So this evening I was watching Frontline on PBS. (yes I was watching public television, I do despite my last blog, maybe I am a hypocrite but we do need to consider fixing that problem, but that’s another rant that I don’t wish to re-hash at this time) The episode featured a classic documentary about how an educator named Jane Elliot did an experiment where she divided her class based on eye color in an effort to teach a lesson on racism. My mother had recommended it to me a while back during a discussion we had had about class or something, I don’t recall it now. I had only seen a little clip of it a while ago but tonight I actually watched the whole thing.

Now, before I continue I just want to say that I don’t mean to make light of what the message of the documentary, it is about racism. However, in watching it I feel I can see some other results of such an experiment and in typical Tom fashion I see some musical implications. For some reason I always tend to see things through the lens of music, my experiences, and my students. What I did see (aside from the racial implications) was that people who are singled out and told that they are of no value or their shortcomings are paid extra attention to tend to perform poorly. The teacher noticed that on the day that the students were in the singled out group, they under performed, yet on the day that they were the dominant group they excelled. Later the documentary showed a group of adults had gone through a similar experiment. The adults that were in the “oppressed” group became defiant and were almost unwilling to learn or participate. I don’t mean to give a book report on the documentary but I did want to give a little background.

So as most things do, I was thinking about how this related to music. As I was thinking I couldn’t help but think about myself. I went to UMASS Lowell and I would be lying if I didn’t say that I feel a little inferior around some friends that went to schools like Berklee or New England Conservatory. I sometimes feel I need to justify my education, talk it up a little bit, which is silly if you think about it. I’m a pretty good player and composer, where I went to school doesn’t matter, what matters is what I do now. Yet the fact that I got my education from a state school (musically the second or third school in the state system according to some) seems to make me feel like less of a player sometimes. This is especially stupid considering I have met some players from the “awesome” schools that aren’t that great, but that mark is hard to erase some times. I know some people that I went to school with (I’m not naming names) that I feel are downright embarrassed about the fact that they did not go to some ridiculously good school. One such person adds this onto his issue of feeling bad about the fact that he doesn’t come from an affluent family and wasn’t able to afford to go to such a school. I couldn’t either. That person seems to go through life trying to be part of the “cool kids” if you will, obviously feeling inferior to better musicians, especially ones that went to one of these schools. It’s really interesting because just like the people in the documentary my friend is held back by his self inflicted inferiority. As a player he just doesn’t seem to ever get over that hump, nor does he have the ability to truly create from an inspired, boundary free place. There may be many other factors that work against him but I see this as one big issue that he deals with. I am a little different, I have never been one of the chosen or the cool kids, I’m me and quite frankly I just don’t give a crap. Although, sometimes I still feel a little “less” than others (very rarely, but I do). I’ve also been doing this long before I even thought about college so I just focus on what I always have, making good music.

My original thought in all of this was; if kids choose to play guitar, bass, drums, are they subject to being excluded from education in such a way that inflicts that felling of inferiority? I think so. Think about how the guitar player in the school jazz band is the “joke” of the group. What’s that old band teacher joke? “How do you get a guitarist to stop playing? Put a sheet of music in front of him.” The guy that made up that joke is a fucking asshole and I hope he was fired from his band director job when he told it to the other band teachers. Let’s face it the rock guitar kids are thought of as a lost cause by band teachers. Why? Well probably because the teachers didn’t grow up playing rock, nor guitar. How would expect them to understand such kids. When it comes to including these kids in school music, well…”No Rockers Need Apply” Poor kids. The door to music education is closed to them. I couldn’t help but think that this inferiority complex would affect their development. I see that the need to improve musicianship lacks in some students and/or their friends. I ask is it because of this inferiority issue? Again, I think so.

PBS = Private Business Service?

