The Death of Music... < Written by Robert Fripp >

Robert Fripp

For those of you who know me, Robert Fripp means a Father figure in both musical and spiritual aspects of guitar playing. Much of the people I admire, play the guitar like in a sexual way, which I am not saying is wrong, but personally, I feel more identified with Robert's approach of playing as both a craftsman, and as some sort of monk.


In any case, this is not an article "praising" and saying that he's the best guitar player in the history of guitar...  
< To me, he actually is, but I understand we all have our own preferences, so it would be ignorant to say this as a definitive statement >


This is something I want to share for my fellow musicians friends < and fellow guitar players > to read...

The Death of Music

If you know what you are going to play, play something else; or nothing at all.

After all, why hit the right note when a lot more notes get in the way?

One string is often sufficient; and sometimes already one string too many...

Rhythm becomes more apparent when we stop playing from time to time.

Dynamics are good, and more obvious when some notes are quieter than others.

If you like to hit things loudly, constantly, relentlessly, consider becoming a drummer.

Loud, endless strumming = death.

Good to listen to yourself; but listening to others is necessary. 

Remain in motion, whether stationary or not: Stillness is dynamic, and only appears to be static.

Breathing is permissible

The criteria are reliability, repeatability & responsibility.

You are playing with friends;whether you like them or not, whether they like you, or not; whether we know it or not.
If none of these apply to you, a career in artist management, A&R or drumming is waiting.


Qualities of time & our experiencing of it…

                                                                                          Creative Time
                                                                         My beginning & end are not apart
                                                                I Am one instantaneous moment of presence
       

                                                                      Time’s Cycle                    Eternity
                                                       Welcome the unexpected            This is the first time


                                                                                      Time’s Arrow
                                                                              One thing after another
                                                                              Welcome the expected

Why was I born ... ?

As I'm writing these lines down, I'm getting closer to my 26's ... closer to the 30's...

I just read right now that Autumn started. The time when the whole ambient gets gloomy, darker, slow motioned... monochrome. The leaves fall, the alive becomes dead, the sky turns grey... 

Slipping away from any sign of my former youth...

I am not scared of being old at all, in fact, I think it's quite something I made up to this point of my short, weird, sometimes worthy, sometimes miserable < just like everyone's > life. When I was younger, I thought of suicide every time my eyes blinked... Back then, I always saw salvation in a silver bullet. A river of thoughts have gone through my mind, I've felt the indifference daggers, the falls, the near-death experiences, but I'm still here, standing.

As usual, music has been with me this whole year... I've been getting some music knowledge since January, nothing makes me more happy than that. People are happy with pretty much ridiculous things, such as fame, stability, and attention. I don't give a fuck about those, as long as I've got music with me...

Maybe, that's the real reason I was born. Music... The moment I'm away from it, it's the moment I become destructive, angry, and even mad... Like fishes need water to survive, I need music to behave. In any form, in any style... the need of hearing music, of playing it, of studying it as much as I can and the need of rooting it deep down in my spirit, keeps growing every day...

I have realized that, the more I understand music, the more I understand the nature of the human spirit.

Chaos, oh yes... It's everywhere, every day, every night. It's always looking down on each one of us, but we don't realise it. The moment it visits us, the moment we panic. And most of the times, we lose a great chance to show how strong our spirit is... To understand this, one must have to learn how to spill the water, how to make a mess, how to lose, how to break the glass...

But I'm pretty sure, few are the ones who dare to destroy... to lose, because most of us, are afraid...

Why Men are not humble enough to thank the Sun, every day?
Is it because, the sun would not always give us what we ask from him?
- How miserable are we?

It makes sense I was born this time of the year, my character just reflects the time I was born...

Darkness doesn't mean, that there isn't life. It means, that it's a light we should see with our eyes closed.

Hopeless

The sun always burns...
The sky isn't always blue...
The moon just reflects...
Fire isn't always destructive...

My eyes met hope once...
Hope was the name I gave you...
But I rejected hope, mercilessly...
And since then, I'm hopeless...

It was our day... It was our afternoon
Your eyes met hope too...
Hope was maybe the name you gave me...
But I turned myself into a demon

A demon your angel eyes despise
A demon you would never understand
A demon who seeks redemption
A demon who will remain condemned.

It was our night...
Cold as it was, I embraced you...
Warmth was the thing you needed
Warmth was the thing I gave you

It was our night
Cold as it was, I finished it...
Maybe your dreams of me... and my dreams of you...
You didn't asked for it, neither did I

It was me turned into a demon,
The demon you despise...
The demon you never want to see again
The demon who stares at you... hopelessly.

