a second. Anyone who ever suffered the bullying of the sports figures in school can attest to their arrogance based on their “elitist” status in a state-funded program that cranks out oversized “me-first” bullies by the squadron. The “team dynamic,” touted as a benefit of billions of dollars of educational monies across the nation, is actually the nebulous macrocosm of what we will come to know as an “echo chamber” in politics. Like-minded people gather for one purpose: crushing an opposing force.

Is it no surprise so many politicians have sports in the curriculum vitae?

But musicians? The ones stuffed in lockers by the bullies roaming the halls in state-funded carpet-covered jackets in the school’s colors? The artists who had their materials ripped away and tossed onto the school’s roof. The readers who have been harassed in the middle of a far-away adventure? What happens to them?

A biproduct, or maybe the purpose, of the educational system is a homogenized, standardized and immobilized set of brains. That’s it. Fill in the bubbles. You have a 25% of getting the answer right as long as you fill in the bubbles. There is neither development of humanity nor empathy of expression. There is no real challenge to the students to define themselves. There is no encouragement or metric to track their human selves.

On the side of mental health, artistic expression has been used for generations to help identify mental health and emotional development in children. The choice of colors in art, the character representations in figurine role-playing, the “tea set” playtime are all children expressing themselves and exploring their own minds and bodies. We are all familiar with the term “Children can be cruel,” but it should be corrected. Immediately. When it is corrected in playtime, usually by putting the child in the other toy’s “shoes,” the child connects empathy in a safe place delivered with love. This is, of course, the ideal, and many therapists do exactly this thousands of times a day in a million little cramped discount-basement mental health centers across the nation.

My one interjection here is about the shift in a child’s behavior upon entering the educational system,. Somewhere, between the age of about 6 and the age of about 16, the whole “give a damn” is tanked. Somewhere the child who was very careful to keep litter in its place now carelessly throws inconvenience to the wind, and the parking lot and the bushes and the parks and the…. Somewhere in this education system the child is made to feel worthless at some level, that their individual actions are not important. They know they are but a number used to track the financial expenditures of resources as allocated by the tax base and property values of the surrounding acreage.

You want to stop psychopaths from shooting up the schools? Give them a goddam crayon! Teach them more than bubble-filling tricks; teach them how to care, how to express, how to dance with joy, Let them know they grow in many ways, and we can embrace all of them all the time. The wrong notes are only stepping stones to great performances. That sculptures represent us in ways we can’t put into words. That within all of us is an artist by right of existence.

The demands on the education system to be all solutions for all people is completely unrealistic until all people are aware of each other’s personal expressions. There are books being banned because parents are upset. The problem is that the parents want to shield their children from bad things. Rightfully so, but the environment of a diverse school system is the safest place, I would think, for these difficult discussions to begin. Being uncomfortable is a part of life. Where else would one expect a child to “learn” about these uncomfortable things? Furthermore, literature is as much art as painting.

Or crayons.

Our division could be easily dissolved by a form of anonymity. I feel it is entirely possible to develop generations of children after us who can actually communicate effectively, regardless of any aural or visual biases because they have been exposed to art, culture, musicianship, and expressions that help them connect more effectively.

Music comes with a curse. Its an infection that drives a musician to constantly. It’s not a race, but a consistent, nagging desire to play better each time the instrument is touched. This curse has a bad habit of spilling over into other parts of the brain causing insatiable curiosity, obsessive reading, hours of horrific practicing, and an overall better sense of themselves when presented with challenging education material.

Music also developments a mental attitude that transcends “team work.” 30-40 kids coming together to play Mozart’s 4th symphony, however badly, is of greater character-building credit than any football game could ever be. The understanding of support in a larger construct. As a cellist in this vast collection of instruments, each and every one of my notes is important because my part contributes to the success we all experience.

If we really want to come together and develop as a nation, let’s address the greatest common elements in this discussion. The guns are not whole the issue, nor are they at fault. The discussions are not about access to the school, but the access to themselves. The balance of art and humanity with math and science. The understanding of challenging situations, the expiration of empathy, encouraging the expression of themselves and to help them understand how to express unpleasant feelings in constructive ways.

It really is that simple. When can we start?