Thinking of Music as a Language
By: Dennis Caplinger
Working as a professional musician for many years has taught
me that
one of the things I must do to survive is diversify. As a result, I
wear many musical hats in an effort to do what I love to do. Some days
I’m a session musician, other days I’m a producer. Sometimes I’m a
booking agent, other times I’m an engineer or a musical consultant or a
musical copyist or a writer or the guy who goes to get the burritos. 
Hey,
sometimes I even get to play banjo and fiddle with Bluegrass Etc. One of
my favorite things to do, however, is teach. Nowadays when I get to teach
it’s usually in a festival workshop situation rather than a one on one
lesson session, but the most often asked questions and problems that
people have are the same nonetheless: “why can’t I play like
___________?”(insert your favorite player there) or “why can’t I
play fast?” or “why can’t I improvise?” or “how long until I can
play like you?” The answers to these questions vary with the individual,
but as a general rule of thumb I can say that most problems are not the
result of physical handicaps or lack of learning ability or even lack of
‘natural’ musical ability-- most people who are having problems making
music are not thinking about the music
in the right way. If you’re having difficulties , here’s a
simple metaphor for you: Music is exactly like a language.
Think about it-- the process of learning to play an instrument is
exactly like learning to speak a language (or should be). Most of us
don’t approach it that way, however. When a child starts to learn to
talk, he makes uncontrolled
sounds first, then he gradually learns to control them so that he can form
basic words (ever spent any time with a beginning fiddler?) Even when he
learns to say the words it will still be a while before he knows their
exact meaning and how or when to use them (ever hear a banjo player who
only knows three licks and puts them in every single possible place in the
song but never with the correct timing?) Only after he amasses enough
vocabulary and an overall understanding of basic grammar can the child
begin to convey fully formed thoughts and carry on a give and take
conversation with another person ( ever seen some really good players in a
jam session playing off one another?) Even then, we don’t expect the
average kid to really have a command of the written and spoken English
language until well into their high school
or college years ( actually, nowadays
we don’t expect the average American kid to ever grasp the
language, but please bear with me for the sake of my argument). So let’s
see: that’s between 17 and 21 years of total immersion in the
language-- when they’re not speaking it, they’re hearing it spoken-
either live or on TV or radio. Heck, when they’re asleep they’re even
dreaming the language! If you added it all up I’ll wager that most
people who have problems with their music haven’t had 17 to 21 weeks of
total musical immersion, let alone years.
I have had students
come to me who could barely play a forward roll on the banjo, asking me to
teach them to play Foggy Mtn. Breakdown . Viewed in light of our
music-language metaphor, this would be akin to me depositing my 9- month
old baby girl in the middle of Paris with an American-French dictionary.Don’t get me
wrong- I understand that everyone wants to have fun playing music and not
everyone wants to take their instrument so seriously--that’s fine. If
you don’t care about how you sound and you’re having a good
time-great! I f you do care and you want to improve, then learn the
language. I’m often
asked about how to improvise. My response is usually : “strive to break
the music down into the smallest parts that you can handle-- take the solo
apart in phrases and study them-- take the phrases apart in licks and
study them-- take the licks apart into individual notes and study them--
study the scales that the notes come from-- then try to use these bits and
pieces to slowly construct your own licks, phrases and solos-- I’ll meet
you back here in ten years.” Usually at this point most of the workshop
audience begins to view me with the same love and affection they would
bestow upon an agent of the IRS. The truth is that most people who are
having problems are missing big chunks of the necessary musical background
and training needed to do what they are trying to do. They are
usually, in essence, trying
to write their doctoral thesis without knowing their ABCs.
How can you possibly improvise on a melody if you don’t know
where the notes are coming from? (scales). How can you improvise on a
series of chord changes if you don’t understand what notes are in the
chords? (harmony). How can you play different grooves and make your timing
rock solid if you don’t understand
how to subdivide the beat ?(rhythm). These are basic concepts, yet
so many pickers I have run into don’t understand them (or don’t want
to). A common response to my ranting and raving is usually something like:
“Well, Flatt and Scruggs didn’t know this stuff and look how good they
were” or “Bill Monroe invented this music and he didn’t need any of
this garbage.” I counter this with: “ Yes , that’s true, but you are
not Flatt and Scruggs or Bill Monroe and you don't sound nearly as good,
either-- so why not try a new way of thinking for a while.”
The similarities between music and language are numerous:
individual notes are like the ABCs, strings
of notes (licks) are like words. Put a few words together and you’ve got
a sentence ( a musical phrase). It may even make sense! ( applause from
the audience). String the sentences together and you’ve got a paragraph
-- hopefully with meaning ( a complete solo). Put the paragraphs together
and you’ve got a complete story ( the whole song or arrangement). If the
story makes sense and enough people like it, you win the Pulitzer (people
buy your CD on the break). Get
the picture? I know this seems obvious and you may be saying: “OK, so
big deal- music is like language- how does this help me?” Well, here’s
the thing-- if you start thinking of music as a language, you can start to
understand where your problems are and how to fix them. Don’t expect
wonders if you haven’t put in the time. You weren’t fluent in a
language overnight and you won’t be in music, either. Don’t expect to
learn the music without listening to it constantly-- that’s how you
learned the language. Don’t expect to play like _____________ (once
again, insert your favorite) without learning the building blocks of music
first. You can’t be William Shakespeare without knowing your ABCs.
Don’t expect to be able to jam with others and improvise off the
top of your head if you aren’t comfortable enough with the building blocks
of your playing (however small they may be) to be able to think ahead
and keep from stumbling. The only reason that we can hold a vibrant
multi-directional conversation is because we are so familiar with words
and phrases and their meanings that we can think ahead and keep them
rolling right off our tongues. Get that comfortable with your scales and
licks-- make them roll right off your musical “tongue”. If you focus
and concentrate, it is possible to think about every word you say as you
say it. Strive to do this with your music. Remember that clear music
starts with clear thought. Really
try to “hear” the notes in your head. Sing along with them while
you’re playing. Slow stuff down so that you can really understand
what’s happening in the music. Take your time-- that’s how we learned
the language we speak, and that’s the best way to learn the language we
call music.