So it’s the holiday season and it’s time for PBS to beg for your cold hard cash, or as my dad likes to call it the Beg-a-thon. I used to pledge to public television/radio but I stopped a few years ago. Why would you do that, especially in a time when the government is cutting funding for PBS? The answer is simple, they deserve what they get. Public broadcasting has really become commercial television, watch it, there are at least five minutes of commercials before each show, and the more popular the show the more commercials they play. Now it’s not just commercials that piss me off, it’s the amount of money that Sesame Street must have made from the tickle me Elmo doll and all the other merchandise they sell to children. It’s the amount of money that This Old House must make on syndication of its episodes or the sale of their magazine and all of the other crap they can put a logo on. If these people have made so much money then why don’t they fund PBS themselves, in stead of begging me for my $40 membership which has now gone up to $50 or $60. Or why don’t they just admit that they are too big an entity and move into the corporate television word where they belong. In other words, make room for the little guy. Isn’t PBS supposed to be educational any how? When This Old House started they went to average people’s houses and taught/helped them with their fixer uppers, now they renovate these multi million dollar homes with state of the art things, which allows them to offer key product placement to these huge home companies. I guess I just thought that Public Broadcasting was supposed to be about the little guy.

You might also be wondering what this has to do with music. Well, it’s simple, this trend continues with all of their so called arts programming. In the past year I have seen performances by Alanis Morrisette, Coldplay, The Grateful Dead, Tony Bennet, The Australian Pink Floyd, among many others. How is this educational? How are these people the little guys? I watched some of these performances and let me tell you, I didn’t learn a damn thing. During the breaks of these shows, when they try to guilt you into paying up because you have been watching this for free, you get to see these wannabe Entertainment Tonight type fame-whores gush about how great this crap is so you’ll give even more money to get the DVD or CD for triple the price you could get it at anywhere else. Let’s face it: it’s for a good cause. The other thing that seems to be a peculiar phenomenon is these self help infomercials that they play on a nonstop loop for an entire beg-a-thon. Even Celtic Women, you know that faux-traditional, overly sentimental crap with these young pretty Irish girls meant to make middle aged American women long for a heritage they may or may not have so they will go buy another overpriced CD/DVD that they’ll never watch. The real kicker is that this is the same thing I see commercials for late at night during South Park re-runs. It’s put out by TV Atlas which seems to be some company that sells or produces CDs that they only sell through a special TV offer, often of old washed up pop stars.

It just makes me wonder, do these people pay PBS to play their crap during beg-a-thons? Some broad I spoke to on one of the many times that my local PBS station called me to “renew” my membership. This time, like many others before, I laid out every single reason as to why I think PBS is going into the toilet. She told me that all of this crap (my words) is actually drawing in more members than ever before. I guess I just feel that if this is the level PBS has stoop to, then it’s pathetic and that maybe these “new” viewers are idiots and should just go back to their Ellen DeGeneres and Judge Judy shows. PBS should be standing up to corporate influences, ratings, and so on, that’s why they were government funded, no pressure just quality.

Morning Coffee

As I was drinking my morning cup of coffee I was thinking about what I wanted to write. I was going over many thoughts of music and such. I realized my cup of coffee held the answer. I have a cup every day. Not when I wake up first thing, but when I have been awake for at least two hours. It becomes not my daily caffeine fix but a delicious beverage I like to enjoy. People have let coffee become a drug. I worked at a Starbucks for almost a year. I saw the cracked out coffee addicts come in at various points in the day for their fix. Starbucks is a company that prides themselves on providing a great cup'o'joe. Most of the people that came in were really looking for their caffeine filled milk and flavoring drink. The same people would make comments about how they were so above the low class Dunkin Donuts drinkers. I began to see that all of these people cared very little about the flavors the different roasts could bring out in the beans. As an employee I had to taste coffee explain the different complexities of the roasts to the customers, most of the time it was lost on them. They would act as if they knew what you were talking about, but you could tell they didn't know or care. They just wanted the ability to hold themselves above the low class coffee drinkers. What the hell does this have to do with music? Well if you think about it many people that claim to be fans of Jazz or Classical are somewhat the same. They like the perception of being educated and in some cases upper class in their tastes. Yet like the coffee drinkers their palette isn't very educated. The more complex the “flavor” of the music becomes, the more such people just politely smile and pretend like they understand. At this point, is the emperor wearing any clothes? Complete bull can pass as quality as long as it appears to be so. Even unoriginal artists can be perceived as being original. Listeners wouldn't have the tools to spot it. Bad art can be perpetuated and good art can be ignored. It seems sad to me.

