What are you listening to? Part III

[rm5]

I find classical music a bit overwhelming in terms of all the composers and styles, the sheer vastness of it. I'm ever learning, and gladly doing so. I've spent the past hour at least with Mozart, and it's been magical. Hard to imagine the likes of these composers, who can probably hear all this in their heads, and just write it down. I muck about with music, but what I make is so basic, and not very good. My compositions are so simple, and I find that challenging. I am NOT musically educated. But to imagine the mind of someone who can hear all this! You have to respect it.

Of course, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, and others are on an entirely different level when it comes to the compositional process. A normal process consists mainly of naming discrete musical inspirations, and a LOT of listening. And then trying out your own ideas, too.

And it's perfectly fine to be simple; in fact, it's encouraged in many spaces. We had our first rehearsal of the improvisation group the other day (which is actually a major ensemble here at my university). The director is absolutely amazing, I've taken probably 5 or 6 classes with him, in addition to being in IGLU, the improvisation ensemble. Anyway, as a preliminary exercise, he had us just play single notes. One note, couldn't deviate at all. And what we put together sounded AMAZING. A lot of new students in that group this year, and many of them said they were uncomfortable improvising at all. Single notes made them comfortable, I'm almost certain. In fact, the director often jokes that "simple" is his middle name.