Capo – Learn Your Music
Capo will generate tablature automatically for you. It really doesn’t get much easier than this!
And it will also kill music publishing, today still a major income source for song writers – especially Broadway-type song writers. I am guessing that the digital revolution will leave nothing unturned to make sure that musicians have no income other than touring/performing. That will drive up ticket prices even more and many musicians who cannot tour a lot, either because of the physical demand of touring or because they can’t sell enough tickets, will have to drop out.
And one day we will wake up wondering what happened to our music scenes…
Hm, maybe the public will be satisfied with having all of the music that was created in the past constantly re-mixed and mashed up…
If that happens that would be so sad. No new creative process.
I’m just waiting for a program that will write, record & mix music for me so I can just sit back & watch the money roll in!
“And one day we will wake up wondering what happened to our music scenes…”
or,
One day we will wake up wondering what happened to our SENSE of music…
…the idea of when the winds of high standards changed.
…when our minds became accustomed to something less than moving.
…when we settled for less on anything.
I think that’s the time when the musician/artist themselves must redefine what art can be. It’s that miso from scratch versus instant idea from your previous post in your journal.
You can’t describe the complete taste in an instant miso that someone will miss if they never make their own, or are in the company of someone who knows how to make a good misoshiru from scratch. To begin with, there is no real aroma in a envelope of instant miso to discover.
I have a program for Mac called Transcribe which lets you slow down music without changing pitch – I used it for those POP transcriptions, and will continue to do so once I’ve left Flamencoland here and can start thinking about other music again :) From what I can tell, this app goes one step beyond, in figuring out for you what note something is instead of you having to figure it out yourself, but once it’s sufficiently slowed down that doesn’t strike me as a very big step.
So where’s the moral bright line here, when does a piece of transcribing software become a Bad Thing? Is it when the computer figures the notes out for you? Is it when you use a program to slow down a song to aid transcription? Is it when you make your own transcription to begin with? (Rhetorical question, that last one.)
And let’s face it, how many artists who aren’t theater songwriters sell their own transcriptions? You don’t (or at least haven’t for most of your albums). The flamencos almost never do. Rock artists generally don’t. When the transcriptions aren’t available from the artist, what harm could a program like this possibly do?
I can think of one: that it makes figuring out a song too easy, that there’s a benefit to doing the transcription yourself, at least figuring out the notes yourself. But that doesn’t seem to be what you’re getting at…
Also I think there are a couple of misunderstandings in the comments… this program isn’t about creating “music” GarageBand style or something, it’s not about taking the art out of composition. It’s about taking music that’s already been written and transcribing it, so kids with their guitars can learn to play it, get better, and one day start writing their own music. As I said, I fail to see how this is a sign of music’s impending apocalypse.
Ottmar – I bought 3 of your tab books a few years back – I sure hope you made some money out of those sales. I feel so sorry for todays struggling musicians, people think that they can just help themselves to everything.
On the subject of ‘capo’ – this is a lazy option. Whatever happened to ‘ear training’ – much more rewarding. I think tab is a great help to beginners but one should try to move away from it as one developes. Trust your ears and listen closely. I think back to the late 80s – guys learning Steve Vai solos from tab before they could play a major scale.