Take Back Your Music

Instrumentalists Anonymous

I am here to say “My name is Tom, and I’m an instrumental musician.” I don’t know why, but I have felt that I have had to apologize for this most of my life. Not for lack of self esteem, but because people seem to not understand my love of instrumental music. I know I’m not alone, there are many fans of the same music I like, but we are a dying breed. People just don’t relate, they listen for vocals, they like the words. Why? What’s wrong with songs that don’t have singing? Did Mozart or Miles Davis ever experience this? Did anyone ever say to them, “Where are the words?” I doubt it. I never seem to have an answer to this dilemma. Yet instrumental music seems to be going the way of the dinosaur. Oddly enough instrumental music is exploring new territory thanks to technology. Musicians and composers are finding new sounds all the time. In some ways you could say the music getting better all the time. If what I said in my last entry is true, then instrumental music should be growing in popularity, but it seems to not be. This is why I chose the name AmericanMusicRevolution.com I feel the need to stand up and say “This is my music. These are the sounds I relate to, and if you feel the same stand up say it.” I just feel that instrumentalists are being marginalized. Not enough of us are standing up for the music we make. Instead many are content to play for the few people that will listen, and not try to bring new people into our world. In fact some people even put up a front where they seem to not want any newcomers into the instrumental world. Lets face it “average people” don’t understand our music. I think that deep down such people do want new listeners. They just don’t know how to relate to them or don’t want to take the time to explain themselves to people. But yet, isn’t music about relating and sharing. I don’t have answers to this problem. Like everything else the answers are probably so complicated that no one person could have the answer. I will say this, if you feel the same way try to think of how you can bring change. Next time you come across an “average person”, try to bring them in, not scare them away.

Take Back Your Music

Music Is the Soundtrack to Our Lives

Is it possible that we must come to a new understanding of what music is? That music is no longer something we travel to a place to participate in, music has come to us. We have made it possible to hear music in every part of our lives, no matter where. Then does our experience of music change? I think so. Actually I think it becomes a question of listening vs. sensing. Listening is direct conscious hearing of music. Sensing is something different, sensing is feeling the music. Think about going to a spa. What kind of music do you hear? Probably new age music, right? Why? The music is relaxing. If you are lying on the table getting a massage you are probably not really listening to the music. The music is working to create a mood for the experience. It’s full of sensual synths and sounds, and it enhances the sensuality of a message. This is just one example of how music is about sensing and not listening. I would argue that music is constantly making that leap in our lives. I remember a friend telling me how she loved to listening to Rage Against the Machine while doing the treadmill because it “pumped her up.” Music is now experienced in the way filmmakers use it to color the emotion of a scene. My fear is that people only have a narrow experience of music; they only participate in a few different genres. They then have access to only some musical experiences. We should seek a much variety as possible, only then can we maximize our experiences. Take Back Your Music.

It is time to get angry! It is time to cut the bull! Most importantly it is time to make changes! I am not going to advocate violent overthrow of our cultural institutions. I am however suggesting people stand up and TAKE BACK YOUR MUSIC! The answer is in understanding your music. Understanding where it comes from, why it was made, and more importantly what it says about you. These are the things that make art what it is, self expression, identity, emotion, etc. It seems that these are the things we are losing touch with in today's world. Yes some people get passionate about art or music, and yes some people make personal connections with music. If you are one of these people, challenge those around you to do the same, because many people don't go the distance with their art. They only see and participate in the most commercial art and music available in our society, which allows corporate America to dictate what we participate in. In turn they decide how we feel, think, and express ourselves. By allowing this to happen, people are selling them selves short. For musicians and artists this means having to create something that sells, which compromises the expression, and it promotes mediocre art. This is detrimental to the listener as well, by only having access to mediocre music they do not have access to a variety of expressions; therefore they can't explore these aspects of their personality and emotions. I believe this prohibits a person's aesthetic and emotional development. This may seem a little extreme, but if you give it some thought it may not seem so far fetched. It seems that the greatest cultural movements have come from individuals or small communities of musicians that set out to make quality music on their own terms. In this country one can point to be-bop in the forties, the beats or early rock and roll in the fifties, the folk scene in Greenwich Village in the fifties and the sixties, New York punks in the seventies and the scene that followed throughout the eighties just to name a few. These movements paved the way for major changes in American culture. We need new movements. We need to TAKE BACK OUR MUSIC!