How do musical styles evolve?

I want you to imagine that a man is born and spends his whole life in solitary confinement, he has food and water, somewhere to sleep and a Guitar. Alone, without any musical influence around him, what kind of music would this man make? Without ever hearing Flamenco,Blues or Jazz how would this man choose to use the Guitar? I ask these questions because i wonder how it is that musical styles develop in communities, who is it that first creates a melody and then in turn how do these melodies become canonised becoming a signature of that particular community? When early people first began making music, where did they find their inspiration? was it an internal thing or an external one? If it was internal then that would lead to some wonderful implications that also agree with my other document tiled 'Are the English one of the least musical nations?'Basically it could suggest that music is some kind of universal force that already exists in everything and doesn't need external factors to lead to its birth. But on the other hand if music needs external factors to come into existence then it would suggest that music is lifeless without something to conduct it. I imagine it is a combination of the two actually, a certain amount of music already exists in us, i.e the ability to feel pulse and to pitch our voice but also we can learn more when stimulated by external factors like bird song for example.

A good example of the evolution of music is the Flamenco music from southern Spain. Flamenco originally started as a song and dance art form and the Guitar was introduced later although the Guitar has in someways stolen the limelight in Flamenco as most people will instantly think of Guitar when you mention Flamenco rather than song or dance. So you first of all have the song and dance then along come the Moors from northern Africa and bring a whole load of eastern sounding scales with them, namely the Phrygian scale which is a common scale in Flamenco music. This of course adds a whole new dimension to the music that we now know as Flamenco. Then along come the Gypsies from Rajastan and bring a whole load of interesting new rhythms with them, the Bulerias rhythm for example which is a cycle of 12 beats with accents on beats 3,6,8,10 and 12 is now one of the most instantly Flamenco sounding rhythms there are, despite the fact that its origins lie in northern Pakistan.

So in today's world where we have access to so many different musical styles who knows what interesting kinds of music may evolve. Indian music is now starting to have an Impact on British society and we are beginning to get much more Indian/Brit crossovers. I recently went to see a young Guitarist at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds who played with a Tabla player. I was amazed to hear this Guitarist playing a Raag on his Guitar with the Tabla player in Teental (16 beat cycle).British music for so long has been dominated by the 4/4 rhythm but with crossovers like this people are starting to become more accustomed to hearing 16 beat cycles, who knows how this could affect British music in a hundred years time. Add to this the changes in technology and you can imagine that British music is open to some really interesting changes in the future. I envision a Global music evolving which is inspired by nearly all the musical styles in the world. A sound that instantly sums up the whole world rather than a whole country. Music influenced by Latin rhythms, Indian scales, Blues music, Rock, Jazz, Chinese music, Eastern European music and more all coming together to create one global sound. Perhaps this is the final destination of man made music, can it go any further or is music always one step ahead of mankind anyway? There are infinite answers as there are infinite musical styles!
If you click on the title at the top it will lead you to an interview with Juan Martin (on youtube), an outstanding Flamenco Guitarist, who goes into some detail about the evolution of Flamenco and the role of the Guitar. There is also a nice piece of music at the end of the interview called 'La Feria' which is an original compostion by Juan Martin. Enjoy! Gozar!

Can music be good for your health?

Have you ever noticed that the musically minded are often quite calm and peaceful people? or that musicians generally are a good looking bunch? I am tempted to believe that there could be certain physiological reasons for this, namely that music is a form of exercise for the mind, body and soul. OK so I'm not the first person to suggest this and then there will those who think I'm talking a load of nonsense but i can personally say from my own experience that i have noticed certain changes in my physiognomy since i took up music. It seems that music is a way of balancing out the body and bringing us in touch with different parts of the brain that we may not use so often in our modern day lifestyles. Take for instance a drummer (and I'm not talking about some bird brained, high as a kite rock drummer, I'm talking about serious percussionists; people who play Latin percussion or the Indian Tabla) surely this act of co-ordinating the left and right parts of the body is good for us in someway. Its like our brains are working things out, learning how to judge distances and time frames, improving our reactions.

