Noise and the novice has been about:

  • what makes something music as opposed to noise and then,

  • once its music, what makes it good music, and then,

  • once we’re talking about good music, the role of musical study and training in accomplishing “good” “music” as opposed to lame/square/uninspired

In my original concept, a few ideas are a part of the narrative but not centered, and I think reframing my pos around living traditions really starts to center these implicit things and make new/more connections between existing ideas:

  • the role of history, culture, and “scenes” in teaching and learning — connects to early thoughts about noise/novice and a bunch of research i’m interested in doing

    • Listening and reflecting directly on music as well as knowing the stories of musicians and communities that birthed different music now becomes central, feels related to the history of porridge/history of the penny whistle

  • the role of identity in defining a person’s role in relation to a scene as well as indicating the line between participation, appreciation, and appropriation

    • Brings in a political angle, around power/community/identity, exploring the roots of music, influences, the lineage of samples, etc.

  • how novices become expert within the scene/the scene’s explicit relationship w novices;

    • Brings in a meta level of interest, one much more directly aligned with Powderhouse’s goals around inventing the future of learning, while still allowing me to explore the idea of “energy”

  • the role of repetition in the learning and listening process/the way immersion in the sounds of a scene are a part of mastering the scene’s vocabulary, learning its history, and why “outsiders” might hear noise (rock/rap) or trite droning (old time)

    • Offers a concrete way to enter into music that sounds like noise to you, what if we had an understanding that you had to listen to an album ten times before you could say you’d really listened to it? Many folk traditions allow you to hear a song more than once in “one” listening through internal repetition.

  • this connects to some of the “this is your brain on music” style understanding about how we discern music from noise in a sensory/physiological sense, but also

  • looping nature of living traditions offers many opportunities for novices to get on board with experts (and to fall back off), in music playing a song is practicing the song because it repeats/loops, this is obvious with music but I suspect also with any active domain (ask AR re: examples)

    • Exploring the nature of the loop/repetition as sacred/multidisciplinary now feels very relevant if the repetitiveness of the music becomes a part of its definition

  • what makes something new or original, seeing old things in new ways a la TG

  • what makes something good seems connected to what makes a tradition “alive”

My open questions and questions to the group during this conversation are a few fold.

  • First, what is a living tradition? — We’re not going to answer this now, but I have a sense that a living tradition is something more specific than just “something with a lineage that’s still happening now.” Figuring out what this is is important.

  • Second, what are some living traditions both inside and outside of music? — This I think we can brainstorm now, and that the examples we come up with will help me to triangulate what living traditions are more generally.

  • Third, Improv Interviews — Depending on time, lay it out here and ask for critique