Pribek

“Make the hard stuff look easy and make the easy stuff look hard.”

Here’s a cool interview with Bill Carson, “the father of the Stratocaster”. Bill talks frankly about Leo Fender and the development of Carson’s guitar.

As always, tune up, tune in and click pause on the music player located in the side bar before playing the YouTube.

Leo Fender dropped in to see a friend of mine play back in the 80s. My buddy asked Leo who his favorite guitarist was and Leo replied, “Roy Clark”; a Gibson lifer. Go figure.

(Note: This post, written by Stratoblogster, originally appeared as a comment to my post, “Guitar Playing Tip”. It is so chock full of fiber that I just had to give it more visibility and attention.)

Great stuff! Somewhat related is how the studio versions of Dangerous Kitchen & Jazz Discharge Party Hats were done. Steve Vai doubled guitar tracks to FZ’s vocal/lyric track from earlier live performances. The result is a written instrumental line which mimics speech, syllables and verbal nuances as well as the melodies Frank was doing.

Verbalization is very musical. The consonants and how they’re formed via the structures in the mouth represent the percussion section. The vowel sounds, as they are manipulated also by the structures in the mouth, represent tone & EQ variations. The vocal chords deal with pitch and certain timbres, but you see how the vowels a,e,i,o, & u aren’t pitch related at all.

Language and verbal expression combines all these areas and functions. It’s quite an orchestration. I’ve always wondered if it’s possible to score a piece of music which would make an orchestra speak or sing actual lyrics. Such things are being done electronically, but I’m talking about an actual orchestra of conventional instruments.

There was an old VH1 program in the 80’s hosted by Ben Sidran in which he interviewed progressive music artists. In a show featuring Miles Davis, Miles referred to a Stravinsky piece in which the listeners attending the performance thought they were hearing a marching band proceeding past the front of the symphony venue as the symphony was playing something else. In other words, some members of the orchestra would gradually phase into the march piece which transitioned across the orchestra sections from left to right. The overall balance was such that the march music would be perceived as moving past the front entrance while the symphony music remained & continued in the hall. This all done acoustically & through the written arrangement dynamics without any electronics, PA mixer, etc.

A redeeming aspect of Rap is in it’s study of the rhythmic syncopations of verbalization combined with language and meaning; communication of ideas in a flow pattern. It’s interesting that the demographic from which Rap originates has the lowest literacy level in our society. I see Rap has a tool to express and attempt to pace with the information age. Imagine growing up with little or no ability to read in this society right now. Spoken word goes into overload and overdrive for such people. It’s survival.

Interesting though, when compared to the classic American songbook and scat where there are both differences and similarities. To get an artistic informational message out there during and shortly after WWII involved great lyrical challenges with metaphor & innuendo to reach & reflect the people, who were otherwise stuck with Edward R. Murrow, newsreels, radio shows and general gov’t & church fed propaganda.

But back to human speech as a form. In some social situations I like to tune out what people are saying, and just listen to the rhythm and expression in how they talk– the ebb and flow, and how emotions work in the mix. The “music” of conversation, minus the lyrics of language, reveals mood, personality, sincerity, intent, truth, creativeness and perhaps infinite other aspects. You wonder why, given the sophistication of voice combined with language, would we still maintain interest in musical instruments which in some ways seem much more crude and inferior. Are instruments intended to extend or focus on certain interesting and aesthetic aspects of the voice?

Another interesting thing is when human verbal conversation crosses over from talking to singing. Where is this line? Many people who have no issues speaking normally to another person are too embarassed to sing. Where is their line between the two? Is it the introduction of melody and rhythmic patterns to speaking? Some people will read or recite poetry fine, but are too shy to sing Happy Birthday. So something about expressing melody is difficult for some to confront. Does singing come from a different place inside of us than just talking? And what about indigenous cultures where they sing routinely about routine life? They don’t have Math!

So the answer is MATH! Math and its resulting technologies have reformatted the software of “civilized” human spirit in such a way that music has been compartmentalized where it previously was not. Singing is de-compartmentalizing the dynamic of life against the effects of math which measures and quantifies structure as senior to function.

Math is evil. Sing it children! Function!!!