Jame's Musical Ability

[Meddle]

I'm not writing this to bash Jim's musical ability, but I'm writing it to learn more about it... I myself am a musician, and I often wonder when and why certain people take up the instruments to learn.  I think at a first listen parts of some MMJ stuff may seem-not sloppy-, but not very difficult on a skill level. This raises the question... Is simplicity a good thing? Yes. I hate Greenday, not because of their simplicity, but becasue of their music. Im just using that as an example to show that the average listener recognizes simplicity, but when u put ur headphones on and listen to Z you notice the crystal clear tones and organied notes.

[dragonboy]

but when u put ur headphones on and listen to Z you notice the crystal clear tones and organied notes.

When I listen to Z  with Headphones I hear Alarm clocks that I don't otherwise!  :)

[EC]

Is simplicity a good thing?

I think so.  It depends, though.  I like crazy over the top stuff sometimes, but I like simplicity.

I think also that the difference maybe between the older and the newer lies in just more years with the guitar, but also because I got the sense from articles and interviews that John Leckie worked those boys pretty hard.  That might have something to do with it.

[ratsprayer]

simplicity green day and offspring is ricockulous.

simplicity neutral milk hotel brings a tear to my eye from the beauty of it all.

[tomEisenbraun]

it sounds like Jim's been at the guitar for quite awhile, and while it feels like he had a great sense of harmony from the start (or at least from the TN Fire) i think each album has him coming into his own a bit more. At Dawn they explored riffs a bit more, and It Still Moves takes those from just riffs, to more intricately placed note-age. Songs like Golden in the open Em tuning, Masterplan with that dramatic outro, the entire scope of I Will Sing You Songs, of course One Big Holiday, and then the ending bit of Steam Engine, with all of everything in it. Put this one in headphones and you will hear things you never even dreamed of while listening in your car.

Now moving on to Z, it sounds like, not only has Jim been able to shine a bit more, but I think the presence of Bo and Carl pushed everything up a bit of a notch. They went having a good old woodshedder and a groupie who bought a Rhodes piano (completely uexperienced beforehand) just to be in the band, to (I think) a Berkely grad and someone with years of piano under their belt, the musicality gets pushed a little more. When you get the ability to start making something really intricate, you don't settle for much less.

Not only that, but there's a new energy around this album. You find the band writing  some absolutely slamming songs, like Anytime, What a Wonderful Man, Lay Low, Off the Record, and they aren't just dumb rockers. Jim's sense of harmony, melody, and composition all come together in these. They aren't simple I IV V chors kind of songs, but something much more intricate, but still very simple. I think simple, in this case, comes into play when you start asking the question "how difficult does it sound?" and it doesn't. Maybe the solo in Lay Low or the piano bits in Knot Comes Loose, but, when you listen, not much catches your ears and makes you say "Hot shit! That guy can play!" Which is GOOD. It means the songs work AS A WHOLE, which is a beautiful thing.

These guys are amazing, but not because they are rock guitar gods. It's because of what they make as a whole. If they were just "kickass guitar players", the band would lose it's meaning. They'd be hair-metal. But they make beautiful music as a whole, and that is why My Morning Jacket is what it is. One Big Holiday caught my ear on Conan O'Brien, not because the guys were amazing, but because they were playign something that I hadn't heard in too long. The solos in the song weren't mind-blowing, but they were exactly what that song needed, you know? And that's why it makes sense.

 I don't know where I was going with this. If anyone wants to pull little parts out and help narrow down what it is I'm attempting to say, go for it. But that's how I see this band's musicality.

[ycartrob]

Fat, saying MMJ's chords are "not very difficult on a skill level" is opening a huge can of worms (in my book).

I challenge you not to get caught up in the whole "difficulty of the playing the music" (my brother in-law is a jazz pianist/flutist/trumpeter/composer, and doesn't even consider rock b/c to him, ALL of it is simple) b/c that's a dead end street.

you know, most every kid who learns to play guitar like a "rock star" learns Smoke On The Water(deep purple) then Stairway to Heaven. 2 very "simple, basic songs", right?  ;)

so, if it's so "simple" then why isn't everyone who has ever played guitar not touring and selling thousands of CD's?

to me, it is explained best with Keith Richards. Listen to Monkey Man off Let It Bleed. It's about the feeling, not the complexity. Keith has more feeling and groove in that one song than some bands have spanning their enitire career (IMO).

                                  or

listen to Lay Low.

I also challenge you not to hate other bands (green day). Be glad that there are so many types of music out there that move people. As much as you hate green day, there's some guy who hates the Jacket twice as much; neither of you are right...

Fuck SONY records and corporate greed.

[ratsprayer]

thats what im saying, green day doesnt move me.  im not trying to be right, but im not wrong in saying my opinion of it being shallow because i dont get anything out of it.

[EC]

It's about the feeling, not the complexity.

I think that's true with almost everything.  Good pointz, mr. tracy.

[sivalc]

 music is just sound, sound is just a vibration i think it is irrelevant how it is created and in musical terms for me personally it just has to effect me on a emotional level nothing more nothing less.

[tdan]

When I listen to Z  with Headphones I hear Alarm clocks that I don't otherwise!  :)

Me too!  I thought I was the only one  ;)

[Clarkwork]

Fat, saying MMJ's chords are "not very difficult on a skill level" is opening a huge can of worms (in my book).

 
 It's about the feeling, not the complexity. Keith has more feeling and groove in that one song than some bands have spanning their enitire career (IMO).


You hit it right on the head.  I hate when people say "oh that songs so easy to play that guy is not that good of a musician", and I'm not saying that is what this post is about, but it just bugs me when people say that.  

It's easy to copy a song, but creating it and putting that real emotion in the song is totally different.                   

[Easy Morning Rebel]

I'm not writing this to bash Jim's musical ability, but I'm writing it to learn more about it... I myself am a musician, and I often wonder when and why certain people take up the instruments to learn.  I think at a first listen parts of some MMJ stuff may seem-not sloppy-, but not very difficult on a skill level. This raises the question... Is simplicity a good thing? Yes. I hate Greenday, not because of their simplicity, but becasue of their music. Im just using that as an example to show that the average listener recognizes simplicity, but when u put ur headphones on and listen to Z you notice the crystal clear tones and organied notes.

In that I'm completely agree with you!