Routes to Roots II
Advice from Players
. . .perhaps the defining traits of autodidacts ("midnight scholars", self teachers): a kernel of personal crankiness and a resistance to established authority.
Using our hands. A vanishing techique/tao.
Writing, especially writing poetry, is like perspiring.
The poem, or book, is a kind of sweat.
It would be unhealthy to walk, or run, or play games, or practice athletics without sweating.
The only things that interest me are the man himself and the kind of exercise he takes.
This is why most works by living artists leave me cold.
What I look for in the work of a dead artist — in the fragrance as it were, of his sweat — is a proof of activity.
We like to show off and sell our sweat.
Both masses and the fastidious like nothing better than to intoxicate themselves with sweat, but they take no interest in the exercise or sport, itself.
- Jean Cocteau, Professional Secrets (1925)
Style can never be a starting-point: it is a result.
It is foolish to do with many what can be done with few.
- William of Occam
Start slow
and low
Ride higher
Strike fire
Sit down in a storm
- guidance from a black Gospel preacher on delivering a sermon
“It’s about being confirmed. Affirmed. It’s very kind because it’s considering you.”
- Cecily Barry, vocal coach/philosopher discussing the Voice and Art
Only humans get lost.
– James Taylor
Don't be afraid of the music.
- Hungarian State Music School instructor to a class of Gypsy Music students
But I’m interested in the moment before the line or after it more than the lines themselves. I want to know where they come from with the protagonist. Because it’s more important to me what the contrast is between the line and what he felt inside and where it came from and how he said it.
- Eran Kolrin, film director/screenwriter
One gathers strength. . .from knowing from whence one comes. What Voodoo and any of the traditional African religions has the potential to give is the ability to know oneself in spite of not knowing exactly where you come from. So that can be a great strength. The history of music and the history of survival is so very close together.
- Michelle Berard (Voudun priestess)
. . .everyone that’s important is right here, anyone who can do anything about your well-being.
- Allan Tousaint (description of the content of Southern Nights, coming from his childhood experience of visiting family in the country outside New Orleans)
(Trombone Shorty speaking in a documentary about New Orleans music, heritage as a path, and musicians)
- . . .comfortable with themselves. . .
- . .quality of understanding. . .
- . . .it’s a feelin’ that you have an’ you gotta get into it because it’s into you, an’ you have to jus’ keep on goin’ ‘til you put somethin’ together.
- . . .when I was a kid. . .
- . . .once that spirit take over, you got all the energy you need.
- . . .just bein’ around a whole buncha people.
- . . .I wasn’t Playing — y’ know, I was soundin’ bad. But eventually I think if you stick around the music for a long time or you do somethin’ for a long time it becomes a part a’ you.
(quotes from Herman Ernest v-funky drummer, same documentary)
- . . .you need to have the foundation of the house. . .
- . . .music is a direct control over behavior, so as the music changes, so does the behavior.
- You must know the Intro before the intro. That mean havin’ the tempo and the groove already pulsatin’ in you before it’s counted off.
- You got to know how to do that. Really easy, really simple. Pay attention. Groove. Get into the song. Know the plot of the song.
- . . .the discipline becomes part of the imagination.
He spent a lot of time just with the Elements. Listening to birds, wind, listening to the rain.
- Mike Melchionne on Roy Buchannan
(quotes from various people, documentary film Punk Attitude)
- . . .how to propel image.
- . . .stripped down all our conditioning. . .
- . . .gave you an attitude you could take on to.
- . . .you didn’t have to wait to start doing something
- What they pay you for now is being stupid and making people stupider. - John Sinclair
- . . .take the spirit and the inspiration and do your own thing with it.
- . . .learning about how to get your ideas out there.
. . .older musicians who would look out for the young ones, make sure they were practicing.
- Wynton Marsalis (on musical culture in New Orleans)
The highest level of technique is nuance.
- Wynton Marsalis
. . .the only value most artists have, whether they realize it or not, is their particular isolation from the world about which they write and to which they hope to contribute.
- Glenn Gould
For anything to happen there has to be a long obedience in the same direction.
- Nietzsche (quoted by Bono)
You’ll learn when you’re ready. Be in a constant state of Ready.
(Marty Stuart applies for the mandolin spot in Lester Flatt’s band.)
Lester Flatt: “Where’ve you been?”
Marty Stuart: “Gettin’ ready!”
You leave the guitar alone for three days and it doesn’t know you any more. It’s a constant struggle to get acquainted and remain acquainted.
