Live stage performances in our country have always been
so ridiculously energetic that pretty much every artist that
comes down to India has gone back satiated. However, not
many witness the other side to this musical exchange. The
intimate, stripped down, bare-bones exchange of not just
knowledge but energies and vibes that make up a masterclass.
This particular one hosted by Furtados Mumbai, brought
together Plini Roessler-Holgate, David Maxim Micic and
Jake Lowe, arguably the most talented song-writers in the
progressive music scene today, with twenty of what could
only be called super-fans who happen to play instruments.
Putting those two spectacular hours into words would be
beyond our talents, but we do have some key learnings
that will benefit every budding musician out there.
Song-writing
This was pretty much the first and most obvious question to
come up in this session considering the awe-inspiring nature
of Plini’s talents in writing. His particular approach is what
he calls a series of decisions. Every song starts with a spark
of notes or a singular idea. What happens after depends on
where you want to take your music without hampering its flow.
Stating Electric Sunrise as an example, Plini explained how
his Dream Theater influences affected his decisions when it
came to placing build ups, breakdowns, bridges and dynamics
within this masterpiece. David explained how his writing was
pretty much just expressions of moments and experiences in
his life. For example, the track When She Crafts came together
because of his girlfriend who was staying with him and had a
craft project to work on. He begins working on his projects based
on these ideas, and doesn’t stop until saturated. Repeating this
process every day, he comes out with what he considers mostly
uninspired but sometimes surprisingly outstanding work.
AMOGH RAO
TAKEAWAYS
FROM A
MASTERCLASS
WITH PLINI
Technique
All 3 guitarists explained their comfort levels with time
signatures, how feeling time is not just about counting the
beats but feeling the pulse, getting more comfortable with odd
and unusual time, and using cues such as repeating melodies
and highlighted ‘ones’ to stay with the pulse. David explained
how he was fortunate to grow up in a country where odd
time signatures like 25/16 were pretty common in traditional
music. Plini emphasized on how important it is to use time
as a tool for expression and not as a means to sound clever
or unnecessarily complex. Jake explained his technique to
improve his vocabulary, by picking a scale and exploring note
combinations across different shapes and octaves. Getting
comfortable is simply a matter of practice, but with the
intention of clarity of expression over speed or complexity.
Expression
A major topic of learning was the idea of soloing and
expression. Jake mentioned reading a book called The Inner
Game of Music and explained how our mind is usually divided
into two entities. The conscious aspect always reminds us of
our inability and shortcomings, while the true expression
comes from our inner child, the subconscious. While
writing or playing solos, it’s essential to try to neglect the
conscious as much as possible and be human and imperfect.
That’s what makes for the best form of self-expression.
Many more such gems popped up during the conversation
such as gear, endorsements and life stories. We also witnessed
3 stripped-down versions of Plini’s and David’s compositions
that had everyone welling up. Disregarding our bias towards
such brilliant music, this masterclass was objectively nothing
short of magical, and hopefully the next time an artist
decides to share his knowledge, we’ll all be there to listen.
The
Picture credits: Prabal Deep
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
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