Music Discussion: The Essentials, The Trimmings, or maybe Both?
Martin here. So, what'm I on about this time? Well, as an experienced audio fiend, I want to pass on some nuggets that are simple, but not necessarily obvious .... a series, perhaps.
Okay. Essentials? Trimmings? The way I see it, when you really like, and listen intently to, any piece of music you enjoy, there are always one, two or three or four key things (essentials) that you are 'glomming' on to. And in other cases, there may not be any particular essentials that are key - it may indeed be the little extras, the attention to detail, the recording quality - stuff like that. Examples:
When I hear Frank Sinatra sing, there's a few essentials I'm enjoying. They are, in order of importance:
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So all I'm getting at here really, is that it's nice to get to know what it is that you enjoy when you listen to Music. Following those things will definitely connect to more great music. For example, one of the first things I noticed about the extraordinary Daniel Lanois, was that he enjoys playing pedal steel guitar.
Okay. Essentials? Trimmings? The way I see it, when you really like, and listen intently to, any piece of music you enjoy, there are always one, two or three or four key things (essentials) that you are 'glomming' on to. And in other cases, there may not be any particular essentials that are key - it may indeed be the little extras, the attention to detail, the recording quality - stuff like that. Examples:
When I hear Frank Sinatra sing, there's a few essentials I'm enjoying. They are, in order of importance:
- That wonderful voice! FYI - people have said that Frank didn't really sing all that well. They may be right. But, and it's a big but, it's the sheer quality (as in properties, not skill) of his voice that is key. Simply put: Frank Sinatra had a voice that almost everyone really ENJOYED, just for it's tone and richness. Nothing to do with skill - just his unique gift!
- The 1950s (in my mind).
- The way Dave Gilmour bends a string. Every guitarist bends strings. But only a few make you stop and listen. Gilmour is one of them.
- Gilmour's slide guitar playing. I've seen the Floyd live several times, and his swirling, ethereal, spine-tingling pedal steel guitar is .... je ne sais pas. (It also didn't hurt that Pink Floyd always used a quadraphonic sound system.)
- The little bits of weird "talking" on the album, whose participants were apparently prompted by cue cards.
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So all I'm getting at here really, is that it's nice to get to know what it is that you enjoy when you listen to Music. Following those things will definitely connect to more great music. For example, one of the first things I noticed about the extraordinary Daniel Lanois, was that he enjoys playing pedal steel guitar.
Monsieur Gilmour at the office
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