What's your Philosophy on Music?

I have a post-modernistic, liberal conservative, optimimistical pessimism kind of approach. It goes like this:

Ambient Hurricanes wrote: ^For the skilled composer, proficiency in music theory is actually a way to free yourself from its constraints.  At some point, you know the theory so well that you don't have to think about it.

Never though about it that way, but i know it to be true i have played the guitar for 11 or so years, if i want to play something for example "happy and jazzy" i don't have to think about which cord to start whit. Even though it might not be that complex or even interesting.

On a side note when do you become a composer, or when has one achieved that level? 

Ambient Hurricanes wrote: ^That does make sense.  So what you're saying is to take yourself out of the performer's mentality, and think like a listener when you perform and compose music? I think you're right, that probably would help the music to flow out of you better.  If you're thinking like a composer, there's a lot of intellectual involvement and theory-oriented thought, your mind working to find the perfect note to fit your composition.  But the listener can just let the music flow into him as it comes to him. I suppose this is epitomized in a composer like Mozart, who just wrote down melodies as they flowed though his mind, or the Mbuti people, who claim that their music comes to them from another source.

That is what i meant. 

But one should not neglect all music theory it's still needed, and i use a lot. Maybe a better position would be something i between listener and composer. Than you can have "tools" to help you achieve what you want but still not letting it control everything that you do.

^That does make sense.  So what you're saying is to take yourself out of the performer's mentality, and think like a listener when you perform and compose music?

My musical philosophy: Is don't make music.. listen to it

I.e if you play you should not be in a position mentally as a performer, but as a listener. I think that this way can help one self  to flow whit and in some sense be the music.   

If this makes any sense 

Edited by Sir_pi - March 28 2012 at 10:01

I'm very confident in my musical ability, and I unfortunately tend to forget that I still have a lot to learn and a lot to improve on.  I think that, as a musician, it's somewhat counter-productive to be pessimistic about my music, so I keep a confident attitude but I also need to realize that I'm not as developed a composer as I like to think I am, and strive to improve and keep a humble attitude.  Your thread actually brought this to mind, which is a good thing because I can be quite arrogant sometimes and I need to fix that.