Matt Puzan's post on composition

Haverstick here...Matt's post made me think about composition and why I
do it. For me, composing in alternate tunings is a very natural
extension of my personal self expression as an artist. I have always
loved music from all over the world, and have studied many styles out of
a great respect for those styles. And from playing those many styles for
30 years, I have arrived at a place as a performer and composer where I
feel comfortable drawing on whatever I need to form my own personal
style. If I play a piece that resembles an oud player, I am certainly
not trying to say that I am a Middle Eastern expert...I am saying that I
love that sound, and here's my take on it; I feel very honest about it.
My mentor Ed Toler in Kansas City (a real genius) used to jokingly say
that he played like 10,000 monkeys pecking away at 10,000
typewriters'''sooner or later, they'll write the bible...and that is my
philosophy as well. I allow myself to be affected by any sort of music
(or art, period), run it through the blender, and what comes out is
hopefully original and meaningful.
So, other tunings are a very logical step for me in this process.
When I write a 19 tone blues, it's because I hear it that way; when I
learn a 34/oct modal tuning, it's my way of distilling all of the great
Indian/Arabic music I've heard into my own thing. And, this is how I've
presented other tunings to my students and friends, as a very simple,
natural thing to do...it's no big deal. I try to make music that relates
to all facets of my consciousness, from pretty and simple to weird and
dissonant, and in the process I feel blessed that most people who have
heard this music have responded in a positive way.
Mike Bloomfield said something once in an interview that I never
forgot...he said that nice guys like John Sebastian make nice music, and
that whacked out folks like Paul Butterfield make whacked out music; how
true. And, if there is a gap in the "microtonal" scene between the folks
who participate in it and the "average" listener, it is because many of
the folks in this field are real genius, academic types, and much of the
music they make with other tuning systems is real genius, academic
sounding music, which mostly other genius academic types will
like...simple enough to me.
Believe me, this is not any sort of judgement, only an observation.
My goal is to convince people that other tunings are valid for any type
of music, and can be used A> for more subtle shades of emotional
expression, and B> to relieve the incredible monotony of the 12/eq
system. For me, it is also an enormous kick in the ass to try to learn
other systems for the pure joy of the challenge, but if I couldn't
translate a tuning into real music, it wouldn't be worth much. I see no
reason why players from any style of music cannot use other tunings,
other than the simple fact that hardly anyone has ever been exposed to
anything other than 12/eq. I plan to change that, and, as I jokingly
say, try to bridge the gap between beer drinkers and geniuses (although
the two are not necessarily exclusive)...Hstick

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