It hurts and I guess no one will understand
Maybe you, because you were hurt by me too...
It hurts and I guess no one will understand
How I just decapitated the newborn feelings in us.

Not even the most beautiful melody
Not even the most haunting song
Would make you change your mind
Would make you hate me less

I guess I'm the one to blame.

Myself only...

More reasons, to self-destruct the demon.

The Fool on the Hill

Anger, how are you doing old friend?

I'm doing fine, I guess. All the same, me sitting on a dirt room, studying the same things, living the rock n' roll road, practicing my guitar scales and all that... and hating my own music from time to time, as well as myself.

Reflection is something I excel at, but lately, what I've seen, what I've saw, and what I've been through, have turned me into some kind of mechanic soldier, immune to bullets of indifference, rejection, useless hatred, things like that...

I used to be hurt, I used to cry over the past....

But as soon as I grew older, each day, I find myself free, accepting things I cannot change or turn back in time. There is no use, the things I did, stay there, and the things I didn't stay there as well, undone of course.

The past sometimes tries to hunt me in every single form, in the shape of words, thoughts, dreams, people...

But I won't let it destroy me, I won't let it drive me insane, I know there's a driving force that keeps me in one piece, the one that has been with me all this 25 years of existence in this Earth.

I've faced some things, some situations, some useless rage. Every day that goes away, is one day more I keep distancing myself from people, even the ones I am close to. It's scary sometimes, yet I know it's the path I have to follow, to walk and keep walking, no matter how miles long my road is, no matter how high the mountain I have to climb. I have this feeling I'll end up just like The Beatles' song "Fool on the Hill" says.

It's not negativity, it's just that more and more, I find difficult to connect with people. It's depressing.

Music is the thing that keeps me alive, still does. Gives me a reason to not give up my arms, gives me a reason to look the sun every time it goes up, and down... Gives me a reason to keep finding my own voice, 'cuz I feel voiceless... Gives me a reason to think, re-think, push myself through difficult times, to fall and once again rise... It's the only true thing I've found, and I hate it because music is surreal... you cannot touch a melody...

To live life, is not how much people you fuck, it's how many times you sit, and confront yourself.

I feel alive... but sometimes to feel alive, you've to realise there's death also...

I wish to share, but wishes are hopeless. And hope, in the end kills...

Spoken Word music and its effects on me...

During my short 25 years of highs-and-lows existance, one of the main concerns this humble narrator of yours has is to continue exploring through music, through words, through syllables, through sounds I thought didn't exists, through images I've found sometimes unpleasant, through ideas I thought were crazy...

And here I am nowadays, still stretching the boundaries of my musical self... 

Lately I've been fond of three particular things in music... Three particular things that are not usually "heard" or "noticed"... Being those three Spoken Word material, Ambient and Minimalist Music and John Coltrane's music.

Let's start with the Spoken Word thing...

To be honest I wasn't that familiar with the term Spoken Word 'till a few years ago, while a friend of mine showed me the works of a man who I've talked about in this blog before, named Henry Rollins. He took the Spoken Word art to levels of high instrospection, reflection and meditation. That's what it is to me, to say the least...

What this Spoken Word thing represents to me is something like a mantra. A mantra you keep hearing to be strong, over and over again, words resonating in your head no matter how troubled you feel.

And that's what happened in my case with Henry Rollins material. The first spoken word thing I heard of him was his famous "I know You", in which Rollins takes a deep breath and rides directly to the core of how people feel when being lonely. It's kind of odd, but we all somehow in our short lifetimes have felt like that too. Some more than others... but we all have felt lonely at any time of our lives.

It's easy to bash people, but it's hard to listen. 

I think one of the first Spoken Word material were displayed in the movie "Taxi Driver" < Which I highly reccomend >

"Loneliness has followed me my whole life

Everywhere, in bars, cars, 

sidewalks, stores, Everywhere...

There's no escape... I'm God's lonely man."

Being inspired by these two characters I am currently working on some Spoken Word material... because I think, I have a lot to say, against all the things I see which I really consider, are not going well later on this society.

http://goear.com/listen/bd5de0b/stereotypes-i-:-venus-reporter-from-oblivion

- Being for the sake of artistic expression, I hope no one scares of this performance -

We all have something to say, the thing is... we should let the words flow, like water...