Quote:
Originally Posted by Jamie Whitmarsh
I disagree. While it may be near impossible for people to agree on what 'good' is, it certainly exists.
I've seen the difference between good and not good in my own music. I was working on a song (still am, actually) and the 'b' section was giving me trouble. My instructor pointed out how it wasn't working, and I struggled for about a month trying to get this to work. I had it all written out, it was just causing a lot of problems along the rest of the song.
My instructor said something to me, he said "I'm not convinced it has to go into 12/8 there." And I went home and worked on it, and came up with something completely different, and it worked a million times better. The rest of the song came much more easily (I'm still working on it, but it's a lot better off)
If there were no such thing as 'good' music then the 12/8 section would have worked just as well as what I have now. This is what, to me, destroys your whole philosophy that "There is no such thing as good music" as well as the numerous statements you've made regarding the "write what you want" business (I'm paraphrasing) Simply put, I would not be writing my best music ever if there were no such thing as good music, and my music would not be near as good as it is if I just wrote what I wanted and left it there. Additionally, as much as I have improved in the two years I've been here, I know I have a very long way to go still.
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Oh, so your opinion and taste of what "good" is suddenly destroy what I say about "good music" and such? I think that if anything, your example is pretty much within what I'd expect if you have taste and opinion, and ask for someone else's taste and opinion.
The very fact we can all disagree on what "good" is negates it as a real factor, there's no common ground. In your example, you just weren't convinced by what you were writing, and you tried something else. That's fine. But you could've as well accepted the part that "didn't work," as could've your instructor. There's nothing against or for that, you only happen to have similar tastes then.
What if he had thought it worked and you didn't?
So, what you're getting at is, what's closer to your taste is "good" to YOU. That's fine, I never say the opposite. I say that there's no ABSOLUTE "good" standard we can all fall back on collectively, or any of that. "Writing what you want" is precisely referring to writing what you think is "good" in your opinion which can be something totally different than what is "good" by other people.
Now, if you're saying you write (or attempt to write) universally "good music", then I'm sorry to say but no, you aren't. There's no such a thing if nobody (a VAST statistical majority, that is to say!) can agree on what "good" objectively is.
"Good" is simply not a good adjective by itself when talking about this sort of thing. It's OK in context of opinion and taste, sure, but it's all too easy to assume "good" is used like a you'd use it in "A good car." There's no objectivity here to discuss, and that much is clear I hope.
If anything, it's much better to say "It works for me, doesn't work for me" than "It's good, it's bad." Nobody's tastes are the center of the universe, and you have to accept the logical possibility that other people may have drastically different view from your own regarding what they like and they don't like even if you don't deal with them often or know anyone who directly does so.
So, I don't see how any of what you said destroys my philosophy in any way, it supports it if anything. :x