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Re: Musical snobbery (was Re: Songs for BL)

Adrian Drover wrote:
> 
> On 13 Jun, Lloyd_Hiscock <lloyd.sue.hiscock@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > And what about other musicians who have no "training", formal or
> > otherwise but create beautiful (subjective, I agree) music? Louis
> > Armstrong, for example. And what about self taught composers and
> > arrangers? And countless numbers of folk musicians? (I believe Gil Evans
> > is in the self taught category, although I'm not sure if he was
> > completely self taught). Gil's work, especially with Miles Davis, is the
> > stuff of legends IMHO. (If you haven't heard the Concierto de Aranjuez
> > (Rodrigo) by Miles and Gil on Sketches of Spain, give it a listen). And
> > innovative.
> 
> In their day (and mine), there were no colleges for jazz training, either
> as a player or a writer, and only one or two not very informative books on
> the subject. Jazz was still frowned upon by established colleges, even in
> the USA where it was invented. The only option we had was to be self
> taught. We did this by listening, scrounging scores from other writers,
> trial and error etc., etc. After we had soaked up enough information to
> get started we began to develop our own ideas. Even though I have had no
> formal training, I now teach big band arranging at the RSAMD in Glasgow
> and am probably the only instructor on the staff that does not have a
> string of letters after his name. 

Who cares? 

> But even if a student is lucky enough to
> go through college, once he/she has graduated, should revert to
> self-taught mode, otherwise nothing new would ever happen in the world of
> music.

Yes! We tend to forget (perhaps conveniently) that rules generally come
after the event (except perhaps in governments).  Someone creates or
does something and, being addicted to pigeon-holeing, we create
explanations that say "Oh, he/she always does so-and-so in such-and-such
situation" and before we know it, it becomes a "rule" and everyone does
the same.  Then, along comes someone else with another new invention and
we start all over.  I would be as bold as to say that music is not the
only field where this is true.

Bravo!

Lloyd


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