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Regarding getting stuck in a gutter, in music I find it's exactly the opposite. The musician who has a stockpile of pre-packaged phrases/idioms/licks tends to
by daviddaviddavid 15y ago
Regarding getting stuck in a gutter, in music I find it's exactly the opposite. The musician who has a stockpile of pre-packaged phrases/idioms/licks tends to sound very predictable.
This is especially problematic in jazz, where a premium is placed on improvisation/creativity. There's real sense in which the very idea of having a pre-packaged phrase is totally antithetical to improvisation.
Also, pre-packaged ideas in music tend to get ingrained at the muscular level. The last thing you want to happen is for your hands to start running the show.
I do realize however that the very best musicians (and programmers!) probably have a huge arsenal of ideas AND deploy them tastefully.
- jaylevitt 15y agoYou don't think good jazz players know their chord scales, though?
- gtrak 15y agoYes, a person who is great at ear-playing could be made better if they can analyze why a thing sounds good, the in-the-moment improvisation flow doesn't give you enough time to really think about what you're doing anyway, but before and after, you can strategize. They're two separate thought-processes that complement each other, imo, as it is with programming. A lot of times I find I can just flow and write code, but there is much room for thoughtful refactoring after the fact. Experience, theory, named concepts and systematic analysis gives you tools to really improve.