Joined: 10 Sep 2004 Posts: 2783 Location: Chino, CA
Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 3:30 am Post subject: The iPad Air As A Compositional Tool
I was just browsing around the web one day and saw an Apple banner ad for the iPad Air with the theme 'What will your verse be?' featuring classical composer/conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. Since I love classical music and music in general, I clicked on it and it took me here on Apple's site:
I watched all of the informercials and found them very interesting. My thought was: "Wow, now that is a very productive way of using the iPad instead of playing 'Angry Birds' on it!"
I immediately forwarded the link to Guthrie just because I thought it'd be of interest to him as a musician and he got back to me right away and said that I had inadvertently sold him the notation app called 'Notion' that is featured in these informercials. He said he had no idea that such a full-formed music notation app even existed. Although not quite as powerful as Sibelius running on a Mac OS X, he said that it's "very usable" and that's quite an endorsement from Guthrie. He advised that it even has a guitar fretboard alternative to the usual keyboard interface for note input.
Cool... So now Guthrie can be more productive in the long plane rides with his iPad Air (which I convinced him to get, by the way, after I raved about it to him late last year after I picked up mine ) and start working on some new material for the next Aristocrats album and, of course, the next solo album. Hey, I'm doing my part to egg him on!
Seriously, I think it's mainly about the music that one can come up with - not new guitar tricks and licks. And that's the case during live performances as well. It's one reason I rarely ever venture into YouTube to watch guitar players. I much prefer listening to audio only and just listen to the artist's musical ideas, the melodies, song construction, the arrangements, the production, etc. What a guitar player is doing with his hands on the guitar has very little appeal to me now.
And that includes Guthrie... I'm listening to a bunch of professionally recorded live material from the recent Aristocrats tour right now and I'm listening for the nights when all of the guys were "on" together as a cohesive musical ensemble, not how Guthrie is playing or sounding alone. It's about the spontaneous creation of music by a band, not just great guitar playing of one guitar virtuoso.
In his educational clinics, Guthrie often talks about letting the ideas in his head drive the music - not his fingers running up and down the fingerboard. Sometimes it's best to not have the guitar in one's hands at all when coming up with ideas. Well, that's certainly how the likes of Beethoven composed - just a notebook of staff paper and pen while walking around the woods. It's how Guthrie's 'Fives' came to being while he was sitting on a bench in a park, listening to the birds sing in a 5/4 rhythm.
Anyway, it seems an iPad and the right music notation app would be a cool way to get into writing new music instead of noodling endlessly on the guitar or playing the same ole riffs and licks over and over again through the latest gear. Not for me since I don't have the time or the inclination or the discipline to study all aspects of music, but I'm excited about the prospect of Guthrie using all this modern technology to come up with new music in the future. _________________ Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.
Im downloading it right now hehehe .. Thanks Ed .. Btw quick question will you be with them when they visit the Philippines heheh i was hoping to get a picture with you hehe if you dont mind hehe _________________ Tone is in the hands
Joined: 10 Sep 2004 Posts: 2783 Location: Chino, CA
Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2014 5:07 pm Post subject:
preschool wrote:
Im downloading it right now hehehe .. Thanks Ed .. Btw quick question will you be with them when they visit the Philippines heheh i was hoping to get a picture with you hehe if you dont mind hehe
Wish I could join this tour but I've got a full-time day gig now at GC so I won't be able to make this one but I'm sure I'll have opportunities to drop in on some dates in the future when I've accumulated a good number of vacation days. Maybe next time! _________________ Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.
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