And it’s that I believe I would actually be better at making music if I didn’t care for gear.
If I didn’t care about what gear I used I would simply have gone to the store and bought a basic setup under the recommendation of someone that probably 1) didn’t have any real clue about what is good and what is not, and 2) would patronize me by saying that I – as in me – certainly could do well enough with gear all costing under $100 each.
Despite how much I despise that kind of attitude (and it’s very common in music stores here) he would be somewhat right. I would probably go home with my new ‘studio’, sit down and record. If I couldn’t record a great song I would do the healthy thing and study the arrangement, maybe ask myself why the guitar is interfering with the lead vocal or whatever.
I still do that sometimes, and I try to do that as much as possible, but I’m painfully aware that I – like so many others reading blogs such as this and are active at the same forums that I am – start thinking about what preamps they need to figure out that lead vocal and guitar sound instead.
Great post Stiff. I think the key is to be honest with oneself about where the interest lies – music, technology or both. Like you, I would likely be a better musician if I left the technology to others. But honestly, without it I probably would not play as much music either, because much of my enjoyment comes from working with the digital tools.
Thanks. Your remark on being honest where ones interest lies is spot on. Fairly recently I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m more interested in creating songs as opposed to playing them. The revelation was quite important to me because suddenly I stopped feeling so bad that my guitar playing was beginning to lack. I simply strive to be a better composer than a guitar player at the moment. As for what I want to be tomorrow, that’s a whole other thing!
Hehe, interesting post(s)
About being picky about the gear, I would say the same applies to the drummer who constantly tunes his drums to perfection, the pianist who would only play on a Bösendorfer, or the composer who complains about the notation software (and notation, in general…).
Oh yeah! And don’t forget about guitarists! (I know
)
Wow, I thought I was suffering alone on this one! Technology has truly been a blessing and a curse to me as a musician. I have an almost equal love for playing music, and for manipulating music with all my cool tools. Therefore, I lose have the time I could be improving my playing to diddling with the latest plugs and toys. I guess we all dreamed of having studios at our fingertips years ago. Now that we have all the features, we have to learn to back off and sometimes go back to basics. I even recently rediscovered the joys of turning off the click and writing some stuff freestyle. The “grid” disappears, and something much more honest and pleasing comes out. Of course, it’s not for everyone.
This is a subject for an ENTIRE BLOG (or section of one) vs. a single post, ain’t it?
On the gear subject – I grew up fairly poor, and one day I realized my love of gear had a lot to do with things like sparse christmases as a kid. I see that in a lot of my american buddies (& I’m american), we can all be “screw buying a 42 inch plasma & a BMW – we’re musicians!!” – But at the same time we have our own issues of consumerism – if something has blinking lights and an SPDIF jack anyway.
I think it would be good to spend a week in a gorgeous mountain cabin with nothing but an acoustic and an old 4-track cassette… if nothing else, you’d sure appreciate a great reverb plugin when you got home. I’m trying to learn to get more focused on things like melody.
Creative tip of the week: don’t overplan – leave room for the muse.