andrewducker | The Grim Professional Future

The Grim Professional Future

I was at a party a few years ago where the people split into two groups - the ones who were happily singing around a piano and the ones who were hiding in the kitchen, aghast that people would sing, in public, for fun. The split was clearly generational in nature - the older folks had clearly grown up singing together, the younger ones considered singing to be something that was done by musicians.

And despite theoretically belonging to the second group I've generally felt that this was a bad thing. My parents used to sing on long car journeys, entertaining us when we were little, and it always seemed like a lot of fun. I can trace the point where I lost any interest in it to my first choir lesson in school, where we all lined up in rows and sang through something vaguely religious - and then afterwards the choirmaster told me that I should just mime along. This would have been twenty six years ago, but the memory still sticks with me.

The idea that a pupil who wasn't good at something should be told to just _stop_ is something that shocks me in retrospect - it's a massive failure on the behalf of any teacher. And the idea that singing is something that should be done only by the trained - rather than a natural expression of our humanity is also something that bothers me deeply.

There does seem to have been a resurgence recently - things like YouTube and Singstar/Rock Band seem to have encouraged people to put their own voice out there in the same way that blogs encouraged people to write. But I doubt very much that we're going to end up back at the point where sing-songs around the piano are common place again.

Mind you - a lot of this is probably down to the fact that playing Grand Theft Auto is a more distracting and, dare I say it, fun way of spending the evening :->

All of this triggered by a quote here in an article on the long history of articles decrying technical progress in the "content industry" - starting with Sousa (the composer) worrying about the player piano and the gramophone:

"Under such conditions, the tide of amateurism cannot but recede until there will be left only the mechanical device and the professional executant.

Threaded | Flat

a lot of this is probably down to the fact that playing Grand Theft Auto is a more distracting and, dare I say it, fun way of spending the evening

Have you ever played Sing Star?
With a group of non judgmental friends it is great fun.
Better than GTA, but harder to organise on a tuesday evening when everyone has work the next day.

It is sad. We recently got a clavinova, and often after dinner parties Robert plays, and we have a jolly sing of Flanders & Swan, G&S, Tom Lehrer, and that sort of thing. I'm startlingly aware of how unusual that is these days, and how lucky I am.

Sousa was right to be worried. At the time he was writing, the English were famous for singing in fields as they worked (and in factories and on ships). That's all gone now, replaced by radios in many workplaces and by a sort of wave of distant tapping noises in mine. It's clear that for many people, making music is something that is done by children and professionals. And I do think that that is terribly sad, not least because a little ability at singing and an instrument enriches your enjoyment of the music you hear. (Actually, I think even a bit of Guitar Hero or Rock Band can do that, too).

On the other hand, amateurism does appear to be making a bit of a comeback, fuelled by YouTube and by the wondrous ability of the Internet as an instruction tool (I learnt to knit last year entirely off the internet, for example).

I play lots of video games (including rhythm games of course). But I also run a session (2nd Tuesday, Plough Inn, Walthamstow), and making music with other people, for no purpose but your own entertainment, is a fine, fine way to spend an evening.

I have always sung, am generally held to be quite good at it and am currently in 2 rock covers bands. So I sing well enough for a real live audience to appreciate :-)

I have tried the SingStar/Rockband/GHIII singing and find it all just totally unenjoyable. It's *nothing* like real singing - a decent performance will often score very badly (and vice versa!). Only one of them (forget which) is tolerant of harmonising. I only really do well in the "freestyle" bits!

I listened to a little girl (about 10 or 11) play and whilst she scored well,what came out was pretty horrible to listen to due to the limited set of notes allowed by the level she was playing. She had a decent voice and I thought it sad that she wasn't just singing songs. I shudder to think what happens when all the people who score well in the games think that they can therefore sing and try it with a band (or a talent contest!).Ouch. Still, I can hope they can hear the difference and it inspires them to sing for real.

The guys at the last party I went to who were in bands seemed to have a similar attitude to the instrumental parts of such games.

Some folks put LOADS of effort and time into these games - almost as much as you'd need to practice a real instrument. I don't understand it but I guess the getting an actual *score* might be important. A rating that you can compare with your friends to settle the question of who is the best....