On the other hand you could say that it is the more beautiful among us who have natural musical ability and that beauty suggests strong genes which in turn suggests good hand-eye co-ordination, good hearing etc. This theory however is a little unfair but i can back it up to some degree with an article i read recently in 'The Economist' in the December 2007 edition titled 'To those that have, Shall be given' it basically suggests that the beautiful are more likely to be successful because beauty suggests strong genes. So the where does this leave the ugly?

It is hard to say whether music will make us more beautiful but it certainly helps a lot of people feel better. A friend of mine, Yaw Freeman, who is an African drummer and Balaphone player, told me that in Africa when someone is ill, it is a tradition that they should hear the sound of a drum. I can also say from my own experience that sometimes sitting down at a piano and improvising for half an hour has made me feel a lot more relaxed and centered. Perhaps music is like a form of meditation, yoga or tai chi. All these art forms are known to improve mental and physical well being so why not music too?

Are the English one of the least musical nations?

I ask this question simply because when i look at musicians from other countries, on the whole their standard of musicianship is a lot higher than that of the English. I asked myself why this may be and the best answer i seem to be able to come up with is 'lifestyle'. Take a look at Africa for instance, a great example of a highly musical culture. But then take a look at African descendants living in the UK. It seems that they too lack that sense of musicality so important to good musicianship. So perhaps its not simply that African people are innately good at music but their lifestyle which makes them so musical.

So this raises the question in my mind: 'Do all people have the potential to be highly musical given the right cultural background?' Here in the UK everything is about formality and this seems to leak through into the way we learn music, people here seem to be obsessed with learning about dots on a page (written music) but this simply distracts you from developing your musical mind. For example if you are teaching a child music wouldn't it be better to let that child make its mistakes and find his/her own voice in music before prejudicing them with lots of ideas about time signatures and middle C. I know from my own experience of working with children that they learn best when you leave it to them. My own nephew is only 4 years old but his father, grandfather, uncle and just about all his family are musical in someway. No one has ever told him how to play drums but give him some drum sticks and he will play in time with you as you play your guitar. How does he know that!? How does he know that somewhere in that rhythm is a basic beat that he can outline on the drum? Perhaps because music is an innate knowledge that exists within everyone, i would dare to say everything! I refrain from trying to explain music to him because i believe this will only confuse him at an age where it is still hard for him to use his intellectual and rational mind, he just acts and i accept that.

So perhaps it is wrong to say that the English are not musical but better to say our lifestyle doesn't bring out our most musical side. After all there are many great British musicians but the standard among young musicians seems to be quite worrying at times. I am a student at Leeds College of Music and some of the performances i see there are embarrassingly out of tune and lacking soul or feeling. This again leads me to the question of lifestyle: 'Have we got it too easy?' Our lives are practically dished out too us on plates now, we never learn the meaning of striving to reach a goal. If a child here wants a guitar he/she only has to say so and his parents can buy him one the next day but what about children in poor countries where their families may have to work hard for years to buy a musical instrument, who will appreciate it more? Suffering and striving develops the soul it makes us better people, because we never really suffer materially here in England we compensate for it by suffering spiritually. 'What we have in possessions we lack in soul'

So if you want your child to learn music, immerse them in music. Don't send them off to some pretentious, Beethoven worshipping piano teacher, he may rip the music right out of them. Instead make their life a musical experience, sing around them to make it clear that singing is a normal and acceptable thing to do and when they make their noises don't silence them, let them play with their voice and enjoy being noisy, don't punish them when they are being inquisitive, the English are great at saying 'Don't do that!' or 'be quiet!' Basically don't restrain them, let them discover the world and be happy open hearted individuals!

I hope you have found some inspiration in reading my Blog please post your replies whether you agree, disagree or think I'm a mad man your comments are appreciated. Thanks.