Soul... Music's Best Ingredient
How interesting is it that some music can touch you deeply and stay with you for a lifetime, while others can sway past you with no emotional attachment whatsoever. And that's not to mention the ones that may sound repulsive to you. Why is this?
Great musicians, composers, instrumentalists pour their souls into every note. Just listen to Michael Brecker blow his tenor sax on "Common Grounds" by The Brecker Brothers off the Live 1992 recording. You can here all the passion and soul that went into this music. Or listen to Miles blowing on the Jazz in Paris recordings. It's like he's speaking directly to you.
These artists put their soul into the music. They take a simple note and add things like vibrato, staccato, diminuendo and other terms that basically mean that multiple inflections are added per note, per phrase, per chorus. They use their instruments as extensions of their heart and emotions. The years of training and practice on the instrument, simply provide the technical chops needed to get from point A to B in the most finessed way possible.
Technical ability however doesn't guarantee greatness. This is evident when you hear a musician play a million notes per minute without any of them connecting with the audience. Been to a jazz concert lately? The crowd gets riled up not when the cat on stage is playing a million notes, but when he stops to hit that one high note. Folks connect to that high note because it's an emotional climax. That note reaches deep and touches you.
Without soul music is boring and uninteresting. There's no question that when present, the soul that the artist puts into their music connects with us when we're really listening and reaching out to feel it. It makes us fall in love, or relive a memory, or inspires us to do great things. For this musician, that soul I hear in music usually inspires me to create more music.
Great musicians, composers, instrumentalists pour their souls into every note. Just listen to Michael Brecker blow his tenor sax on "Common Grounds" by The Brecker Brothers off the Live 1992 recording. You can here all the passion and soul that went into this music. Or listen to Miles blowing on the Jazz in Paris recordings. It's like he's speaking directly to you.These artists put their soul into the music. They take a simple note and add things like vibrato, staccato, diminuendo and other terms that basically mean that multiple inflections are added per note, per phrase, per chorus. They use their instruments as extensions of their heart and emotions. The years of training and practice on the instrument, simply provide the technical chops needed to get from point A to B in the most finessed way possible.
Technical ability however doesn't guarantee greatness. This is evident when you hear a musician play a million notes per minute without any of them connecting with the audience. Been to a jazz concert lately? The crowd gets riled up not when the cat on stage is playing a million notes, but when he stops to hit that one high note. Folks connect to that high note because it's an emotional climax. That note reaches deep and touches you.
Without soul music is boring and uninteresting. There's no question that when present, the soul that the artist puts into their music connects with us when we're really listening and reaching out to feel it. It makes us fall in love, or relive a memory, or inspires us to do great things. For this musician, that soul I hear in music usually inspires me to create more music.
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