Simple v. complex music

[stevem]

Me? Sometimes I like my music straightforward and simple--for instance, if I'll only be hearing the song once or twice or I'm trying to put my daughter to sleep.

But, the music I return to over and over is generally complex--melodies that are mutated and mangled almost past the point of recognition, cryptic and confusing solos, dozens of chord variations in one song... I'll take 2 lumps of dissonance and the unexpected in my coffee, please.

What's everyone else prefer?

[wsm]

I do enjoy the mangled stuff but it is really hard for me to wrap my simple mind around it.

I saw Andy Statman a couple months ago and couldn't ID a single song. Yet the guys I went to the show with nailed every Bluegrass hybrid song he played.

Bela Fleck can play a 20 minute version of Stairway to Heaven and I don't get it until he plays the classic line that every guitar player seems to know.

On the other hand, put on a live version of about any version of a Grateful Dead song and I can tell you what they are going to play while they tune up and tweak the effects.

Maybe thats the answer to my problem, too many Grateful Dead concerts.

[Mark Walker]

I tend to gravitate toward complex (what little I can play) and actually can play things a bit better if they're 'up-tempo' and I don't THINK about them.

That being said, there is something far more soothing and 'smooth' about simple songs played crisply.

Contrast Nickel Creek's (Thile's) 'Ode To a Butterfly' with 'Sweet Afton.' I admire Thile for his meticulous (and fast-paced) picking on the former, but really like the smooth simplicity of the latter.

Diff'rent strokes for different folks... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[John Flynn]

It depends on what you mean by "simple" and "complex." The two genres I play the most are old-time music and church music and another genre I only listen to is opera. In old-time, I tend to like simple melodies, but I especially like them if they are modal or crooked. I also like a lot of them played fast and I like them with continuous subtle variations. In church music, the melodies may be simple, but they generally have a lot of accidentals and a lot of different chords, including things like diminished, flat fifth, etc. Also church music is often in keys not often found in popular music, like Ab. Opera can be incredibly complex, but it is also often repetitive, with common, usually predicitable themes. So in all three of those genres, "simple" and "complex" depend on how you look at it.

I have to say I don't personally identify with your description of "melodies that are mutated and mangled almost past the point of recognition, cryptic and confusing solos." Each to one's own, but that does not sound like kinds of music I would like at all. I think if a melody is good, "mutating or mangling" it will not enhance it. Also, a solo can be complex, but it should support the music. "Cryptic and confusing," does not seem to describe supporting the music to me. Just my personal taste, but hey, you asked!

[stevem]

You don't like mangled music, MandoJohhny? What's wrong with you?
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

I was using my words a bit facetiously--there is a point for me where music gets mangled in a bad way. I love unexpected twists to notes though--keeps me coming back.

[seanonabutton]

i prefer a certain kind of complex. most jazz i can just NOT get into because it has been twisted with so many substitutions that you cant wrap your head around it. but the stuff that sounds simple enough but was written complexly, like someone was really truly thinking about what they were writing. thats the ticket...

[MikeEdgerton]

I'd rather hear simple songs played well than complex songs played poorly. The same follows through for what I like to play. If I can play the complex song well, so be it but I'm assuming an audience would rather hear the same thing as well.

[John Flynn]

You don't like mangled music, MandoJohhny? #What's wrong with you?
On second thought, the way I play I guess I should take your affinity for cryptic and confusing solos as a personal compliment! Thanks! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Mike Buesseler]

"I'd rather hear simple songs played well than complex songs played poorly."

A-MEN, to that! I hear far too much of the latter...well, maybe the playing isn't really that poor, I just get tired of flashy licks. Give me Norman Blake over most everybody else. The man can PLAY!

[MountainMan]

I look for authenticity in music. I can listen to just about any style of music if I have a strong feeling that it's coming from the right place. It can be the roughest-sounding hillbilly music, an out of tune blues guitar, or advanced progressive rock music like The Mars Volta or Project Z. The only thing I've never developed a taste for is opera music. I just can't get into it.

[ShaneJ]

I like simple music like blues, gospel, bluegrass, old-time, etc. because...well, it's simple.

