I was back at it in the park recently, sitting cross-legged on a blanket under a tree, far from the path and people, with my synth propped up on a portable camp table, still trying to find a summery sound.
Thanks to a new addition to my gear collection I was no longer playing with headphones, but rather I had propped up my small speaker amp nearby, set it to a reasonable volume, and was filling the local air with a bit of my chaotic noodling.
It was not intended to be a performance.
The reality of being outdoors in a park making art, taking photos, or playing music is that it is public. Eyes will connect. Heads will turn.
We travelled to Europe a few years ago and did a lot of plein air sketching in very public places and it’s a whole other thing, let me tell you, to sit near a few thousands of wandering tourists and do your craft.
Back in my little park a man on bike with his dog stopped to look, eyes connected, head turned. He stood in the grass a respectful distance away as if he expected me to crack out a banger and was getting ready for the show. I tapped out the first few bars of a Bach Prelude I had been practicing earlier that week and which was still stuck in my fingertips.
He lingered for another couple minutes then cycled away.
Terms FROm this POSt
- banger
- I think we all know a banger when we see it. A hit song that sticks in our brains, a brilliant image that drops the jaw, a sketch that is indistinguishable from a photograph. Bangers are aspirational, and any of us would hang a flag to tell the world we were behind one.
- noodling
- In many fields of art or music this is a term to describe loose creativity not intended for sharing or performance. I might noodle on a keyboard typing out character profiles or unpublishable notes. I might noodle on my violin, playing little songs, scales and melodies. I might noodle with an art book, sketching shapes or matching colours.
- synth
- Often mistaken for a piano, especially in my house where my spouse reminds me that we already have two pianos and I don’t need a third, synths are electronic sound engines that shape primitive audio waveforms through a various processes either analog or digital for which the result is a unique pitched “note” often “discovered” by the artist, and a form of musical instrument that has become the basis of many modern forms of music.
