Jul 26, 2009

It's not how many notes you have: it's what you do with them

I spotted this on Richard Holden's thoroughly readable blog (link now broken). Howard Goodall is an award-winning composer and the writer of the 2point4 Children theme tune.

Here, he talks about how music boils down to some pretty useful basics.

If you understand music theory, it's a bit like teaching your grand piano player to suck an egg shaker.

I'm also not sure how this relates to difficult electronic compositions consisting entirely of clicks, wailing cats and exploding vegetables. But I was brought up playing classical piano, so I like this kind of thing.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad you liked the programme! I also like how you call my blog readable, despite each post consisting of at most 50 words or so. Maybe that's why...

Unknown said...

I loved this series. He also did a great one about great modern composers including episodes about Lennon & McCartney, and Cole Porter.
Howard Goodall also (forget 2 point bloody 4 children) wrote themes for Blackadder and Red Dwarf.

Fat Roland said...

I seem to remember knowing about Slackbladder and Red Dwarf and deliberately ignoring it because I was somehow in awe of the horribleness of 2.4 Children. That's long lost in the mists of time, and I now reserve such awe for James Blunt and the Black Eyed Peas.