I can enjoy a little bit of some complex music, but not too much or TOO complex, because...well, it's NOT simple. Complex tunes never stick in your head so firmly that it drives you crazy. There's a reason. My life is complex enough already without making my brain even more tired when trying to relax when listening to or playing music. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Clyde Clevenger]

Most complex music sounds like Chinese to me. I very much admire the Chinese, but I don't speak the language. And I'm old.

Norman Blake for me.

[Eugene]

I like music. It's not always easy for me to pin down the why of it.

[mandolooter]

[QUOTE]I like music. It's not always easy for me to pin down the why of it.

Thats my take on it too. I like music that stirs emotions within me, its all simply complex to me how that happens.

[Mattg]

What I play and what I listen to are somewhat different.

I tend to like to try to play tunes with great rythms or with catchy or even haunting melodies. Complex or simple, it doesn't matter.

Angeline the Baker has a cool rythm but a simple melody. My instructor is getting me to play songs like DG's Opus 38 and Minor Swing. Both have great rythms. I especially like stuff that you can play with some syncopation.

Wayfaring Stranger, Ashokan Farewell, Shady Grove (Doc Watson version) all have melodies that appeal to me for some reason. Maybe it's the emotional stiring as Mandoluter points out. I really like to play and sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" as performed by the late, great Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. Very simple but very emotional tune.

Lately, I've been drawn to songs that teach me something new. That has been modal stuff lately.

As far as what I listen to, that can be anything. Especially with the resources of the internet, it is fun to follow a theme, backwards. English rockers got alot of great stuff from delta blues. Bluegrass got stuff from, among other things, mountain music which got stuff from Celtic and so on. I love to here the connections and the reinterpretations that are in music.

[jmcgann]

Too much of anything is too much for me. In my world, Monroe, Charlie Parker, Stravinsky, The Beatles, Hobart Smith, DGQ, Lightnin' Hopkins, Tony Trischcka, Hamilton de Holanda, Yes, Jacob do Bandolim, Bob Wills, Bela Bartok, Zappa, Elliott Carter, Louis Armstrong, Allan Holdsworth, Norman Blake, Alban Berg (Chamber Concerto!) XTC, Debussy, Bach, Little Richard, Flatt and Scruggs, Martin Taylor, Martin Hayes, Tommy Peoples, Joe Derrane, Ivo Paposov, Eddie Daniels, The Who (pre 1975), Ken Peplowski among 275 others are essential music (just ask my iPod!) - all could be shelved as "too simple" or "too complex" to somebody!

I saw a great quote- "Most people only like the music they heard before they got married" http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[farmerjones]

i like old time fiddle tunes. The first time you here a new one it's almost shocking, but most are three or even two chord tunes. Under further investigation i usually find out there's a trick or lick that unlocks the tune. Like one guy said, "at first glance it's like rocket science, but once you grasp, it's more like plumbing."
So the answer is: deceptively simple tunes. How's that?

[ShaneJ]

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[fwoompf]

I like simple...I like complex...what I don't like is silence http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Daniel Nestlerode]

Melody is linear; complexity is not an accurate descriptor of melody. "Intricate" and "difficult" are better descriptors of melody.

I tend to reach for melodies I can remember, and then after getting them under my fingers I start trying to figure out how to best accompany them. Accompaniment can definitely get complex. The addition of passing tones and dissonances in a bop tune with the concommitant expanded harmonic range ("Yardbird Suite" anyone?) make chording the tune difficult. I still haven't mastered the chord progression for "Yardbirds Suite" despite the fact that I've been playing the melody for nearly two years!

I guess I don't prefer either simple or comlex music, but I do usually gravitate to tunes/songs with accompaniment no more complex than those which might incorporate minor seventh chords. I suppose if I dug deeply into bebop, that I would change that characteristic. But I have no plans to make that effort. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Daniel

[250sc]

Two sides of the same coin.

I like and appreciate both and there are times when one is musically more appropriate than the other.

[dj coffey]

There are tunes that are familiar, comfortable and make you feel good to hear and play.
There are tunes that are challenging to the ear and abilities - these are like vitamins - good for you.
There are tunes that are simple, but through a combination of intervals, harmony and rhythm can pull forth amazing emotional responses. These are the true gems!

[Peter Hackman]

Enough complexity to allow variety.