Music: Part 2 ‘Mozart of the Mines’
The theme of ‘elitism’ in music investigated further.
Mozart of the Mines
A chap once said to me — laughing — that there were poor deluded people that thought that if you knew or understood music better, then the listening experience would also be better. O how we laughed…that would have meant listening to music was hierarchical and elitist — whereas everyone can listen to music in exactly the same manner can’t they? Can’t they? Well…though I was studying music seriously for the first time way, way back then — I presumed so. Empirically and with time my mind was to be changed.
Notice that I said I was studying music seriously for the first time. There is NO equal opportunity in music…sorry to have to tell you. I came top of a large suburban primary school music test when I was — well primary school age. It was a shock to me to hear my name read out last (98% I think I got) — I presumed they’d missed me out till they got to the end. It must have stirred something deep in me and so I asked my folks for a clarinet. Alas that was not forthcoming. A working-class kid with no history of music or musicians in the family (though my mum had had a few piano lessons and my dad DID play harmonica). Just as I was the first in the family to go to university (as a mature student), I was also the first to be a ‘proper’ musician. Well, the point made is — that that seed sown before I reached double figures in age got cast on infertile ground. Stony ground — if you will.
How many Mozarts have gone down the mine or been put on factory assembly lines? Hey what’s that you’re whistling Dai — you need to join the choir. At least there WAS the choir for the Welsh miners; and brass bands up North! It’s come back to me now that my dad (and I imagine his brother) were in the church choir too…that never appealed to me. I don’t much like joining clubs and the choirboys clothing didn’t tempt at all. So — though I am no Mozart (well there IS only one!) I DID end up working in a factory for a time if not down the mines. Then — almost as late as could be — I had a go on a neighbour’s drum set and I was hooked. My Triumph 500cc being sold to buy my first kit. I got back one day to see my ‘new’ (old in fact) kit placed outside the family house — thus it lived in my sister’s coal shed for a time.
If you want to succeed in music it’s probably best to start young, have private lessons, come from a supportive family and — have an instrument! Talent can be nurtured but NOT everyone has it. Sad to say — but true. I have taught many, many folk the drums (from 5 — to OLD) and some ‘had it’ and some hadn’t. I could always teach something but the really talented ones only needed me for guidance. There was something INTRINSIC; something DEEP…a sense of timing and attitude that marked some out from others. Some were blessed — some wanted to be blessed — some weren’t blessed at all and some worked very hard to BE blessed!
There are fortunately a number of ways to make a living (or exist) in the realm of MUSIC. We all know that only a small percentage, the elite of the elite or wannabe elite have the cream. And they lick it up. The great majority of musicians exist on the bread-line. C’est la vie, well la vie of a musician. So this elite who cream it up — are they the BEST? I guess if you associate money-making with talent — then yes, tis so. Or they got lucky, or they were in the right place at the right time, or they didn’t do what the band I was in did when we were but youths — turn down a record contract with a BIG record company! We all have our fates.
Music resonates with different folk at different times, seems any music can find someone who loves it. For that musician or group and that listener — THAT music is the tops — top of the pile — elite music — distinguishable for its effect on the soul or the legs. A competent guitar player chugging out chords might appeal more than an expert guitar player investigating the whole-tone scale. A competent drummer — banging out four to a bar — might appeal more than a drummer playing five beats over four and cramming in as many grace notes on the snare as possible. Who is the better? I mean isn’t music REALLY about TASTE?
I am a self-taught musician — that’s tough. I was given a flute (by the band I was playing drums in) and I have no real idea why! I hadn’t any clue about keys, scales…I hadn’t much clue about how to get a sound out of the flute — but I had a chart which showed me where to put my fingers. It took a long time to ‘master’ — or exist in harmony with my flute — though our love affair blossomed straight away and I could get a sound and good tone out quite quickly. But I had NO chance of making it to the elite of a professional orchestra, well, unless I forwent all other stuff — and I was, primarily, a drummer. Being self-taught meant that I could play by ear, tune into a rock LP (later CD) and play along. Then the whole debate about playing by ear and reading the ‘dots’ came up. Surely — best to play both? Classically trained musicians envied me my improvisational skills and I envied them their reading!
The more I played music though the more it became a part of me and I DID start hearing music differently. (I do confess to some ‘weed smoking’ too…) It makes perfect sense doesn’t it? I mean the more we UNDERSTAND something the more we can appreciate its subtleties — its wholeness. The better I got as a drummer the more I understood what was going on musically and actually HEARD what was being played. I knew how difficult/tasteful/musical the different playing was. Okay to begin with I tended to hear ONLY the drums when I listened to music — but with time and maturity (even for a chap in his twenties) I heard the WHOLE! (And with some weed I heard stuff — or was AWARE of stuff I had never consciously heard before.) Hearing abilities aside — we all DO hear the same — BUT — some hear differently to others. There I have said it. There is even a kind of elitism in the hearing of music. (And I do NOT dismiss deaf people here as with Evelyne Glennie — she has shown that feeling vibrations alone can assist in someone becoming a great musician. What concentration and understanding she must have!)
I’m glad there is a hierarchy in music — not a music BUSINESS hierarchy but a sense that there is some kind of perfection to be striven for. And those who are self-aware can understand their position and role and become ‘better’. There IS only a ‘better’ because there are those who are ‘worse’. But this doesn’t mean that any kind of snobbery or elusiveness need be attached. Quite the opposite — it seems the better the musician I encounter the humbler they are. The less likely they are to ‘mouth off’. They simply don’t need to do that. And a true musician surely feels in kinship with others — no matter what style of music we play or what instrument — we are brothers and sisters. We can and surely must help all to improve, to climb that ladder — to make listeners’ experience so much better. And the mark of a civilised and cultured society is surely to make sure there are no longer Mozarts wasting talent down mines or on factory-lines. Okay fair-play to those who DO have to do that work — but I’m sure they’d be the first to tell any great musician caught up in that kind of job to get out and do what they’ve been born to do — and in doing that making the lives of all who hear them much more bearable.
Be an elitist — but be a kind one — the two aren’t mutually exclusive.
Tim is the author of: ‘Lyrics to Live by: Keys to Self-Help; Notes for a Better Life’ — a book which looks at the life lessons found in twelve song lyrics.
Follow ‘Lyrics to Live by’ on Facebook.
(Tim has also produced a number of CDs — check Spotify etc.)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lyrics-Live-Self-Help-Notes-Better/dp/1916424821
