peterb
Prentice Jack
Posts: 18
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Post by peterb on Sept 9, 2013 12:35:31 GMT
I am curious to know how Ian schooled his musicians when learning new pieces? I'm particlularly thinking of the complex stuff produced in the mid to late 70's. Pete Townsend used to record demos and Beefheart (I seem to recall) used to sing the individual parts to various band members. I'd love to know the process with Tull. Did Ian compose all the individual parts or did the band members write their own?
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Post by maddogfagin on Sept 9, 2013 13:30:58 GMT
I am curious to know how Ian schooled his musicians when learning new pieces? I'm particlularly thinking of the complex stuff produced in the mid to late 70's. Pete Townsend used to record demos and Beefheart (I seem to recall) used to sing the individual parts to various band members. I'd love to know the process with Tull. Did Ian compose all the individual parts or did the band members write their own? One possible answer dmme.net/interviews/ia.html“Songs From The Wood” was actually much more of a band album, the others had a lot more input into that than most other records such as “Minstrel In The Gallery” or the “Aqualung” album. There are several pieces on the “Aqualung” album that were really just… the pieces of music that could have been on Ian Anderson album if I’d made one at the time, because they were just me playing most of the instruments. And that’s something I did as early as 1968, when I was first on myself in the studio with a string quartet. A part of my musical life has always been about working alone and coming up with things that were more like an artist working in the studio painting a picture – and you can’t paint a picture by committee. An artist works alone. I have cats, and cats, as we know, walk alone. And there is something in my psyche that likes quite often to be that way, to walk off on myself from everything and work much more in a vacuum without an influence of other people. Sometimes you need to involve other people, which you have to do from a diplomatic, assuring point of view and it works, but a lot of time I like to be on my own. Again, it’s a balance between ways of making music: sometimes it’s me sitting in the studio, sometimes it’s me on the stage playing live with a symphony orchestra. That’s the opposite extremes but I enjoy both of them. I enjoy the fact that I can work in these apparently different ways, that’s part of the fun of being a musician. It wouldn’t be musically very satisfying for me to just be doing one kind of music, playing one instrument, not really exploring the possibilities of music can dispel upon us and our audiences.
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Post by bunkerfan on Sept 9, 2013 16:29:24 GMT
I am curious to know how Ian schooled his musicians when learning new pieces? I'm particlularly thinking of the complex stuff produced in the mid to late 70's. Pete Townsend used to record demos and Beefheart (I seem to recall) used to sing the individual parts to various band members. I'd love to know the process with Tull. Did Ian compose all the individual parts or did the band members write their own? However they learned the new material must have been difficult to say the least. You're quiet correct when you say that Jethro Tull music is "complex stuff" and not just the late 70's. Anyone who's tried playing Tull music will tell you it's very complicated with some of the timing breath-taking! My opinion is they just got together and jammed. Well it's possible.
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Post by futureshock on Sept 10, 2013 1:06:23 GMT
That's a good question. During the creation or completion of a song, and taking it to fine-tune/recording, there are a variety of methods to capture it in progress, for reference, to hear, to see, etc. Would be interesting to get an example from TAAB2 of how that could work in a group effort.
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peterb
Prentice Jack
Posts: 18
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Post by peterb on Sept 10, 2013 10:48:22 GMT
I am curious to know how Ian schooled his musicians when learning new pieces? I'm particlularly thinking of the complex stuff produced in the mid to late 70's. Pete Townsend used to record demos and Beefheart (I seem to recall) used to sing the individual parts to various band members. I'd love to know the process with Tull. Did Ian compose all the individual parts or did the band members write their own? However they learned the new material must have been difficult to say the least. You're quiet correct when you say that Jethro Tull music is "complex stuff" and not just the late 70's. Anyone who's tried playing Tull music will tell you it's very complicated with some of the timing breath-taking! My opinion is they just got together and jammed. Well it's possible.
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Post by maddogfagin on Sept 19, 2013 9:16:42 GMT
This is quite a good description of IA's song writing process from Raymond Benson's "Pocket Essentials" (2002) book about the band. www.pocketessentials.comWhen asked how a song is developed from his original idea to a full-fledged recording, Ian Anderson stated: "I really wish there were a standard process - sort of a factory assembly line process - in which a song idea could go in one end, be arranged and developed, go through quality assurance and pop out packaged and ready to be delivered to the public. However, that is not the reality. I suppose I try to vary it with every song; I like to make the process different each time. The type of song and subject matter dictates what that process will be. Sometimes I might be strumming the guitar and I'll come up with a phrase and a line of lyric comes to mind. When I'm comfortable with the basic structure of a song, I'll present it to one or two guys in the band, maybe all of them and we work it out together. Other times I'll be playing the flute and a melody comes into my head and the song is born that way. Recently I was strolling through the Berlin zoo and a piece of song formed in my head. I spent a little over an hour there and as I was leaving I had an entire song completed!"
"The lyrics don't always come first. Usually they come later; sometimes they arrive at the same time as the music. Very often the title comes first. An idea for a title might arise and that's the inspiration for the song. That was the case with Too Old To Rock 'N' Roll—Too Young To Die. The title came first and I thought it would make a good song. I suppose I would describe myself as a painter, but not of emotions. I'm not a painter of abstracts or expressionistic works - although a bit of my work ventures into that territory. I'm more of a painter of people and landscapes. I'm an impressionist, you might say. Sometimes it's just landscapes without the people. I'm an observer and I write about what I see."
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Post by journeyman on Oct 13, 2013 12:34:02 GMT
This is not a direct answer to the question in any way--sort of a sidetrack, but I think it is relevant. I do recall some footage of latter-day Tull rehearsals (perhaps the "Living With the Past" DVD? I don't recall) where drummer Doane Perry was describing melodic/chord changes to a musician playing in or with the band (I don't recall the musician either). From that footage I assume that teaching Tull standards to new members of the band--or to anyone playing with Ian--is not always taught by Ian himself. That being said, a song that Ian has composed that is new to the band would not be communicated that way, unless he communicated it to one band member (perhaps someone like Dee Palmer?) who in turn taught the composition to the band. The last sentence being pure theory and speculation of course.
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