RolandG wrote:
I was very impressed with his double pedal technique, his single stroke control and his use of a cascara pattern on top of a back beat and then integrating that into a set pattern. The audio was terrible and quite distracting. I guess I view these things from the narrow perspective of context. This was a clinic. This looked to be a young audience. There was no other context for me to gauge musicality per se other than that he was playing to the audience. The bottom line is that I can't play half the things he played so I also view this as an opportunity for self-critique.
Roland
Roland
Hey, Roland. It sounds as if your point of view is more open than mine, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Kidding aside, to me the entire issue of music is music, and not of industrial might. Perhaps my filter is purposely narrower than yours. The man has great mechanical abilities, yes, and he can fly higher and faster than I can, and I don't begrudge him it. But the question always arises, a question that qualifies the basis of any action is: What is the purpose? Who is it for?
If, as you suggest, he is playing to the young audience, then in my opinion he is guilty of self-inflation and thereby of misleading youth about the nature of music. Put another way, since all things have a spiritual context, and since that context is either positive or negative, his playing seems to me to weigh in on the negative. Perhaps this is just personal bias; I don't rule that out, but then again it would take considerable realignment of my values to see that clip in a positive light.
Still, I admire your willingness to see the clip in the light of self-critique. But might that not be a narrower view than mine?
