Satriani on advisability of children entering too early into music business

Here is a short clip where Satch talks about children and the music business. He makes some great points. His remarks are as valid for children involved in any art form as they are for music in particular.



Here are a few points I think follow from and/or are very much in harmony with what Joe says in this clip:

1. Even though certain children may have great artistic talent, they should not enter the realm of the professional performer/musician until they are no longer children and have developed the minimum maturity necessary to handle the various difficult, harsh, even cruel at times realities of the professional music world.

2. The full range of talents and skills necessary to live successfully as a professional artist require more than artistic talent alone. One also needs savvy business skills, prudence about one's own career, and insight into human nature. It is important to have the spiritual maturity one needs to handle disappointments and criticism in healthy way.

3. Maturing young artists need guidance from wise elder practitioners of their art. This is highly preferable to going it alone. They may benefit greatly from the counsel of more experienced artists in both the development of their artistic talent and in many other areas in which they need to gain wisdom in order to navigate the professional art world.

4. Along with great talent, it is necessary for anyone aspiring to make a living as an artist that they have a deep and enduring love and passion for their art and for the creative process. The art itself should be the primary reward rather than expectations of financial success.

Joe demonstrates here an admirable concern for the souls of young musicians and not just a tunnel-visioned interest in their talent (as I suspect is the case with some involved in the arts). He cares for the whole person and makes these comments on that basis. This perspective should inform any experienced adult involved with guiding and encouraging young aspiring artists of any sort. Don't consider them only in regard to their particular talents as artists--rather, keep in mind the whole person and what is best for them as human beings from the big-picture point of view. Kudos to Satch for his example!

"Overdriver" song by Joe Satriani

Back to guitarist Joe Satriani for a little bit. . .

On his 2008 album, "Professor Satchafunkilus And The Musterion Of Rock," Satch has a song called "Overdriver." I think it's a great tune. It has a neat groove and is fun to listen to.

In the following video clip he describes the origin of this song. He was thinking of a particular childhood memory as he composed this. It's quite intriguing. It has to do with coloring. (his explanation is in the first minute; the second minute is just a partial audio excerpt from the song along with a photo slideshow)



And in this next video he plays the whole song at a clinic for guitar players. Before he performs the song, he describes some of the musical details about the song, and a little about the pedals he uses. You can see from this how much careful thought goes into composing music. There are various layers of structure and organization that makes it all come together in an interesting and pleasing way. I find it very interesting to get some insight into how a great musician like this thinks about one of his compositions. If you just want to skip right to the song, go to 4:10 in the video.

Joe Satriani 2; importance of developing your craft the right way

Following up from my first Satriani post, here is another segment from the Joe Satriani interview that I especially like. This clip is part 10 (of 11 total).
[Apologies again for the wide frame]




I transcribed the comments I think are the most illuminating:

There’s no substitute for practicing. Students have to be completely honest with themselves about what they don’t know, and that they have to get on track and start learning it. . . . You don’t have to learn it all today, but do something where every day you get better and better. . . . It’s really quite obvious, we just have to be very straightforward with ourselves, and that’s how we arrange our practicing. But I would say that, and I remind students all the time, they will not have a career based on the demonstration of practice techniques. [. . .]

The ultimate goal is playing music, being evocative, lifting people’s spirits, being an entertainer; it’s all part of it. The practicing is supposed to help you do that. [. . .]

Find out what it’s like to play for human beings. . . . I don’t want to reduce it to a job, but I mean that’s what a musician does; Society wants musicians to make music for them—I mean, that’s what we’re supposed to be doing. So, if you’re practicing and it’s not helping you do that, well then you’re not practicing right. [emphasis mine]

I think the key phrase above can be altered to apply to all realms of art:

Society wants artists to make art for them. That's what artists are supposed to be doing. Indeed!

By this, I mean that great art is made both for the artist and for his audience. It's the for the audience part that I think, especially in artistic realms outside music (which immediately dies as a money-earning venture if it ignores the audience), tends to get lost today. Great art involves a relationship, a community of sorts, between artist and audience.

Joe Satriani on music

I have been getting reacquainted via the wonder of YouTube with one of my favorite musicians I used to listen to some years back: the incredible rock guitarist, Joe Satriani. He is one of a handful of instrumental electric guitar players who is successful as a solo musician. He is a "guitar player's guitar player."

Joe (known also as "Satch") is the youngest of five children from an Italian family. I assume he is probably Catholic, but I don't know for sure. His style is mostly hard rock, but, in my opinion, his music is very purposeful, very musical, and very distinctive. His songs can be quite beautiful, imaginative, and melodic, even as they are "rock'n." He doesn't just thrash for the sake of thrashing. He plays with a musical vision clearly in mind and communicates that vision well through his playing. If great electric guitar playing interests you, check out some of Satriani's live performances here, here, and here. (The last one, "Flying in a Blue Dream," is awesome!)

One of the things I like about Satriani, as is evident from interviews with him, is that he is not a stereotypical rocker with a big ego and a party-hard attitude. He seems to be a very down-to-earth, really nice guy. And he takes his music very seriously--a dedicated, hard-working musician. He is first and foremost a professional musician and artist. This is one reason why his career has been primarily as a solo artist. He prefers to perform his own songs rather than play someone else's music. In this way (he remarked in an interview), he can maintain a strong personal, emotional attachment to every piece of music. Each song has a unique personal meaning for him and comes out of a particular mental world to which he returns as he performs; each one transports him to a certain emotional place. And this is what he prefers as a performing artist.

I found an 11 segment video interview with Joe on YouTube, part of a "Living Legends Music" series. The whole interview is very interesting. But I want to highlight two parts. The first in this post, and the second in a post following this.

Here is part 9 of the interview
[sorry about the width, there is no smaller window available]:




The following items from this segment struck me as especially interesting. They remind me of themes that are similar to previous posts I have made about music and art.

1. Speaking of how his music is always under development and that his experience of life is always in contact with his musical art,

My way of dealing with it [life] has always been to internalize it and turn it into music, that’s what I do. So I write all the time. Maybe an eighth of what I write winds up being heard by the public.

2. And this remark is suggestive to me of the dual goals that good artists have to hold together harmoniously if they are going to create art that an audience can relate to and that has a chance of lasting--the twin goals of being faithful to your own personal artistic vision and of creating art that is accessible to and mindful of your audience.

During the playing of a song, part of me is on some sort of, um, trip—I don’t know how to explain it. I’m sure there’s a part of me that is being the professional musician, keeping it together, making sure that I represent this melody the way the fans need it to be represented. [emphasis mine]

Satriani has a well developed sense of how a good song is both a) unique, personal, special to the artist creating it, and b) something the audience can attach to and love as well. This involves using a dynamic interplay of the artist’s unique inner vision together with perennial sounds and ideas loved by his audience.

In this segment he also spoke about dealing with and preparing for the unexpected in performances, and, making each song unique and connecting to each emotionally.