So how good is your analytical mind when you listen to music? And I know that people have different ways of processing music.
I personally have been teaching piano since I was 14 years old, so I’m gonna be 44 now. It’s gonna be 30 years of piano teaching. I’ve been really fortunate to meet a lot of people that, you know, have, you know, have been able to show me. There are different ways of processing things, but there is a general, I feel there’s a general way where people, how people process music in their brain.
And this is what we’re gonna talk about today, because I would like you to have some clarity when you leave. And I understand there’s people amongst us in the room that are, that are maybe very, very advanced, and there’s maybe people in the room that are, more towards the beginning spectrum of their, of their music writing career. So this is always difficult. So it’s difficult to kind of talk about a subject and not knowing what is everybody’s level. So some of you may be a little bit bored and other people may find this very complex, but try and follow it.
It’s very, very easy, actually easy thing to do, if you learn it the right way, I will, I’ll make a little bit of a beginning with that as well. So without further ado, I’m gonna, share the screen.
and this is kind of the subtitle, sharpen your analytical musical mind, understand what works, what grooves, and what simply sounds best. Without further ado, going to today’s topic. If you wish to improve your output, you need to improve your input. it was a wonderful interview. I would love you guys to check out Rick Beato, if you dunno who he is. He’s incredible musical mastermind. does some great podcasts and stuff with conversations and some, some really, really good input on, on where the musical industry currently stands.
and there was, there was a quite a recent interview about input and output, and I know Martin is also advocating this all the time. input is, could be books, it could be movies, it could be other music. there was also this interview I saw on Sylvester Stallone, which is just on his, his Instagram page.
I think on Hulu there is a new series on the life of Sylvester Stallone, which also features his daughters. And the interesting thing is that all we know, Sylvester Stallone is an actor, right? And he mentioned something just yesterday in one of the episodes where he said, the beginning of his career, he was, he had no money. He was living in this really, really old, old house and he was listening to entire catalogs of, or great musical pieces, and he would just, listen to them.
no, there is, guys, there is no, there is no music playing at the moment. There’s just my voice. Can you hear my voice? Don’t hear any music. Yes. Okay. No, guys, we’re not gonna not gonna play any music. I’m not playing any music, at least for now. I haven’t planned to do that. but I would, I would like you to go and check out these interviews. It’s just really fascinating to see, and to hear, you know, from these, from these incredible people, what they have used as inspiration.
And some things come out that are very, very unique. So I, I would also say it’s like in terms of input, that’s what we’re gonna do today. we’re gonna try and improve your input. and if you improve your input, you can improve your output rather than just saying, I want you to improve your output. so maybe we’re gonna start a little earlier and for yourself after cus to say, Vincent, I know what I’m need to do now.
I I know what I can do with this. That’s, that’s the objective. So the urban legend, I love to start always with that urban legend is like, if I can imitate it, I can make it myself. it’s a lot of people that, that love to sing melodies, and of course they know melodies from Ariana Grande, and then they’ll sing a melody or from Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber, from the Beatles or, or from any kind of, even classical composer.
And they’ll be like, well, if I can whistle this melody, I can sing this melody, then I can also create it myself, right? It’s a logical way of, of thinking sometimes that where we say, well, I, I can sing this melody so I can also make this melody. And that’s, that’s where there is, I, I feel a really big misunderstanding. one needs to understand what one hears in order to create something similarly.
Great. So, and this is like another thing I want to say. If you note, if you know where the note is placed, you can change the position of the note, but if you don’t know where it is, you can’t change it. So this is the same for grammar as we know it. Maybe people will believe me more if they be like, well, if I understand grammar, I can actually change the construction of the sentence. But it’s the same with I have a three and a half year old, toddler Ana.
She’s, she’s amazing and she knows how to say things in kind of one straight way, but she won’t be able to change the order and realise whether that’s still correct or not. So this is kind of with music, musical grammar as a musical theory, and we also call it gio. is is difficult. It’s complex. And this is, this is why I want to, to somewhat try to simplify it for you today.
And if you simplify the understanding of musical, so veg in theory in your own head, you’ll be able to listen to music differently. That’s, that’s subjective of today. I hope everybody’s still happy and well, if so, let’s go to the next page. this is from a little introduction I did during my last, groove, masterclass I did, which maybe some of you have seen, some of you haven’t.
but there, you already introduced the art of listening and that’s it. From hearing comes Knowing and from knowing comes understanding From understanding comes ability and from ability comes better music. So art is ability, technique, and passion combined. without further ado, the greatest composers were the best. … Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Chopan
