Technique vs. Art?

[offthewall]

I been following this thread with some interest, but haven't much time at the moment to write.

I've had similar pedigree to some of you guys. First guitar at age 13 in '62, played in 'pop' groups til, after having an on-stage electrocution when I was 15 (and was too young to sue the venue!) I was given some records to listen to whilst recovering in hospital.  John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson......that was me converted!!
I played the blues and was part of the (British) blues revival of the mid 60's until I was enticed in a different direction through discovering the cross-over between blues and folk music. I then did folk clubs and festivals til '75, when I virtually stopped playing, due to family commitments.
I always kept a guitar at home and taught both my daughters to play, along with basic keyboard skills.
Two years ago my younger daughter fancied a 'penny-whistle' course at the local college but wouldn't go without me!  That was the thing that kick-started me back into music. I learned the whistle, I picked up the guitar again to help out with accompaniments for the rest of the class, I followed this with a basic 'music technology' course and then realised that I could record myself at home!
Enlightenment, at last.
So now here I am. Sitting at a computer that I only learned to use 3 years ago, making age-old music, and being able to multi-track myself playing as the band that I always wanted to be in!!
So....I don't know if it is a hobby (yes, as it fills in my spare time), or art (maybe, as I also paint and draw and find music is another creative outlet), or just simply a part of my 'being'.
Anyways.......it's brilliant being here amongst you people.  I had two collabs here within weeks of first joining, and look forward to more.  My first love is 'real' instrumentation. I like to play and record acoustic, but also love the contrast of mixing traditional with electronic.  My biggest disappointment is that I can not sing!  Anyone wants to take my tunes and put words to them......just go ahead.  Some tune that aren't over here on the forum are over on my 'artist page'.
I notice that some of the contributors here don't have there own pages!   Try it...it's only a click away!!
 
I'll come back to this when I have more time.

James
  

[Laguna Rising]

Well, I played bass in a hard-rock band when I was younger and we took inspiration from the 70's masters, but I'm not sure if I'm a musician or not.
Anyway all the people here really cares about music and we pay attention to compositions and also production quality. (maybe anyone with a different balance beetween the factors).
Non-musicians people tend to listen only to music and doesn't care about sounds and before mp3's they used to tape LP's so the quality isn't an issue to the 95 % of the music listeners.
I think we rappresent the 5 % (give or take...)

Cheers

[kara]

Well I'm very happy that there is still 5 % left
And even happier that we have people like that here 

[one]

Hi All

My background is mostly as a listener and appreciator of music. I always liked to sing along and often created my own vocal riffs and melodies over tunes that I enjoyed. I was discouraged from playing an instrument when I was young but I strongly felt the music and I always believed I had musical talent.

Fast forward twenty to thirty years and we now have the ability to create really good stuff on our affordable PC's. So thats what I did!

Re production vs the tune. I'm an amature at both so I've always just tried to play and sing what I felt and then try to make it sound as good as the music thats always inspired me. In my view the key to being productive musically is to work with and against one's limitations. I can't really play but I don't have to because I'm just doing my thing anyway I couldn't do a "cover tune" to save my life

1

[kara]

You are very modest (humble??) here Mike.
I have 2 CD's of you and consider them both as TOP products. The full CD's are allways on mp3 player in a category 'do never delete' 

With the technical evolution happening in the audio domain, I wonder what we can consider now as an 'instrument'. With all VST's and VST's available, we could ask ourselves if we shouldn't consider a full DAW & sequencer as an instrument on its own ?

[Wyatt]

You are very modest (humble??) here Mike.
I have 2 CD's of you and consider them both as TOP products. The full CD's are allways on mp3 player in a category 'do never delete' 

With the technical evolution happening in the audio domain, I wonder what we can consider now as an 'instrument'. With all VST's and VST's available, we could ask ourselves if we shouldn't consider a full DAW & sequencer as an instrument on its own ?

kara..couldn't agree more with that..whatever you use to make music is an instrument..you have to devlelop skill in using it..then use it to make music..in the end it's still music.


Wyatt

[Laguna Rising]

Hey ONE the most important thing is the result, I don't care which tools you used or how you handled it.
I like to listen to the music. I still keep your TYT album in my keeper folder and I like it.
You should be proud of your music 

I'm not a very talented musician but I like to make music as a pastime (hobby). Not really ear-trained I've difficulties to make a cover too 

I usually balance the effort to write a good tune with the resarch of original solution to achieve a good production
'Balance' means I'm bad in both activities 

Cheers