Visual Music

Architecture is the frozen music, music is the flowing architecture.

I actually found this quote on my other friend’s blog and thought there was something to it. When we listen to music we mainly listen to the melody, or perhaps the phrasing and harmonies. We spend little time concentrating on individual notes (unless we are learning a piece) and just let the melody flow. At the end of the song we generally have a good idea of the main tune and it kind of sticks in our heads, especially if we have enjoyed it. I’ve read somewhere in my studies that architecture, or a city (architecture on a larger scale) should invoke a similar kind of experience. As we walk, drive, or cycle through the city it shouldn’t resemble a bunch of fragmented buildings/structures, rather it should generate a kind of ‘melody’. A visual one. One that once you’ve left that area, you have a clear memory of that phrasing of architecture. It’s as if the buildings were connected together, flowing like musical notes. Just some food for thought.

Last exam approaching next week. Finally starting to get the ‘Romance Flamenco‘ tabsheets done and will be able to start recording my next original soon. Also got another one of these Dinner Shows coming up on the 16th at the same winery. Looking to be a good night so far. Not much else besides that but I shall be back on top of things next week!

JL

Old Habits

After playing a certain way for 7 years to try and change your technique even only slightly is a real pain. I never realized how difficult it would be to change old habits. At times I feel like a beginner again, having to go back and play basic pieces just to get this wrist positioning and finger attack right. I know its worth it in the long run but for now its not the most enjoyable playing I have to do. 

I did say I would upload the video of my duet at the guitar makers festival however it is taking me longer than I thought to the get the video footage and I’ve been told it will take 3 or so months to get the audio. I don’t know why, but I think i’ll wait anyway just so the quality is as good as I can get it. This means my next video will be an original, so i hope to get that up in a couple of weeks. It will be a little different to my last one. I’ll have an electric and classical guitar in it to change things up a bit so keep checking back for that one.

Like I’ve been studying in uni, in order to fully understand something, why it exists, or why it is the way it is; it is often necessary to go back to it’s origins. To understand urban development we go to Ancient Greece, Rome, Mesopotamia, Catal Huyuk etc. Lately I’ve been exploring the origins of the guitar which has brought me back to the Lute and Theobo. These instruments never really appealed to me until I started listening to Baroque music that I was playing on the guitar, on the Lute. Somehow the music comes alive in a completely more authentic way. Well a lot of Bach’s music for guitar was originally written for the Lute so it’s no wonder there is this feeling of authenticity. But I think there is just so much to learn from hearing the music being played on it’s original instrument. Context is everything, and as far I see it, there is no greater context than listening to the music in the original form it would have been played. 

If I could get my hands on a cheap Lute in Australia I would, but it seems the cheapest you’ll get here is a custom made one, and don’t think I’m really in a position to pay $10,000 to just try something. If you know of any cheap lutes let me know. I’d be very interesting.

JL

Guitar Makers Festival

Was quite an experience performing at the guitar makers festival. Got to play some great guitars, steel strings and classical. Watched some amazing performers showcase their own works and it really gave me some insight into the music that no one really ever hears. There is so much to the music world that we don't hear about or know exists that I think we are missing out on some great stuff. I guess it is because these artists don't belong to your typical mainstream radio group, and are not run by a producing company telling them what to write and how to do it. Everyone there was playing for themselves and in my opinion that's the best way to do it. 

I got my friends to film some of the festival and I got a mix of stuff that I'm thinking of putting up. Of course once i get the video of me and Sergio doing the Piazzola Tango i'll upload that one but in the meantime was thinking of just putting up some clips of the Allan Bull guitar I played. Was an amazing instrument, beautifully balanced and a real sweet tone. Was kind of sad coming back to my factory guitar but hopefully I'll get my hands on one of them one day.

Check back here tomorrow to see a clip of it :) 

Jesse Liang

Not Enough time?

So the end of my uni semester is approaching soon, which means well, exams and all, but the good news is I’ll have a nice break to really get some stuff down. I’ve also been lucky enough to be asked to play at the Melbourne Guitar Maker’s Festival this Saturday evening. I’m doing a duet with my old Guitar Mentor (Sergio Ercole) again and we’ll be performing Piazzola’s Verano Porteno. I’ve heard great things about this festival, there are many great guitarists showcasing their stuff and their guitars so if your in Melbourne drop by and check it out (i’ll add a link below so you can check it out for yourself).

Call me pessimistic but lately I’ve been feeling like there really isn’t enough time. Not enough time to be able to learn everything I want to. Not enough time to master classical guitar, acoustic guitar and work full time eventually. One day I won’t be here anymore, and what would my time have accomplished? Perhaps I learn everything after I’ve left this place, or maybe I don’t learn anything at all. I chose not to study music because I believed that I could do both. Study Planning and Music. I still believe I can do both, but its really not as easy as I thought. These days there is so much to learn about everything that it is impossible for one man to master everything. Go back 2500 years ago, a guy like Plato was considered a master of all disciplines. MAthematician, Scientist, Philosopher etc, but since then science itself has become so specific it is beyond comprehension. And believe me I did not think there could be so much to think about in terms of planning either. There is just not enough time to do it all.

