Eagerness

"This is what it's like to start a business: Haven't stopped working since 3 weeks ago.

Interestingly enough it feels good."

Loudness Wars

"Loudness Wars isn't something that is exclusive to the production side of things, where we compress every recording to make it "pop" more.

It is also in live performances where the instruments are really blasted at the top of their volumes to have an impressive sound, which seems great at first but it really limits our abilities to appreciate things with dynamics because everything is basically thrown to us at maximum.

We need to be able to appreciate dynamics and different levels of emotional intensity, and what better way to do that than to come for Pulse of Music's Free Music Appreciation sessions?

That being said, here will be one this Thursday for Listeners. Those who are curious about music appreciation through Pulse of Music method and have absolutely NO musical experience please let me know!"

Taste and Junk Food

"Music is like food: when you get the really best of food, but it isn't something you're ready for, you tend to shun it and avoid it. When it's something actually really trashy, one dimensional and simply strong tasting, it really seems to get most of the people who claim to be foodies.

As we advance in taste we actually will realise that the superficial benchmarks of what's good and what's not are often going to deprived us of what's really good in the long run.

So train people to think for themselves and develop their tastes when they are young, do not just feed them meaningless junk in our textbooks and MacDonalds. It's time for a change so that we can save ourselves from our own superficiality."

Comments:

• Tan Wen-Bin It's time to outlaw RnB

   
• Jun Hong Loh Lol people don't wanna be saved

   
• Yi Zhe Seow Hahaha tell me about that....

   
• Andrea Chew Just a thought here... who decides what's 'good', who sets the benchmark? What may sound trashy to one may actually sound melodious to another, and vice versa. Hence if one happens to like and develops a kind of inclination towards some particular kind of music that ranks poorly against this benchmark, does it mean that they are 'wrong' or misguided (then again are we really in a position to make this judgment)?

   
• Yi Zhe Seow What is good in music/food/anything at all, to me, is simple. Everything that is a form of art, is about genuine expression of love or a genuine cathartic medium to share emotions. It is okay to like any genre as long as it is ELOQUENT, because what's more important is that you find the values adhering to yours.
  
  It's like knowing who are the people who are clear-minded and can explain why they do what they do and their processes, are reflective enough about it to really have a good grasp of the execution and the expression of it, while understanding enough about the feelings behind it to crystallize it into a tangible medium.
  That's what good is. To identify it is like being able to identify a good, genuine person. Most people can't until they meet the person and is transformed by that person.

   

  Oh and just to put it in an interesting way... There are levels of internally generated joy in humans before reaching the state of nirvana. As you go higher up in the levels, it is very very hard to come down again if you have developed a taste for that joy that wells up innately, even if circumstances are extreme. It is the same with any form of art. Truthfully after you really go deeper into things and learn more about what can really allow you to extract the most amount of genuine emotion and joy, and more importantly for individuals values that they agree with, that's what's truly good. There's no subjectivity to good, just subjectivity in preferences of what of the good, much like the best of Chinese food vs best of Italian food.

   
• Andrea Chew Hmm, I see, interesting replies there. so I guess it's not so much the choice of what you think is good but rather the underlying reasons why you think what you chose is good if I'm getting you correctly..

  
  
• Yi Zhe Seow Yes to me the power is in the process and the clarity of reason, not the end result. Like if one actually has good reason to choose PAP vs WP or vice versa and has CLARITY about why is more powerful than a person who simply does so just to follow the trend. It is an unconscious act of following but until the person has good concrete reasons, it is not a good time to act.
  
  That being said, everyone is privy to different levels of information as well so it is more about what decisions we make at that time, and the clarity behind it, together with the openness when dealt with new information, than about the choice

Hard Work > Shortcuts

"What I'm learning repeatedly, through my own system of music appreciation and from meeting many great musicians, inspirational speakers, leaders, artists, professionals and most importantly, normal people, is that being genuine is more powerful than anything in forging a meaningful life.

One can cheat, steal and lie through life to get the riches, fame and comforts, but the most important thing in my opinion is meaning, without which, the others are meaningless.

So the question is - why are we so easily tempted by shortcuts which removes meaning from our lives?"