Disconnect between different people and their skill sets.....???

C

Chew_Bear

New member
Just curious as I feel somewhat disconnected from some of the things I see and hear.....

Why or How come these things can exist......

1. Why is it.....A person can play a instrument with 'superior skill'.....AND YET.....they can NOT compose/arrange (produce) a piece of music at all.....???

2. How is it.....A person can be a prominent producer with commendable skills.....AND YET.....they can't play a single musical instrument at all.....???

3. Why is it......A person can be a popular artist, producer and/or DJ .....AND YET.....they know NOTHING about basic music/audio theory, concepts and/or music production in general.....???

Does it all boil down to MONEY, EXPERIENCE and/or a PRETTY FACE....???

Maybe to a lesser extent....personality, connections and leverage...??? (i.e. people skills)

At its basic...basically is it just what you decide to focus on the most and how much time and effort you are willing to put into it...???
 
Chew_Bear said:
1. Why is it.....A person can play a instrument with 'superior skill'.....AND YET.....they can NOT compose/arrange (produce) a piece of music at all.....???
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Probably the majority of people learn to play instruments by playing other people's compositions. I'm pretty sure it's more down to the mindset of not really having considered to be able to compose something rather than completely not being able to do so. Of course it takes another set of skills to put together an original composition, no doubt about that - but learning to play an instrument, especially in a classical fashion, pretty much revolves around existing compositions. Composition in a traditional music schooling simply tends to be a different discipline.

2. How is it.....A person can be a prominent producer with commendable skills.....AND YET.....they can't play a single musical instrument at all.....???
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Some people have a great ear for putting things together & hearing the big picture. You can be vastly musical without having the technical skills needed to operate an instrument.

3. Why is it......A person can be a popular artist, producer and/or DJ .....AND YET.....they know NOTHING about basic music/audio theory, concepts and/or music production in general.....???
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Well...this can be a number of things. There's the "pretty face" thing; having the connections, and nowadays also technology: DJing or even making some kind of music is possible to do relatively well - technically - without actually having much skill. Of course it won't be very original, but a lot of people seem not to care.
 
Hans Zimmerman is a major film music composer who says he knows nothing about music theroy. He's just got a good imagination I guess. And he knows a lot about the technical side of things. Same with Deadmau5, apparently he sucks at playing any instruments. Just really good at the tech side of things. Then you got amazing musicians who don't know a thing about electronic music production. Then there are the few who are good all around and they make some of the best producers.
 
I'm fairly sure both of those dude's "nothing" is more like a "oh I don't really know much" kind of thing. In fact, here's something touching on that from a guy who used to work for him: Why Hans Zimmer Got The Job You Wanted (And You Didn't)

So he knows theory. He just doesn't have extensive knowledge of academic theory, which is completely different from "knowing nothing".
 
Its two different skill sets. Its a skill to know how to make good music. Its another skill entirely to play an instrument or just write a song. Same way a lot of people can play other people's music but struggle to write their own.
 
mainstream music education isn't very deep actually and is quite ignorant of modern music industry issues and trends.
and a lot of music performers learn by memorization which is very different from composition or arranging.
 
As performers you don't learn the structure of the music.
In maths you learn formulae and gain a comprehension of technique and structure and have building blocks. In music recital its more often a case of rote learning and/or sheer time dedication.
performance and production are two different disciplines that require equal amount of hard graft to master IMO.
 
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