"How Musicians Experience and Communicate Emotion"

Post Reply New Topic

Came up in my feed today, found it interesting. A pair of short videos.

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/ ... he-timing/

If you're a musician or a music lover, maybe you've got some ideas about how you 'experience and communicate music'. Why not talk about that. I'm interested!

When I was younger people used to find my music impressive but there was always something lacking which might have been emotional expressivity.

That video is fascinating!!

Like the topic but afraid to watch the video, mainly that I've seen what music theory does to people and often enough I get nervous about possibly mechanizing the process.

I tend to like not only mood intensive but honest music, stuff that takes a very vivid snapshot of a place, time, or emotion, and renders it almost like visual art. Certain feeling and ideas rendered in almost frightening accuracy. Bands like Tool and Alice In Chains did that well, Muse does it well, I like Klaxon's new album a lot for that (that and weaving it in with a lot of philosophy), and the scores of dnb I listen to fuel me in that I love the exploration of the human consciousness and imagination, particularly the stuff that veers transcendental in somewhat of a grimy way.

A couple examples from own stuff though - The White Rabbit on Lastfm is something that relates back to psilocybin, Neural Chase on Soundcloud has to do with the very process of dialing in on what you love most about music and the song itself was an exercise in chasing that (hence chasing the pathways to see how far you can evolve them). I'd say that whether I'm making music or just living my life, there are certain moods that I like a lot.

Pretty much, like visual art is a portal into the psyche of the artist, music is also something very similar, just that they will hit at different angles. That's part of why I don't think I'll ever stop, its a desire to share what feel like novel emotions, novel experiences, etc., and to mark your internal identity in the outside world in ways that words, clothing, body language, and whatever kind of car you're driving or job you're working just can't communicate.

I have a friend who's like that too, he's so anti music theory. I think it's valid. I'm not a serious music maker anymore, so I can afford to damage my music making sensibilities a bit.



I think DnB is very textural music, I like it in small amounts. Sometimes I think the way your write on the forum is very textural in the same way, and I've found it difficult to grapple with at times, but I'm starting to get it now. It's like you are spinning a mood as much as writing a string of words... very dense and complex and abstract. I also kind of understand your love of DnB. Perhaps it's neurological. The two make sense together.



I have heard some of your music from Last FM, I think it was White Rabbit, I quite liked it.



Thanks, Techstep, great post

I think what happened is I realized somewhere along the line that I could either express myself or not. If I don't - lots of people misread, misunderstand, attack things that aren't there, and no one gets to see me either. Sadly I also found out what you said as well - most people look at my writing as it is now, have no idea what I'm going on about, and give up. I guess though, really, its not much of a choice - either get chronically misunderstood and spend lots of time cleaning that up or, iron out what I'm saying in its right context but realize that I'm somewhat on my own with how I see things.