Music is epic.
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| Mustaine killin' it on the flying-v [1] |
Literally, tons of people gather at festivals and tours just so they can hear it live. Music moves the soul. heals pain. It can energize us or leave us destitute. It's so important that even multi-million dollar movies painstakingly compose soundtracks just to support the atmosphere. Music has an unbelievable amount of influence over our emotions. That's what makes it so awesome!
But some people don't feel the same way.
Some would say only certain kinds of music are acceptable. They'd have you think that's it's wrong to like some kinds over others. They say that there is no benefit to certain kinds like rap, rock, pop, or even RnB. If you go far back enough they used to say the same thing about swing!
If you ask Graff, I think he'd agree with me in that all musical genres hold value. After all, he did say,
“adolescent lives are already often “steeped in argument” and “critical theory.” ... inside every street-smart student (which is to say, every student) there is a latent intellectual trying to break out” (22-23).
If you ask me, I think all kinds of music lead to intellectualism. I mean, have you ever seen how much time and mental energy it takes to play an instrument? Take a look at this:
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| Every open-string guitar chord [2] |
A simple chord, the most basic level of playing music. Does this look easy to memorize? Don't worry, there's more to it than that! Those are just the open string chords for a guitar. Barre chords aren't even pictured, and guess what, they overlap with open-string chords! To illustrate this, I'd like to introduce my resident guitar expert, yours truly:
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| G barre chord by me |
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| G open-string chord by one of the greatest musicians of all time, ever |
Notice the similarities? You probably can't tell because the only similarity is the chord's letter! So what is the difference? The difference is tonality. The open string has a lot of resonance which lends to a happy, warm feeling tone in the chord. The barre chord is much more bass-forward, giving the same chord a heavier, more meaty feel.
I have my own preferences, but overall I wouldn't disqualify any certain genre as being unintelligent. I can empathize with the determination and effort it takes to make any piece. For a while I was trying to write my own music as well! To some, music isn't anything more than a parlor trick. It's something that contains no value aside from a momentary distraction. But what a melancholic viewpoint that is! Perhaps you think music is powerful, and even good for the mind, but certainly it contains no intellectual benefit. Wrong! I say! And how about our friend Graff? He has this to say about seemingly "philistine" pursuits:
“To put it another way, what looks like anti-intellectualism in student culture is often an alternative kind of intellectualism, which grows up alongside schooling and is usually seen as irrelevant to it.” (30)
“...students harbor intellectual resources—“street
smarts”—that go untapped by formal schooling. What is not so widely noticed,
however, is that these intellectual resources go unnoticed because they are
tied to ostensibly anti-intellectual interests.” (22)
So what could be so hidden about intellectualism in guitar? Doesn't it seem pretty straight forward? Maybe, but looks can be deceiving. Have you heard of scales? No not like those you use to see how much further away from your summer body you are, musical scales! What is a musical scale? I'm glad you asked. A musical scale is a method of mapping notes that belong together for a certain feeling in music. Why feeling? Because if jazz has taught us anything, its that there's no such thing as sour notes. So what are some feelings in music that have been mapped? Ever heard a song that made you feel excited, happy, or otherwise upbeat? Thank the Major scale for that one!
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| Each chart shows how to play through its respective scale at the 1st fret [3] |
Each one of those scales must be memorized and understood if you want to make it as a guitarist, and each of those scales can interplay with the others. The hidden intellectualism in music is learning these secret formulae and understanding how to utilize them in your composition. The good news is that these scales are foundational to music as a whole, at least in Western music theory, and can be transplanted between any instrument. So what have we learned? That music is not only an art form, and a good one at that, but an exercise in intellectualism!
So what if you don't recognize the latent intellectualism in music? What else could you be missing out on? Not to worry, our buddy MC Double-G gives us a silver-lining for those late to the party:
“Though I, too, thought I did not “dig the intellectual bit,” I was unwittingly in training for it.” (26)
I think its easy to unintentionally become an intellectual. Hell I think the term is a cynically pointless exercise in tribalism. There's a smattering of intelligence in everything if you look hard enough. Like guitar music, or woodworking. The real unintellectualism comes from the assumption of stupidity from an outside perspective. Sports? There's a heavy reliance on statistics to rate and compare players. Woodworking? Measurement and calculations for cuts, seams, studs, binds, load, all that jazz. What about cars? Well those who gear-heads could talk your ears off about the performance metrics of a certain engine, the suspension, body shape aerodynamics, or even the wheel treads effect on road performance. I would know too, that gear-heads a good friend of mine!
All in all, I think we could all use a step-back to really appreciate someone else's perspective, no matter how outlandish it may seem. Who knows? You may end up discovering the latent hidden intellectualism in something you once dismissed and end up better for it.
