Good stuff. I like what I'm reading. I'm learning from this.
A guy asked me once if I played by ear. I said I tried that once, but I couldn't get the pick to stay there.
So I tried it on the piano, but I couldn't read the music that way.
One day my church organist cousin came over for a visit and we jammed a bit on my little organ. He played some pieces out of my hymnbook, as it was a favourite book for both of us. I asked him some pointers, like how to do the peddles without looking, etc. And then we started to really jam. And his jaw dropped. I was playing pieces on demand, sort of, just going from one to another without notes in front of me, and he couldn't contain himself. He told me he was knocking himself out practicing from week to week preparing for worship, and it always felt so wooden to him to do that. And now he saw me just relaxed, being one tenth the organist he was, and doing what he could only dream of. And I wasn't even that good at the organ.
I met him again some time later, and he told me how this had effected him. He said that right there and then he stopped preparing by practicing, thinking that if John can do it, he sure can, and started preparing spiritually for the services. And he bacame twice the organist he was before.
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I was listening to the Beach Boys today, one song after the other. I am amazed at their smooth harmonies. I think they are a good example of what I was talking about, that the harmonies that hit our ears are sometimes different than the mathematical harmonies. They are purposely slightly off on some strained notes, just for the sound of it.
But it is the resonance in our ears that makes for harmony, not mathematics. When two notes are in ever-so-slight disharmony, we hear a vibration in our heads that is uncomfortable, or just sounds flat. I've heard it in concerts, either classical pieces where they pride themselves on adjusting to the ear and keeping concert pitch, or in country music, or Marvin Hamlisch concerts. I've had trouble with it myself, getting my guitar just that little extra adjustment to get rid of that flat sound and make it ring.
I sometimes listen in to those jammers that come in to the music stores on a Saturday afternoons to "try out the guitars". Some of them can play a lot of riffs, and a few just don't hear the slight disharmonies they are making. They are so used to bending the strings that they seem lost with playing just chords, or straight notes. They just don't hear it. Their guitar is off. It's just a little bit, and you likely wouldn't discern it if you went through the tuning routine, but its off. It's not that it is out of harmony so much as it isn't "sweet" to the ear. You can tell. The more you work at that "sound" the more you get trained to tell the difference.
What I'm trying to get at is that music is like wisdom: it takes a lot of hard work. It isn't easy. No one is a natural when it comes down to it. There is giftedness, and there is talent, and there is an inborn feel for it, but it still takes a lot of work. You can't produce music mathematically, and you can't do it technically. It comes out of the heart, not the technical training. I once heard an old man do "You are My Sunshine" on the guitar, and it is still one of the most beautiful pieces I've ever heard. It was elegant and rich, simple and plain, but the guitar was alive, and his voice matched perfectly. And the song had a life of its own, it seemed. Everything else disappeared, and everything in the song became lucid, a clear picture in song. I was floored; and I've been pusuing same simple "wisdom" that ever since. It is part of the mandate of dominion. And the playing of instruments, of creating of pure melody and harmonies is praise to the Creator.
The RPW is meant to keep us from adding or subtracting from God's commands. They say that there are two sides to fall off a horse; lean that way too much to avoid the other side, and you'll fall off this side. You can become too lenient, and you can be too legalistic. One is as bad as the other, because both are the same thing in the end, a departure from the truth. To reject what God has blessed is wrong. I don't think He'll bless the preaching of His Word if the preacher is more intent on his own gospel than God's; and likewise God won't be pleased if in our praise we praise ourselves, by elevating our preferences, instead of praising Him. Imitating George Harrison or the Rolling Stones or any modern trend is not praise because it praises the trend along with God. As if God was a hippie once. It is we who have to rise above the grip modern trendiness has on us, and get back to real music in the worship service.
Now I'm ranting.... Oh boy.
(Actually, I like to play by ear, just like you do.)
) It's just that they say that all the good things here on earth are glimpses of the perfection in the Age to Come - when Christ will restore creation beyond Eden to the enth degree - unimaginable! Well, I think the best music can "take" us to the "foyer" of that place. It is not an empty-emotive experience - it can only be achieved through the knowledge and speech of music in the mind/heart.
