Melody, to be or not to be...

Reggie Duncan · Post by **Reggie Duncan** » 3 Apr 2002 10:39 am

Just because I like it that way doesn't mean it's law or officially better, it's a preffrence from a single idividuall. Scott Clancy

OK. I accept this statement. [This message was edited by Reggie Duncan on 03 April 2002 at 10:40 AM.][This message was edited by Reggie Duncan on 03 April 2002 at 12:15 PM.]

Terry Wendt · Post by **Terry Wendt** » 3 Apr 2002 11:35 am

Okay... I am opening my home in gNashville for a JAM SESSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Melody or not to Melody - Is going to be the theme...

and everyone is invited!!!

Life is getting better everyday!

2pT[This message was edited by Terry Wendt on 03 April 2002 at 05:21 PM.]

Jeff A. Smith · Post by **Jeff A. Smith** » 3 Apr 2002 3:00 pm

One thing that doesn't seem to be mentioned much or at all when this topic comes up, is that the degree to which the focus of a song is the melody depends to a degree on the era from which the song originates. I don't like to generalize, but I think it's safe to say that older (whatever that is) players routinely focus on the melody because it is much more the central part of earlier styles.

On the Lloyd Green and Tommy White video, Lloyd talks about how it is impossible to create according to the melody in many newer works, because the melody is so weak. To be honest, the music that I grew up with (rock and blues mostly) was not all that focused on the melody, and I don't really think the famous players built their solos identifiably around it very much. Of course I didn't grow up with steel guitar music, either.

You may not think these modern forms of music classify as "art," but I still think that it is helpful to see them as embodying to some extent a different value system, and judge them accordingly with regard to the melody thing. If somebody really stuck to the melody when improvising in most modern music, there wouldn't be much there.

Scott Clancy · Post by **Scott Clancy** » 3 Apr 2002 5:12 pm

Hey Jeff that's a great point you made, I have always been a little dis contented with the trend towards rythem being used as music power rather then meter, seems as though alot of the new stuff is centered around instruments that I am accustomed to hearing in the background as "meter" rather then
being used as power. Some tunes don't have much melody and they tend to be the tunes I don't like much. Go figures I'm a classical music fanatic.

Terry Miller · Post by **Terry Miller** » 4 Apr 2002 1:46 pm

Scott, I thought the purpose of this forum was to promote the steel, not hinder it's growth. You may think that your ideas are very open but in my thoughts they are very closed. The players that are doing the sessions still have to give a lot of thought to what they play.They still creat, just like any other artist. Give them a break. They are the ones that we all learn from. Give us a chance to hear you and maybe we can learn from you. Terry

Scott Clancy · Post by **Scott Clancy** » 4 Apr 2002 6:01 pm

Terry Miller,
A very big "Opposite" interpretation of what I have been saying, the topic of the thread is to play and not to play the melody,
my will to have the freedom to choose, and then the interjection of there being rules and regulations constricting the "open mindedness" of the steel world it's self, any reading all of the lines and not skipping through them will clearly see that I am defending the will to create and invent rather than "clone" a political correct "lick". In short the upside down world of *plato* has reversed the truth one more time. Anyone that beleives in total freedom to invent is certainly NOT a threat to the steel comunity. I endorse creativity all over this thread. Nothing "closed minded" about spouting off the freedom of ART through an "instrument of music". Especially when one considers himself an artist by hobby out to satisfy his own free spirit and not his wallet.

Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 4 Apr 2002 8:48 pm

I think a lot of what's being discussed here may have to do with what one's definition of "rule" is.

If you play in a band and play along with the others in the same song, in the same key, on the same beat, and so forth, you are (to my mind) following some implied set of "rules". You could leave some or all of those rules behind and break free, but you'd lose your audience pretty fast (usually). Jackson Pollack was a good example of an artist who didn't follow rules. His works are pretty chaotic, but interesting. But he worked solo. When one agrees to conjoin with others in a band to create a cohesive piece of music, one implicitly complies to some kind of uniformity. Perhaps what Scott is speaking of here is the degree of latitude one takes within those boundaries....?

But back to the subject line. Play the melody? In virtually all instrumental solos I can think of in all sorts of forms of music, the soloist does not play melody when they get their break. Maybe they play something like it, but usually (to my recollection) not. But I speak of instrumental breaks. How about answering of the vocalist between phrases, as is commonly done on steel? Even here, it seems that the steeler (or other embellishing instrument player) seldom directly echos the melody. They usually do something different. Please guys, this is just an observation. I'm not saying they should either play the melody or diverge from it.... it just seems to me that they usually go off on their own. And I prefer it that way, actually.

That's the kind of freedom I enjoy hearing.

Scott Clancy · Post by **Scott Clancy** » 4 Apr 2002 9:06 pm

Hey Bill, That was a great point, what "applied scientific mathematic formulas" that make a number of musical instruments sound right with one another
can be interpreted as rules ? Or scientific needs? I have not made myself to clear on the fact that when I do stay in the relms of intination , time and key, it is because of my "free will and desire" to do so and not a "Rule" that you can't. But that's only an opinion from {ME} and I have no authority on what is and what's not. I do re-iterate even when playing within those "proper scientific relms" that the choice to play or not to play the melody is a no rule free will to a non-commercial artist that happens to use a steel guitar to express his feelings like myself.Or A luckily employed free will artist. Your statement has gave me
a a bit of an eye opening on the loosly used term called "rules", wich I feel as though I might be giulty of such distortions not being made clearer. Thank you for the input.
Keep steelin before it's outlawed !!!

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"Money distroys or Food and Music keep it an art and play from your heart". Sierra Session D10 Keyless , Too many amps to list.