The Importance of Technical Skill

mr dave · 10-03-2010, 11:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skaligojurah

Personally, I don't honestly think this is always the case. If you give a man or woman a noise making machine for long enough, and he or she has the right heart for it, and time, he or she will produce something that you can call music. Sometimes, with time, and experience, technical itself can be redefined. There are plenty of brilliant self taught musicians who don't play things by the book.

In fact, we wouldn't have the blues a good majority of modern American music genres are created from if we didn't have slaves freed who didn't need have access to knowledge of the white world of music, and needed to create something new with their spirit. Sure, with the communal value eventually a rule set was built, yet in the end, it was created simply from experimentation.

Furthermore, Tons of musicians learn to play simply from taking their instrument and imitating things. Eddie Van Halen used to sit at home all day with his guitar trying to play along with what he heard on the radio. Some could say that's learning your technical chops in a way but really, it's more getting a feel of your instrument to ear.

I mean, to this day, Van Halen is pretty much considered one of the most influential guitarists ever, and when you think about it, his technique is incredibly improper and incorrect compared to ten or twenty years before him.

Fact of the matter is, proper technique helps, but no matter how you chose to learn, they're all just roads to the same place.

from the top, you could also keep throwing poop at the wall all day every day and eventually someone might walk by an proclaim that it looks exactly like La Guernica. that doesn't mean you've somehow channeled Picasso or accomplished anything more substantial than the average 2 year old.

Blues comes from Gospel, who do you think forced the slaves to worship their Gods? it also wasn't created from experimentation it was created from the need for expression.

Furthermore, sitting on the edge of your bed trying to play along to everything you hear on the radio is the EPITOME of polishing your technical chops. it's all about mimicry. EVH's influence extends through every single poofy haired cheeseball that we all had the benefit of having to suffer through in the 80s. thanks. to say his technique was considered 'improper and incorrect' prior to him denies people like Jimmy Page, Chuck Berry, and JIMI FREAKING HENDRIX their rightful places as actual innovators who eschewed tradition once it ceased to benefit them.

what EVH brought to the table was speed and.... wait for it... TECHNICAL virtuosity within the confines of popular music. he does deserve credit for that, but he didn't break a single rule, he just leaned on the line for his whole career.