Really good cooking is a craft, and those recipes that best describe that craft, whether simple or advanced, move all cooks forward. Those recipes that help you avoid craft, to get around it, set people who want to become better cooks, back.
Do you want fast and simple? Grill a steak. Want a great sauce that doesn’t involve making and reducing veal stock? Mince a shallot and mix it with some soft butter and lemon juice. But don’t get mad at a recipe for a classical Bordelaise sauce.
- Michael Ruhlman, in his blog entry, “Recipe Dealbreakers”
Our culture is full of people who, struck by the beauty of the creative, endeavor to create for themselves. There exists, however, a shortfall of people willing to put in the time, effort, and dreadful repetition required to turn a hobby into real craftsmanship. Ruhlman, in his post, complains of cookbooks responsible for dumbing down the work of masters for accessibility.
I see such cookbooks in a similar light as “prosumer” photo and video cameras or budding guitarists hunting for song tablature before learning even the most basic theory or scales. Devices designed to give you a shortcut to near-professional results only give you a facsimile of near-professional results. They won’t teach you how to craft something original on your own.
2 Comments
I disagree about tablature–modern tablature typically includes rhythmic indicators as well (the staff of a quarter note, flags for smaller divisions, etc.). Tablature is a much more sensible form of notation for the guitar. Its major shortcoming is that it doesn’t translate to instruments that don’t use frets.
Your last paragraph doesn’t sit well with me, either. Based on the context, is it safe to assume that you view tablature and the others as “devices designed to give you a shortcut . . .”? If so, are you suggesting that theory and/or scales are the opposite of this–the so-called “right way”?
Musical theory is merely an analysis of music as it has happened up to this point. It is a large collection of previously acquired knowledge, (often confusingly) stamped with arbitrary labels. Musical creativity is developed with the ears and the mind (and not the part of the mind that retains all of that theoretical whiz-bang). I suspect visual artists hone their skills in similar ways, I imagine.
Studying theory is useful in that it can suggest that which you might not have considered trying. It does not unlock any doors–it only helps you, in certain circumstances, to pass through them more quickly.
I do think that your original point is a good one in that people need to be willing to put in the effort to learn something instead of expecting it to just come quickly. I just think that you started to slide with what I’ve discussed above, because you’re talking paths instead of dedication. Louis Armstrong, Django Reinhardt, Wes Montgomery–all not just excellent, but revolutionary musicians; all unorthodox, formally untrained musicians.
Well I never said anything about formal training. And while people most often associate theory with formal training, you know from your own personal experience that they’re not exclusively linked.
I’m sure the combination of my lesser knowledge of music and hasty posting style got the better of me here. When I say tablature, I don’t think of the quality tablature that you can find in books or produced by patient transcribers. I suppose I think more of the tablature so common to the internet - fixed-width ASCII “tablature” with hardly any additional notation.
As for the theory/scales idea, I’m probably using poor terminology in that respect. It would be better for me to say that I feel an understanding of how your instrument works (and the accompanying knowledge of when something isn’t working properly) is vital to both playing AND composing. Even musicians without formal training need that much. And in the context of Ruhlman’s piece (and my broader point), I think I most generally mean that for all creative endeavors, there must be some understanding of fundamentals, or at least a desire for such understanding.
A painter will have a hard time progressing if he cannot mix colors. A baker will have a hard time progressing if he knows nothing of leavening. Etc.
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