So if in the big picture of things there is not enough time, what is our time meant to be used for? Well relatively speaking a lot of things can be done in our short time and there are things which we can’t exactly take away with us but things that we can leave behind.

People have left behind music, ideas to change the world, questions to pursue. So are we to try and make the world a better place? Can music play a part in that? Music, being such a universal language one would think it could play a part. But exactly how I am yet to figure out.

Jesse 

  

Music made or discovered?

In our known universe there are various laws that govern it. I used to think that maths and all these formulas were something that someone came up with in a classroom one day.  However overtime it seems that maths and science has been more of a discovery than an invention. Clever minds working out how things work rather than inventing them. Sure we came up with the representation of it in the form of our numbers, but the actual laws behind the math have always been there (though I know many would debate this) and it has been those clever minds that have found these underlying principles on which our known universe functions.

I might have lost some of you already but there is a musical relation I’ve been thinking about. 

Do we invent or discover music?

Well if we think about it, music is made from sounds, sounds made from particles hitting one another, and there are various frequencies of these sounds that create what we know to be different pitches and notes. So I guess from a materialist’s point of view music is just a specific order of a bunch of frequencies of vibrating particles. That point aside for another day , I wonder if all Bach works already ‘existed’ before he wrote them. Was he just clever enough to find the right mixture of sounds to create his master pieces? And what makes the bunch of notes he put together any better or worse than the notes mozart put together? 

Without making things too confusing I think there are a set amount of frequencies as far as we know. We discovered these sound waves and vibrating particles but we do invent different ways of organizing and expressing these sounds. So perhaps the greats of music have been those who have found a unique way of expressing these sound waves in a perfect balance of melody,  rhythm, dynamic, and artistic influence. I really am not conclusive on any of this. Perhaps more thought

Jesse 

A lot of my focus these days has been on my examination pieces, which i feel is good and even though I am not spending as much time on more contemporary stuff I believe (and i can only speak from experience) that without even really playing other genres much, once i've completed my exam my playing will have improved across all styles. You might be thinking that it is just in my head and that having a certificate has a psychological effect on me and therefore I feel i have improved when I haven't really. Well of course the piece of paper with my Grade on it in reality means nothing, but the process whereby I have gone to obtain this piece of paper is where the real progress is. And somehow this art of practising and playing classical guitar is universally beneficial to all other styles of guitar. Now the link to acoustic finger/chicken picking wouldn't seem unreasonable as classical guitar is always with the fingers and thus fine motor skills are developed and improved. But in terms of using a pick and playing chords and melodies common to jazz and more contemporary styles and often contrary to classical - now thats where I am confused as to how I am able to improve without playing much of it.

I am not trying to label the classical guitar as the superior style, but I am somehow intrinsically convinced that it is by far the best grounding one could have in terms of a guitar background. I mentioned in an earlier blog that one should try to learn both classical and jazz guitar, I am not going back on that but still the classical discipline has this solid foundation that I can't ignore, that i don't see (or haven't yet seen) in any other style.

Anyway, I've got a few things due for uni so fitting in time for guitar won't be easy, but I should have another video up in two weeks so check back soon :)

Jesse

http://www.jesseguitar.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/JesseGuitar07

Winery Gig

So as I said last week I had my gig at the winery with my old guitar teacher and a couple of other guys. It went really well I must say. There was a great response and a possibility of even another one in a couple of months so I really can’t complain. 

Even though it went well, there are always parts that I wish could have sounded better. In the practice just before the show I felt the pieces were sounding great, the dynamic, tone, speed, but then as I started i began to think to much. I was thinking, how it was sounding out in the audience, how my positioning was, what other people were thinking and so on. All of this obviously detracted from my concentration of the actual music and naturally I became a little nervous and consequently fumbled here and there. Guess that all comes with experience. I also found my guitar was too quiet in the mix and I got a little feedback here and there because of my positioning. Sound and mixing is another art all in itself and one I am yet to perfect. You might have the song down back to front, inside out, left right and center but if you don’t mix it right people aren’t going to appreciate it the same way you do.

When i rocked up to the venue, the chair they gave me was a little high and quite uncomfortable and I think bothered my playing a little. Of course I am not going to blame the chair for any mistakes, but it is just something that can distract you every now and then and add a little bit more to that uneasiness. I reckon i’m going to bring my own from now on as I think there is enough to worry about already.

All in all it was a great night, great food, didn’t get to try the wine but apparently that was great too. I’m looking forward to the next one and to start working on some new material. 

I am in the process of getting the video off my mates camera so keep checking back here for when I get it up in the next couple of days. Hopefully tomorrow!

Thanks for reading

Jesse 
http://www.youtube.com/user/JesseGuitar07 
http://www.jesseguitar.com