Anecdotal evidence, someone should write a song about it.

I made a living in the late 80's early 90's setting up music studios based around Atari STs and Cubase or Notator. Now if I'm based in Edinburgh and easily setup over a hundred small to medium studios in schools, disabled centres, community centres and the majority in bedrooms how many others were doing this in Brum, Manchester, Leeds, London? Nevermind in mainland Europe and America.

Technology can and does empower creativity. Then it was musicians, at the moment everyone and their dog is now a photographer, before both of these it was the home computing - bedroom games revolution. And fit in the point where everyones kids were web designers.

In my opinion what has killed of the music creativity is the so called Music Industry. The death of the single, the near impossibility for talent to shine through the X-Manufactured dross of cover songs and the madness behind suing fans.

What we need is a good depression to bring forth the musical talent. This revolution is cyclic. Already as we hit this financial blip look at the amount of live music on your doorstep. Don't decry the use of technology, walk away from it and see some live music.

I think I would be part of the 2nd group in the kitchen too. It's not that I dislike people singing, it is just usually in my social group those that like to break out a guitar and sing along don't share the same music tastes as myself.

Oh and please give Saints Row 2 some of your time if you are enjoying GTA. So much more fun, and no bloody "Heeeeey Cousin!" phonecalls :D

Yay. I really love singing-parties and sing-songs round the piano. I don't get to do it very often because none of my immediate circle of friends plays the piano (although occasionally we'll do carol-singing a capella, or even just sing in the car).

I'm not a good singer either, and I really love (and still find it hard to believe) that people get together to sing and have fun and it doesn't matter if you're nto very good.

IME, I don't see it as a generational thing, or at least not that way round. My family never did, or do, anything like that. The people who do are all 20- and 30-somethings in my extended circle of friends. I can't think of any middle-ages acquaintances who do.

Interestingly, the major complaint from a lot of professional musicians - I heard one at a party the other week - at the moment seems to be that there are so many talented amateur groups it's nearly impossible to compete, because the amateurs don't care about making a living.

Similar conditions apply in a lot of the film world - the unions HATE people who will work for less or for free. And in the book world, most authors don't make anything like a living wage.

sing-songs around a guitar are perhaps more likely ... ?

Really?
At Pad's last birthday quite a few non-musicians had a singalong in her room.

I say the real problem is pubs don't have pianos any more. Find me a pub with a piano and I will take requests.

There is also the question of how many people can play the piano?

Ekatarina, who *loves* singing at the drop of a hat and encourages others to do the same.

The trouble is that not only do people feel embarrassed and self conscious around informal live musical performance - lots of us have lost the skills and confidence to take part. The idea for most people of remembering the words to a song all the way through is quite strange but in the past lots of people knew not just one but many songs - we've also moved away from a repertoire of songs that have chorus parts for everybody to join in with. We need to move towards singing and music being a part of everday life - a friend of mine who taught folk songs to children, said that her aim was that the songs and singing them was regarded as "normal"...in that it was a totally accepted activity just like TV, Football and play-stations....

The great thing about singing socially, is that it's completely free - we don't need any speial equipment , all we need is somebody who knows a song that has a good chorus - The thing is, this doesn't sit very well in a consumer society, where our success is measured by the expense of our possessions and the cost of our leisure time activities - there is no money to be made from social singing, so it does not have a value in the consumer society. In the consumer society, we are also made to view society as a hierarchy, so an activity that we can all take part in on a equal basis which offers no scope for class distinction or elitism is also not going to be held up or supported.

Lets break the mould, have some friends over for food, drinks, a good chat and a sing song - It's the ultimate anti-capitalist pursuit!!!

One thing about Sousa's quote that is interesting to me is the role of technology: Conlon Nancarrow wrote music for the player piano that exploited its ability, as a mechanical device, to do things that would be very difficult if not impossible for a human pianist. It's the same now with the likes of glitch techno and grindcore that uses drum machines to play 1000BPM blast beats.

Threaded | Flat

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

The ultimate anti-capitalist pursuit

no subject