12.56 We have received a good, and generous, letter from a gentleman who runs a company "dedicated to making transformation through learning fun and meaningful". He has the "ambition ... to create transformational music". Both of these objectives have my support. Our correspondent continues: "My main area of need is to understand more about production. I have gone so far on my own, but that isn't the point, is it? To really transform the world about us we need to work together, and I need your help, expertise and friendship".
Part of my response: "You are clearly established in your own field, but not the musical world. DGM is only able to help musicians who are already professionally recognised. Our `help & expertise' is already strectched far thinner than is healthy".
There are several arising issues in this. A key issue continues to arise in our voluminous enquiries from aspirant artists: we cannot do the artist's work.
1. We are not an advisory service on how to become established in the music industry, nor how to develop a career in the music industry;
2. We cannot instruct in production & studio techniques;
3. We cannot substitute for years of musical study, application & practice, refined in the laboratory of public performance.
If a genuine aspirant wishes "to understand more about production", isn't it more reasonable for them to seek instruction / direction from a training facility which is an equivalent to the company which our correspondent runs? Once competence is acquired in the medium, and not before, the Muse may speak through the musician; or the musician may speak on behalf of the their Muse. (The exception to this is in play - spontaneous "fun" without any intention to "create" anything. But in the topic under consideration we are addressing "intentional play": the "intentional play" of trained & competent executants intending to generate specific repercussions).
A record company releases records on behalf of its artists and itself, and sometimes its listening community. Our direct "help & expertise" is currently over-extended towards our artists. Our indirect "help & expertise" is available to those with open eyes and alert ears. One of the first rules of creative application is this: be in the medium. "Transformative music" is not our correspondent's medium, but his aspiration. I'm not sure I could or would claim "transformative music" as my medium, but I have a practical interest in the power of music to radically transform our world. This happens primarily through radically transforming its players and audience: through refining our perceptions, expectations and acuities. The action doesn't work like taking an aspirin, smoking dope, or having a lobotomy: our active participation is necessary.
DGM isn't the place to address our correspondent's concerns, but Guitar Craft might be.
"We recognise in others what we know most deeply in ourselves."
