Music is a very abstract art. Once the notes have disappeared we’re left with just the memory. Yet, we, as musicians, sweat out the details. That’s because we try to make the listener’s memories last forever. We think that if we craft the notes with more thoughts behind them, we will have a better chance of being remembered. We are not wrong, by the way, that’s been the method for millennia. But we are not exactly correct either.
Because, what is important in music? Well, we have technique, first and foremost, Right? Wrong! That is the very trap. Is technique important? Maybe, yes, sometimes it is. If you are Celine Dion or Luciano Pavarotti, you’re going to need some technique with your voice. Bob Dylan, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Ringo Starr, John Lennon not so much. And before you counter me by saying that these people had their own technique that belonged only to their way of playing music and that they worked on that, I will say that technique is the one learnt in schools and conservatory, the one practiced over and over with a book or a teacher, one that covers all the grounds needed to play an instrument. The one every teacher sells.
So, to go back to the initial question, what is important in music? Is it how loud or soft the sounds are? How quick? How diverse? How meaningful the lyrics? How original the arrangements? How predominant is the guitar versus the drums versus the bass versus the singer? What kind of equipment is used and what kind of effects is incorporated to the mix? Yes, and yes. All of the above. And then some.
Everything is important in music. We are dealing with such an ethereal art that the slightest variation can be changing the direction of a tune. I’ll give you a for instance. Here’s is the song “Help!” as sung by The Beatles:
And here’s the same song interpreted by Tina Turner:
Not the same at all, is it? We’ve got two very different flavors here. I won’t go into the debate of which one is better than the other, I love them both. But I will go into what I think is the most important in music: the intentions of the artist. That’s what’s driving the whole shebang. The Beatles have one intention and they design their whole sound around it. Tina felt it differently and got a new version of it. In my humble opinion that’s the most important thing in music: the intention of the artist.