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As some of you might glean from a recent thread, after reading his autobiography, I've been pondering Miles Davis' view of other musicians. The ying and yang between the sheer creativity of an untrained musician versus the clone- like competence of trained musicians.
Miles had studied music, was a Julliard drop out and 'trained' with Dizzy and Bird. Through his life he was curious about all kinds of music he had studied the classical masters, Stockhausen, Brazilian and African music. He was very sound in theory and harmony ( very advanced as a matter of fact ) and all technical aspects of music.
Also he always hired guys who were trained and could play anything.
Despite this, he does go on to say that people like Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Sinatra, etc would not have made the kind of music they did if they were trained musicians, and he had a healthy respect for the musical success of the rock music 'greats' who were mostly untrained musicians.
Coming to me, I'm largely untrained too, though I've had a few lessons here and there and have been around guys who taught me a thing or two, but I've always regretted the fact that I didnt study it formally.
Does experience, life, totally compensate? Does very strict formal training leave out a key ingredient?
Where do you guys stand on this?
PS- Who were some of the jazz greats who were unschooled musically? I know Chet Baker was one..
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As some of you might glean from a recent thread, after reading his autobiography, I've been pondering Miles Davis' view of other musicians. The ying and yang between the sheer creativity of an untrained musician versus the clone- like competence of trained musicians.
Miles had studied music, was a Julliard drop out and 'trained' with Dizzy and Bird. Through his life he was curious about all kinds of music he had studied the classical masters, Stockhausen, Brazilian and African music. He was very sound in theory and harmony ( very advanced as a matter of fact ) and all technical aspects of music.
Also he always hired guys who were trained and could play anything.
Despite this, he does go on to say that people like Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Sinatra, etc would not have made the kind of music they did if they were trained musicians, and he had a healthy respect for the musical success of the rock music 'greats' who were mostly untrained musicians.
Coming to me, I'm largely untrained too, though I've had a few lessons here and there and have been around guys who taught me a thing or two, but I've always regretted the fact that I didnt study it formally.
Does experience, life, totally compensate? Does very strict formal training leave out a key ingredient?
Where do you guys stand on this?
PS- Who were some of the jazz greats who were unschooled musically? I know Chet Baker was one..
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