Unconscious Musical Concept

What is a musical concept?

Many of us don’t think about this question very often, and even if we do, it can be difficult to put into words. People often have different ideas of what makes up a concept. Often they will use musical terms such as, tempo, dynamics, etc. but this is not what I mean when I ask this question. Personally, I believe that if one can describe their musical concept, then they are able to have more control in shaping it.

My personal opinion of concept definition is essentially my frame of reference as to how I am going to approach playing something. This concept will obviously influence everything I play, and has to be fine tuned to fit certain situations. For example, if you are the type who’s “Concept” is to hit the drums very hard to translate a certain confidence or authoritative approach, this is very useful in certain styles of music. However, if you take this approach on a light swing gig, you will probably over power the band, simply because your “Concept” is not applicable to that situation. The same is also true in reverse. If you play too light in a situation that demands more, you will be judged as inappropriate for that environment. The goal in your playing should be to adapt as many “Appropriate” concepts as possible, and tailor them to fit any situation. This, in turn gives you a tremendous amount of flexibility, and will allow you to make the others around you sound the best they can.

Going a little deeper, musical concept has strong roots in an individuals psychology. For example, if you are a timid person, you will often find yourself approaching playing in this fashion. So, when this approach is not appropriate, you have to train yourself to be more aggressive in the music. Whether you like it or not, especially if you are playing an acoustic instrument such as drums, your personality is going to translate on the instrument to the listener. A few years ago in a club I watched a drummer play a ballad who was hitting VERY VERY hard. It was uncomfortable to watch. It was totally inappropriate and everyone in the band noticed it. Turns out that he had just had a huge fight with his girlfriend and he hadn’t realized that he was manifesting it on the instrument. You can’t always allow your emotions to come out in the way you may be feeling them, but many of the greats have managed to translate this into an appropriate musical language for a given situation.  This would be their “Concept”.

When we discuss concept on my teaching site, it usually revolves around the following terms:

Your Psychology/Musical references

Touch

Confidence

Time

Flow

Color

Each one of these terms can be examined individually, but for the sake of discussion here, lets talk about how your psychology applies. Each of the terms described above refer to direct application on the instrument, with the exception of your psychological identification with the instrument.

All of us come into music for different reasons. I personally knew I’d go into music at a very young age, and I was soaking up influences when I was quite young. By the time I reached 20 years old I had played in a number of bands, and been influenced by any style of music you can name. There was another element though that I was not aware of until I was older.

The next time you are playing in a band situation, look at the people around you and try to observe their psychological state. Often you will run into people who are wound up because they are nervous, or not confident. Growing up in California I used to see this all the time on what we call “Casuals”…(weddings, private parties, etc). Certain musicians were so worried about starting on time, what the other guys were doing, or even getting fired that they could barely play. As a result EVERYTHING would be too fast, and they were always turning around yelling at the guys to speed it up…etc. This would create a very tense environment and made things very unmusical and not very much fun. I had many problems in these situations because I was there to play, but that isn’t necessarily what it’s always about. Through observing other people freaking out about starting on time, or what the party planner thought I quickly realized that if I didn’t learn to control my emotions they would translate through the instrument, and I would sound out of control, simply because I was letting someone else’s mood influence me. I soon began to make a conscious effort to put myself outside of the situation and make the band sound good despite what was going on around me.

I learned quickly that, for whatever reason, the “concept” that had taken shape for me through the gigs I was doing was about hitting the drums in a certain way and it wasn’t always applicable. After essentially being a background player in my hometown for years, I had unconsciously learned to play with no guts. I’m not referring to volume necessarily, but I allowed myself to be influenced by others more than I had realized. The rule of thumb where I grew up was to be seen and not heard, and this had unconsciously translated into my approach. When I moved to New York I had to turn this completely around in order to work because musicians there have an entirely different concept of drummers. The way I was playing at that time in California was viewed in New York City as not confident.

This took me down the road of exploring my personal concept even more. Once I began to unravel my habits I noticed some other issues. For example, to this day, my kick drum is often quite heavy, and it can dominate the sound. I have no idea why, but this is how I hear the music for whatever reason, and I have had to tailor it over the years, but it is part of my personal approach to the instrument. At one point I realized that I needed to develop the rest of the kit around the confidence of my bass drum approach, because for some reason the other instruments on the kit were often out of balance. I didn’t learn this until I got into the studio, but I had some homework to do to be able to control it and apply it effectively.

Over the course of years I was able to dial it in to where it was applicable, however to this day, my tendency is to play the same way. For some reason this is in my personality and its tough to shake. In addition, I have a tendency to play on top of the beat. This was a problem for many years in certain styles of music, but that’s just how I heard it. Looking back it was strictly psychological. I realized that emotionally I was simply too excited when I played, and I had to learn to curb the excitement to get a more mature sound. At one point I had to make a conscious effort to lay back and even play uncomfortably far back against my intuition just to teach myself the right way to play certain grooves. Through keeping an eye on my emotions and what I felt when I played, I was able to alter my “Concept” and manipulate it to get the desired effect. This is how psychology enters into the picture, and it can be used to your advantage if you pay attention to it.

There are a number of traits that go into a concept, but examining how others react psychologically in the performance environment, and how you react to them, you can develop a very clear picture of why you sound the way you do. This will pay tremendous dividends in your learning process.