Been a while

Just had my exam yesterday and I guess I can’t complain how it went. Felt pretty good about how I played everything, there was the one wrong note but other than that, pretty smooth sailing. It’s taking a while to get the audio footage from the guitar festival so I am thinking to just put up another one of my exam pieces. After that next video should have another original up. Probably another duo kind of piece. I have two originals in mind that I’m thinking of uploading. One is a more upbeat and the other more contemplative. The upbeat one has a bit of a spanish feel to it as opposed to the more relaxed one where I have a classical and electric guitar kind of reciting a poem. Anyway stay tuned for those two and my next video.

So a part of my university degree requires me to do a an architecture unit and so if you’ve been wondering where i’ve been, it has been doing a ridiculous amount of drawings and sketches. I rather be playing guitar honestly but oh well. Such is life. Surprisingly though I have found the subject quite interesting, and as I do with most things I somehow find a way to relate it to music. The piece of architecture we have been looking at is the ‘Farnsworth house‘ by Mies Van de Rohe. It’s one of those ‘you don’t know the name, but you would have seen it before‘ buildings. I don’t plan on analyzing the building here (done enough of that already) but I am interested in the philosophy behind it. The principle is basically ‘Less is More’. To most people, it is just a glass box on a platform, with 8 columns holding it up, but like any great artist this architect has managed to make his master piece look effortless. It is so simple that it simply blends in with it’s surroundings. My understanding of architecture before hand was to fill up as much space as possible and to make the building as complex as one could. Same was my conception of music. I always tried to make songs complicated and technically difficult but overtime I began to see that making something hard for the sake of making something hard only takes away from the piece. In that case, more is less.

What this guy did was just to let the space be. He understands the utility of absence, of the void. He knows what will be used the most. Namely nothing. In a similar kind of way I have tried to adapt this into a musical context. We should appreciate the spaces between the notes as much as the notes themselves. Filling only what is necessary to the piece itself for it is the silence that gives birth to sound. This whole ideology reminds of a little bit of chinese philosophy my dad once told me when I was younger, I think it is quite appropriate to this scenario and definitely to musical composition.


‘We take and mould clay to form a bowl, yet is the space where there is nothing that the utility of the bowl depends.
We put bricks together to make a house, yet it is the space where there is nothing, that the utility of the house depends.
So just as we take advantage of what is, so should we recognize the utility of what is not.’

Might give it a try.

JL

Another Original

So i’ve finally got round to recording and filming another original. I should have it up tomorrow so keep checking back to see it. It is quite different to my first original as it isn’t just a solo work, but rather I’ve tried to add another dimension by trying to write for two instruments plus the backing instruments. It actually started out as a vocal song (Lazy Days) with lyrics, melody and all the works, but I decided that I’d like to create an instrumental version as sometimes the lyrics didn’t do the feeling justice and plus my youtube channel is really just guitar anyway and I wanted to stick to that. Although I might create another channel with a few people to do other stuff like that, so perhaps you’ll hear it one day. The melody of the electric guitar differs greatly from the original sung melody but I felt it needed to, in that without lyrics the guitar needs to find its own way to ‘sing’. The song is called lazy days for a reason, and that’s basically all its about. It actually started out as a Bossa Rhythm while I was playing around with some jazz chords, and eventually it kind of developed a verse chorus kind of form. I kinda just wrote down what I was feeling at the time and within 20 minutes I pretty much had the original vocal version and lyrics down. That was while I was in singapore actually. When I returned home, I wanted to add another dimension to the piece, to make sure the music would speak the same language as the original lyrics. I’ll post the original lyrics in the video if any of you are interested and let me know whether you get a similar feeling. 

So the dinner show is coming up as I have been talking about for the last few weeks and there has been some last minute changes. There is now going to be some opera, and some dancing as well to accompany the guitar which should be fun so hopefully I can get a recording of the performance too. There are so many other things which I am working on too so hopefully I can just get a lot of it down before Uni starts again. 

Keep checking this page for the link to the new video!

JL

Silence

So I've finally finished all things Uni but unfortunately for only another 3 weeks and then we're back on - so i'm trying to make the most of it. You should see my new original up soon which you might find quite different to other things I've put up but who knows you might like it. As some of you know I like to keep the variety fresh so hopefully this next one is. I'm also still in the midst of practising for this upcoming dinner show which is only 2 weeks away now. I find it's amazing how many pieces you can learn when you have a deadline, goes to show a little pressure doesn't hurt here and there.

I've often, when trying to compose music, and arrange other pieces always tried to fill the song up as much as I could being a soloist and all. I've always felt that the more there is to hear, the more interesting the piece will be to my audience. Lately though my perspective has changed a little. And it is kind of like (though not exactly) the 'if there was no suffering, there would be no joy' argument. Silence in piece of music is essentially the other half of the story. If there was no silence, all we would hear would be a continuous sound and it would cease to be to music. I think i remember John Williams saying that the 'spaces between the notes are just as important as the notes themselves.' I see this to be very true, in fact now when I practice I am paying even more attention to the voids in the work. To the silence between the sounds. And those two things in summation is what creates the beautiful thing we call music.

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is Music  - Aldous Huxley

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