Perception in music is such a strange thing just because of
how many angles they are. You could be a person who listens to music all the
time, or just a causal listener. Maybe a fan, or a musician. Each person is
lead to perceive music differently, and that's great. This discussion of sorts
is based on my recent ventures into Ableton Live 9, a popular Digital Audio
Workstation which I am learning in order to create drum beats for my music since I
do not have the space for drums due to location and literal space, and because
I wanted to learn the software. As I used the software more and more, I started
thinking about how I perceive guitar, bass, drums and the like in a musical
sense. My mind wondered to artists who create their own music using an
instrument, and those that use a computer.
Take for example three very different, yet accomplished
musicians. David Grohl of the Foo Fighters, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails,
and Deadmau5. David Grohl played drums for Nirvana and would later on found the
Foo Fighters. Throughout all of that, he never used a computer to make his
music or play his parts. He find that music should be played by humans because
it both feels and sounds more natural and well... Human. Trent on the other
hand makes industrial rock music and welcomes the use of computers in both the
creative and producing processes. He is a very capable and accomplished
multi-instrumentalist outside of the computer, but he uses the computer to
further his music making capabilities. The last example is Electronic Dance
Music musician Deadmau5. He exclusively uses computers to make his music. There
is nothing wrong with the way that the music is made, but it makes me wonder as
to how we as people perceive music.
I take lessons at a music school and spoke to my instructor
about drums. Everything from where to place a fill, and how one should go about
making one, to pushing the best or keeping it laid back. I also analyzed the
drum beats he played and tried to tab out how it would sound in Ableton in my
head. It was during this that my initial curiosity in perception started to
ferment.
I was looking at drums as a means to an end if you will.
Songs need drums, at least 99% of them do, and I don't have a way to learn
drums, record them, or pay someone else to do them. In my early analysis of
drums, a instrument I paid little attention to, I sought out the basic patterns
and the core fundamentals of it all. Of course I didn't have to worry about
stick control or proper toe to heel positioning on the bass drum pedal, but I was
still interested in the subtle placement of a kick drum in a Brad Wilk beat, or
the placement of a fill that Bonham used.
Because of all of this, I viewed drums differently than my
other drummer friends did, mainly because I wasn't a drummer. I showed my
drummer friend my basic rock beat and asked her help for a fill. She gave me a
fill that would work, and it sounded familiar, but odd. I've heard used it
other songs before, but when I wrote it out, it sounded odd. But to the
drummer, it correct, good even. That's so strange to me. David Grohl discussed
his approach to writing guitar lines for his band and he stated that a lot of
his guitar parts sort of act as drum part. He synchronizes some of the guitar
parts to the kick drum, and others to the snare. Of course, he is not the first
musician to do this, there have been countless others, but it was interesting
for him to actually explain it and state it all. But even then I find it odd.
It didn’t make much sense to me until I really looked at how it was made.
Another example would be the way that progressive rock bands such as Protest
The Hero make music. I recently heard the drummer from Protest The Hero record
his playing on their song “Drumhead Trial”. The beat at its core was very
basic, fast, but basic. The guitars that were layered on top of it though were
doing completely different things that worked with the song, but didn’t sound
like it should have. On paper, it may
not have sounded good, but in practice it did.
It was through this entire analysis of music and perception
that I came to the realization that…well… that’s what makes music so cool to
me. That David Grohl could write a guitar riff based on one idea, but if he
explained the idea to say, Josh Homme or Tom Morello, it could be perceived
completely differently and then played differently. Perception is such an odd
thing in music.
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