About skills...

We’ve had this debate about U2, their skills and what it says about their music.

Here’s this teenage wonder Marcin :

https://consequenceofsound.net/2021/02/marcin-led-zeppelin-kashmir-cover/?fbclid=IwAR37DDsmM_NML_P42Ngl4OC_aDs05jQKw8CIokQtnS6sG4DDyS4ieDDuXu4

The guy is extremely skilled and talented, no doubt. But so far, he’s just doing covers. The only original tune of his I found is rather bad :

https://youtu.be/gTEkRjB5Q9g

So... what’s the point in having skills if the music sucks ? And what’s the point in developing skills if the music is great already ?

Being 'skilled' does not mean you will make great music.

Being less 'skilled' does not mean you can't make great music.

Where i do think it matters more is in the live setting...I personally want to see the music i am hearing being played by the musicians on the stage, I want to see and hear them weave together - i want to admire the timing and the skill involved in creating sounds.

I call bullshit frankly when swathes of what i am hearing is piped in/heavily augmented by pre recorded stuff etc......that is when for me skills matter......and it is just more honest and real when what i hear is all being played in front of me live by an artist/a band and their accomplices.

U2 is basically a singer, a rhythm section and an effects man.  There's always going to be a limitation on the sounds they could recreate live on stage unless of course they augment their live band which U2 took the decision not to do many moons ago.

 

Joy Division weren’t exactly consummate musicians. But they understood the power of the song.

ManGina LoveBucket

U2 are First Division.

U2 are First Division.

Sadly no.

ManGina LoveBucket

Jason Isbell said about guitar playing, "I just want to feel like you're trying to tell me something, rather than trying to show me something."  So long as an artist has the musical vocabulary to tell you what they want to tell you, it works.  It's also very easy for skill to undermine the music, as showy vocal runs and solos can get in the way of the emotion the song is trying to convey.

In writing and filmmaking, the advice is "show, don't tell." For example, develop characters by showing their actions rather than literally explaining their qualities.

So that advice in music is a little bit opposite in a way, but I twke it to mean that a song should be about something rather than a vehicle to show off a skill or riff or whatever.

Quote from: John Galt on February 15, 2021, 12:49:21 PM

U2 are First Division.

Sadly no.

ManGina LoveBucket

I always thought they started out wanting to be Joy Division.

In writing and filmmaking, the advice is "show, don't tell." For example, develop characters by showing their actions rather than literally explaining their qualities.

So that advice in music is a little bit opposite in a way, but I twke it to mean that a song should be about something rather than a vehicle to show off a skill or riff or whatever.

Yeah, in this context, "tell, don't show," just means convey some emotion or idea rather than show off your skills for the sake of showing off.

Jason Isbell said about guitar playing, "I just want to feel like you're trying to tell me something, rather than trying to show me something."  So long as an artist has the musical vocabulary to tell you what they want to tell you, it works.  It's also very easy for skill to undermine the music, as showy vocal runs and solos can get in the way of the emotion the song is trying to convey.

That's the best way I've heard it described. I'm of the same opinion.

To quote the famous Napoleon Dynamite (who my sister babysat in the 80's), girls like guys with skills.

Creativity is a different skillset to musicianship.

To quote the famous Napoleon Dynamite (who my sister babysat in the 80's), girls like guys with skills.

You mean your sister babysat Jon Heder?