Reading a recent blog post on musicians and music had me meandering about the true lover of music: The one who knows about music or the one who does not. Well, I may not be quite clear in stating my argument. Lets put it this way: Can you enjoy music only when you understand the chords, notes and other things or can you enjoy it being on the other side too. There may be two arguments here: One - You can understand music better if you know the technicalities of it. Agreed. Two - Enjoying music is lost if one keep nit picking about the technicalities. I certainly belong to the second group even though sometimes I tent to be flustered at not knowing the scales, etc. But then is it absolutely essential to be able to decipher the notes, scales and other things to enjoy music better? Cannot one, over a period of having listened to music, differentiate between 'good' and 'bad' music (if there is anything as good or bad is another debatable topic). In fact I have always prided in the fact that my taste in music is fairly decent and probably I can give my two bits in a conversation about music.
Now for the point one: Knowing about the intricasies of music always has an edge over not knowing it. The way one talks after knowing the ragas, talas, etc is a pleasure to the hearer whereas if one talks about music on the surface level, it just might prove to be some information out of Wikipedia. All said and done, who is the one who enjoys the music better? Maybe both the parties enjoy it equally as one is just listening and taking it in whereas the other is scrutinising but nevertheless also taking it in.
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind, the answer is blowin' in the wind (Bob Dylan).
To me whatever is good and soothing to my ears is music.
ReplyDeleteShas: I guess even I fall into the same category as yours but having this conversation with a musician made me ponder on the question raised. By the way, what music do you like?
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