I’ve known many self-taught musicians who’ve shown real musical ability, but they almost always struggle with two important aspects of music: handling what are called “key changes”, and mastering rhythm so they can play alongside other musicians.
The theme from the television show Hawaii Five-O is an example of song that will be essentially impossible to play well if musicians haven’t mastered both key changes and rhythm. Most people are surprised to learn that this rather pop-sounding song is played by an orchestra (along with a couple of guitars and an extensive set of drums), but it illustrates the importance of mastering these two foundations of music.
At a really basic level, rhythm means playing the right note at the right time. Rhythm is linked to tempo, or how fast the music is played.
Here’s a little experiment that illustrates the challenge of mastering rhythm and tempo: Tap your hand on the table in patterns of four beats, emphasizing every first note, like this: 1–2-3-4–1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4. See how fast you can do it without messing up.
Now try the same thing with a three-beat pattern: 1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3.
The four-beat and three-beat patterns are rhythm, and how fast you can do them are tempo.
Most people can do the four-beat pattern much faster than they can the three-beat pattern, and the three-beat pattern takes a lot more concentration. Only with a lot of practice can most people do both equally fast.
Now consider this challenge: Imagine getting a bunch of people around a table at home, at school, or at work, and having them tap out even the easier four-beat measure at a very fast tempo (Hawaii Five-O runs at three beats per second), do it all simultaneously, and keep it up for two or three or four minutes without anybody missing a beat. That’s the challenge of training musicians to be able to play together.
Another thing that makes this song so challenging it that we can’t just play the song slowly. The composer, Morton Stevens, wrote it in a minor key, the same sort of key in which funeral music is written. Played slowly, Hawaii Five-O sounds dreadful. Continue reading “Book ‘Em, Danno: Why Self-Taught Musicians Struggle”