Fuddland

Although I like to mess around on the guitar—and lately, the piano—making up tunes, I lack any formal music training and know nothing beyond a few basics about the difference between keys and modes, or about modulation, or even reading music. Whilst on the one hand I quite enjoy this ignorance—not knowing really what you’re doing frees you up to a certain degree, being guided by what sounds right without the distractions of the theory—on the other hand I am conscious of the fact that the music might not be as sophisticated [note that this does not mean “complicated”] or original as it could be, and on the other hand I tend to be quite conservative and not as confident as I might be if I knew about the less common scales. [With three hands I really should be a wizard piano-player, music theory expert or not.]

Some people might take the stance that it doesn’t matter if you can “explain” why you enjoy a piece of music, or what makes it interesting—if you like it, does it really matter that technically it utilises the pentatonic scale and modulates between the major and relative minor keys? Perhaps this is equivalent to the view that understanding why rainbows form or what causes the sky to turn hues of orange and red when the Sun is low somehow takes away from the beauty of the phenomena; for me, an understanding of these things doesn’t detract from their effect. I’d like to know more about music, not necessarily so I can create more sophisticated pieces, but so I can talk about other people’s music without having to resort to, “I like that bit where the strings go up”.

But for some reason I’ve never been able to concentrate for long enough to get my head around music theory. I wasn’t taught to any significant level during my schooling, and I didn’t start playing guitar—when I began to be interested in music beyond “I like/don’t like that band”—until I was eighteen. So when I listen to The Beatles I know that I think it sounds great, and the influences of many different genres are apparent, but it’s not until a composer like Howard Goodall comes along with his 20th Century Greats series, knowledgeably and eloquently putting forward his case for precisely why their music was so important, that I can even begin to appreciate just how good they were.

He argues that Lennon & McCartney changed the direction of modern music by going against the grain of the avant-garde composers of their time, who were busy rubbing sandpaper together, ripping newspapers and dropping coins onto metal sheets in the belief that any sound could be considered “music”. Instead, The Beatles re-injected melody and harmony into the already-tired, formulaic combination of guitar-bass-drums, with which they themselves started out, by drawing on their experiences in Hamburg, where they were forced to learn and play many different styles of music.

They had to play six, seven and eight-hour long sets in Hamburg. They had to play everything, not just rock standards, but movie theme tunes, Broadway show numbers, folk songs, torch songs, novelty numbers and music hall. These were the foundations on which their later compositions were built.

Goodall made a compelling case and really made me wish I had been around the very first time “Tomorrow Never Knows” was released—its use of tape loops had never been heard to such effect before. I do think the influence and expertise of The Beatles’ producer George Martin was severely understated in the programme—he surely was largely responsible for the strings which define Eleanor Rigby, cited as one particularly interesting piece because it’s not in a major or minor key: it’s in a “Dorian mode”.

Because the music world is such a melting pot of influences and genres, I’m sure it’d be possible to refute many of Goodall’s points—I’ve certainly heard that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band owes everything it is to Pet Sounds, although I see a clear progression from the earlier albums to Sgt. Pepper—but it’s always nice to hear praiseworthy things being said about things one loves. And The Beatles had no formal music training either, so there’s hope for me yet.

#1

meesh | 2004 / 11 / 30 – 15:31

i can read music to a certain extent (3 years violin at junior school) and after a half hour session can pick out tunes on almost any instrument. there are people i know who can hear a tune and recreate it on guitar within the same time span, but wouldn’t be able to tell you the keys/notes/scales used. and i know someone who only plays keyboard when he has sheet music in front of him (we very nearly replaced a script for “roll out the barrel” with “ace of spades” just to see how long it would take for him to recognise the difference!)
continue to play for your own enjoyment is the best advice. music should be ‘felt’ with the heart and soul, it’s an emotional artform, not a cerebal one. much like visual art. the enjoyment can wane if it is deconstructed too much.

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