oral traditions . In fact , in many oral traditions , students will spend time outside of music lessons with their teacher , or in some cases , the students will live with their teachers in order to become fully immersed in their teacher ’ s way of life . Salih Bilgen , a master ney player from Turkey , once stated : “ The musical endeavor cannot be done without sohbet , the shell can be learned but not the essence .” The term “ sohbet ” here refers to a series of analogies between music and extra-musical matters . These analogies are used to deepen our understanding of spirituality and music . The importance of sohbet in classical Turkish music pedagogy perfectly demonstrates the power of oral music traditions : it ’ s not just about teaching technique and repertoire , it ’ s about passing down a way of thinking . Because of this , one could argue that a musician of this tradition is taught cultural context , improvisation , and musical decision-making . They ’ re taught how to interpret a composition .
Death of the Score What ’ s really interesting is that we ’ ve started to see elements of oral traditions in western music . While the score still has a lot of relevance in western music , we see more and more students learning music by studying recordings instead of scores . This pivot started in the early 20 th century with both the use of piano rolls and the growing availability of recording technology . I ’ m sure many of you reading this are in the same boat as me ; when I started learning music , I played along to my favourite songs for a few years before I even looked at sheet music . If you ’ re getting into blues , jazz , rock , or pop , chances are , you ’ re learning the repertoire by listening to the recordings . Just like in oral traditions , we mimic these recordings as if they were our teachers . Music recordings contain much more information or vocabulary than a score does because they are one-to-one translations of their original compositions .
For many , jazz musicians in particular , sitting down with a record and looping solos over and over while playing along is an essential part of learning the music . Jazz musicians certainly use lead sheets , but the amount of information on a lead sheet is minimal . Only the bare information is given on a tune ’ s melody , harmony , and rhythm . It ’ s understood that a lead sheet is a vague road map that can be interpreted in many different ways , but to truly understand a piece , we have to study recordings of the greats playing that tune . In many cases , popular artists in the 20 th century , particularly in western culture , couldn ’ t read music . I ’ m sure many of you reading this fall under this category , and history shows us that reading music just isn ’ t necessary to become a good or successful musician . Perhaps the most notable example would be The Beatles , arguably the most prolific global artists of the 20 th century , yet they couldn ’ t read music .
The early 20 th century is a particularly interesting time for this score / recording dichotomy because there ’ s this overlap of mediums being used . Composers during this time still used notation to compose and publish music , but their performances started being recorded . This gives us huge insight into the discrepancies between score and performance because we can analyze them side by side . By the early 20 th century , we start to get recordings and piano rolls of composers like Claude Debussy . In a deep analysis of Debussy ’ s “ Minstrels ,” musicologist Jocelyn Ho noted that his piano rolls contained “ expressive techniques that are not often heard today : random pushes and pulls of tempi , flippant rhythmic alterations , frequent inégale , and tempo rubato .” She concludes by stating that “ his vivid rendition of the piece , including these expressive techniques that are missing from the notation , significantly alters the experience of the music .” This observation , perhaps more than anything , outlines the limitations of western music notation . Ho ’ s analysis of “ Minstrels ” shows us that Debussy , this enormously talented composer and proponent of the score , wasn ’ t able to convey the full breadth of his musical idea through music notation . It really makes you wonder , what are we missing from Mozart ’ s work ? Or Bach or Beethoven ? All that we have are the scores that were left behind by these composers and as Ho suggests , that only gives us a glimpse into the composer ’ s full musical idea .
Transcribe By no means am I arguing that we should get rid of music scores , or stop learning how to read music . There is so much that we can learn from analyzing scores and without them , we wouldn ’ t be able to recreate and experience the work of some of the great composers of the past . There is however a glorification of musical scores that exists in academic and conservatory circles . This glorification makes it harder for us to learn and understand new styles of music that don ’ t adhere to western music theory . It makes it harder for us to conceive how other cultures learn , practice , and perform music . The best way to truly understand , analyze , or learn a piece of music is to experience it . Whether that is in person , or listening to a recording , music
is an auditory art form , and hearing it is the only way that we can understand the full picture of a piece .
This is where I suggest we make a change in how we learn and teach music . What is even more important than learning how to read music is learning how to analyze a recording . This means sitting down with your favourite record and figuring out exactly what they ’ re playing , note for note , looping the hard sections over and over until you ’ re able to play it exactly like it ’ s played on the recording . This is called transcribing and if it ’ s something you haven ’ t done before , it can be pretty challenging at first , but like any skill , it can be mastered with practice . Learning music this way removes a lot of the limitations that we ’ re faced with when learning music from a score . We learn more about a musician ’ s feel or groove when we mimic their recordings , and complexities in form , rhythm , and harmony become a lot easier to grasp and replicate . We can learn any type of music from any culture , so long as there are recordings available .
So , if you ’ re a musician who ’ s just starting out or if you ’ ve been reading music and playing for decades , try sitting down with a recording and see if you can pick up what they ’ re playing . The more you practice it , the easier it ’ ll get and the more you ’ ll be able to get out of a piece of music . We need to rely less on reading music and learn how to rely on our ears ; it is music after all .
OMAR SHABBAR
Omar Shabbar is a gigging musician based out of Toronto . He ’ s also an onsite guitar tech at The Root Down Studio ( Therootdownstudio . com ) and a self-proclaimed gear head . In the rapidly-changing industry of modern guitar gear , Omar attempts to discern innovation from distraction . Check out his YouTube channel , featuring dozens of gear reviews and performance clips , at YouTube . com / OmarGearReview .
CANADIAN MUSICIAN 47
PHOTO : STEPHEN KEARNS