- Chet Atkins
Advice from Players
. . .perhaps the defining traits of autodidacts ("midnight scholars", self teachers): a kernel of personal crankiness and a resistance to established authority.
Using our hands. A vanishing techique/tao.
Writing, especially writing poetry, is like perspiring.
The poem, or book, is a kind of sweat.
It would be unhealthy to walk, or run, or play games, or practice athletics without sweating.
The only things that interest me are the man himself and the kind of exercise he takes.
This is why most works by living artists leave me cold.
What I look for in the work of a dead artist — in the fragrance as it were, of his sweat — is a proof of activity.
We like to show off and sell our sweat.
Both masses and the fastidious like nothing better than to intoxicate themselves with sweat, but they take no interest in the exercise or sport, itself.
- Jean Cocteau, Professional Secrets (1925)
Style can never be a starting-point: it is a result.
It is foolish to do with many what can be done with few.
- William of Occam
Start slow
and low
Ride higher
Strike fire
Sit down in a storm
- guidance from a black Gospel preacher on delivering a sermon
“It’s about being confirmed. Affirmed. It’s very kind because it’s considering you.”
- Cecily Barry, vocal coach/philosopher discussing the Voice and Art
Only humans get lost.
– James Taylor
Don't be afraid of the music.
- Hungarian State Music School instructor to a class of Gypsy Music students
But I’m interested in the moment before the line or after it more than the lines themselves. I want to know where they come from with the protagonist. Because it’s more important to me what the contrast is between the line and what he felt inside and where it came from and how he said it.
- Eran Kolrin, film director/screenwriter
One gathers strength. . .from knowing from whence one comes. What Voodoo and any of the traditional African religions has the potential to give is the ability to know oneself in spite of not knowing exactly where you come from. So that can be a great strength. The history of music and the history of survival is so very close together.
- Michelle Berard (Voudun priestess)
. . .everyone that’s important is right here, anyone who can do anything about your well-being.
- Allan Tousaint (description of the content of Southern Nights, coming from his childhood experience of visiting family in the country outside New Orleans)
(Trombone Shorty speaking in a documentary about New Orleans music, heritage as a path, and musicians)
- . . .comfortable with themselves. . .
- . .quality of understanding. . .
- . . .it’s a feelin’ that you have an’ you gotta get into it because it’s into you, an’ you have to jus’ keep on goin’ ‘til you put somethin’ together.
- . . .when I was a kid. . .
- . . .once that spirit take over, you got all the energy you need.
- . . .just bein’ around a whole buncha people.
- . . .I wasn’t Playing — y’ know, I was soundin’ bad. But eventually I think if you stick around the music for a long time or you do somethin’ for a long time it becomes a part a’ you.
(quotes from Herman Ernest v-funky drummer, same documentary)
- . . .you need to have the foundation of the house. . .
- . . .music is a direct control over behavior, so as the music changes, so does the behavior.
- You must know the Intro before the intro. That mean havin’ the tempo and the groove already pulsatin’ in you before it’s counted off.
- You got to know how to do that. Really easy, really simple. Pay attention. Groove. Get into the song. Know the plot of the song.
- . . .the discipline becomes part of the imagination.
He spent a lot of time just with the Elements. Listening to birds, wind, listening to the rain.
- Mike Melchionne on Roy Buchannan
(quotes from various people, documentary film Punk Attitude)
- . . .how to propel image.
- . . .stripped down all our conditioning. . .
- . . .gave you an attitude you could take on to.
- . . .you didn’t have to wait to start doing something
- What they pay you for now is being stupid and making people stupider. - John Sinclair
- . . .take the spirit and the inspiration and do your own thing with it.
- . . .learning about how to get your ideas out there.
. . .older musicians who would look out for the young ones, make sure they were practicing.
- Wynton Marsalis (on musical culture in New Orleans)
The highest level of technique is nuance.
- Wynton Marsalis
. . .the only value most artists have, whether they realize it or not, is their particular isolation from the world about which they write and to which they hope to contribute.
- Glenn Gould
For anything to happen there has to be a long obedience in the same direction.
- Nietzsche (quoted by Bono)
You’ll learn when you’re ready. Be in a constant state of Ready.
(Marty Stuart applies for the mandolin spot in Lester Flatt’s band.)
Lester Flatt: “Where’ve you been?”
Marty Stuart: “Gettin’ ready!”
You leave the guitar alone for three days and it doesn’t know you any more. It’s a constant struggle to get acquainted and remain acquainted.
- Chet Atkins