I have been involved in music-making of all sorts throughout my career. When I first started playing the violin, playing in string orchestras, chamber music groups and full orchestras was a common practice. While hearing songs on the radio was common, there was nothing like being in the midst of all your friends and acquaintances contributing to the acoustic musical space that was resonating with sound. This is why we emphasize ensemble playing at our music school Odessa Texas.
As I began to grow as a composer, I began to dabble with MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) to create electronic music. I was enamored with the idea that anything I could write in score format, entered digitally into a computer, could be transferred to a Sound Library to produce anything I could dream up in my imagination. I created numerous compositions on my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), in many different styles.
The better I became at creating these arrangements, I began using them to produce my own albums of songs. I began to notice, however, that the spontaneous, moment by moment interpretation I had enjoyed in my earlier music making with my friends and colleagues seemed to be missing.
It was the subtle tempo and rhythmic changes that were happening, almost imperceptibly, combined with sensitive adjustments to tuning with each other, in ensemble playing that seemed so elusive to create on a digital platform.
Evidently, other people were experiencing this departure from acoustic/live music making, as I began to see plugins developed to ‘humanize’ rhythms, and some exploration into non-Western tuning systems, to add the human element to computer-generated sound.
As a worship leader in a contemporary music program, I watched the historic transformation of churches departing from ‘open wedge’ monitors for the band to using in-ear monitoring. This solved an age-old problem of competing volume levels across the platform, since everyone wanted to hear more of themselves through the wedges. But what it actually did was take everyone out of the acoustic space they were playing in, and put them into their own virtual mix, separated from each other.
Each player could create their own ‘dream-mix’ that featured what they wanted to hear more than anything else, which was of course, themselves. They could also turn off anyone that bothered them. Community, little by little, was being replaced by isolation.
Adding to this, computer-produced tracks fit nicely into live performance by using the in-ear monitoring system already established. The vocalists also joined the in-ear monitoring system with their own personal mixes, as wireless systems became easier to manage and more stable. Everyone was isolated to create the perfect FOH (Front of House) mix, clean from all stage-noise and competing mixes from the platform musicians. We encourage our students at our music school Odessa Texas to be aware of technological advances.
The use of tracks during live performance and worship teams became ubiquitous, using robust platforms like Ableton Live. The studio-produced recordings could easily be run with click-track going to each participant on stage. Sites offering the latest multitracks of the latest artists allowed entire concerts and worship sets to be seamlessly pre-produced, MIDI control going to lighting, video, and lyric control. Everything was perfectly controlled for an air-tight show.
I participated, for many years, not only in the performance of this kind of system, but also in the creation of my own tracks and original songs and arrangements.
While I am a firm believer in pre-preparation for rehearsals and live events, creating the inspirational moments in the studio before taking it onto the stage, there has always been a missing element that I remember enjoying as a young Classical musician.
What we have lost in the process of pursuing a ‘perfect’ scenario is the community interaction of those making the music at that moment in time. Each moment in a musical context is unique in its place in eternity. Every micro-second is its own universe. Even though playing to a track, with a click in your ear, gives the audience a perfectly created moment that was inspired in the studio months ago, the miracle of the moment is being replaced by what is old and familiar. At our music school Odessa Texas, we emphasize ensemble playing.
When Moses met God in the burning bush, the message of Who it was that was speaking was “I AM WHO I AM.” God is always present-tense, in the moment. Music is no different, it must be uniquely now. I am convinced, contrary to popular convention, that music is not preeminently sound. Sound is what is heard as the end result, of course. But, music is first and foremost relationship.
When relationships are compromised for the sake of ‘better sound,’ then the foundations of music making are also compromised. When a perfectly steady beat created in the studio becomes more important than a tempo uniquely found by the consensus of those involved in the moment, then what should have been I AM, was replaced by ‘I Was.’
When raw vulnerability is replaced by slick production, authenticity and honesty is lost. I was once in a Juilliard masterclass with one of the most widely esteemed instructors in the school at that time and a student asked the teacher, “What is performance?” She paused for a moment, looked up at the ceiling, and said, “Telling the truth.” What a profound revelation that is!
Artists have been known to hide so much from the truth in our modern technologies that they end up lip-syncing their concerts. Worship has become rote, slick, and without sacrifice. At our music school Odessa Texas, we expect a degree of sacrifice to attain to the level of proficiency necessary to be impactful.
When King David was about to offer a sacrifice to God, one of his subjects offered to give him the oxen and wood for the burnt offering. David wouldn’t accept the generous gift, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing.” (2 Sam. 24:24)
The sacrifice of worship and of true artistry in music making is that of complete transparency and authenticity. When a computer is doing half (or more) of the performing, is that honest? We encourage our students to learn and utilize technology in an honest and thoughtful way at our music school Odessa Texas.
There is a popular notion that humanity is on the brink of an historic change in which we can no longer be fully human, but that technological developments have brought artificial intelligence to a singularity in which humans and machines are forever intertwined in Transhumanism.
At this point in music history and modern worship, music making seems quite Transhuman.
As an artist who has participated deeply in both sides of the equation, I can honestly say that performing to a click-track, with in-ear monitors, isolated acoustically from the rest of the team, is simply not fun. I much prefer playing acoustic instruments in an acoustic space, or singing acoustically with others in the same space, making music by consensually listening to the blending of the offerings of each individual, not driven by a computer, but honestly and authentically made from a place of vulnerability and an awareness of I AM.
Our music school Odessa Texas elevates honesty and integrity in our teaching and music making.