[TPIN] ANALYZATION/MASTERY/GREAT ART

[Michael Anderson]

> Complex movements and Experienced Accomplished Athletes and musicians, have
> MASTERY over many many many movements required.  Playing the trumpet is an
> art,  ski jumping is an art, playing golf is an art, crafting violins is an
> art, painting is an art, making music is an art, infinity.
>

I can't agree.. Some of these things are all skills and there is a big
difference. We often misuse the word "art." I'm a fly fisherman and people
talk about the "art of flyfishing." Its no more art than a worm under a
bobber. It does require considerably more skill though and it can sometimes
appear to be visually artistic, but it is all skill and knowledge.

Composing, improvising and interpreting music is art. Playing the trumpet is
not. Craft is skill. Creating something original is art. I even think that
the large majority of music interpretation is a skill not an art. Its a fine
line and I'm not always sure where it crosses from skill to art. For some it
never, ever crosses. They play a passage like they have heard it done or
have been taught to play it by rote. Even in jazz... Until the improviser is
improvising music that isn't parroting some other player they are learning a
skill and engaging in a craft.

Good teaching is an art. In fact, I feel that I am engaged more as an artist
when I am teaching than when I am playing and I play over 200 gigs a year.
I'm rarely creative in my orchestra gig. I'm rarely creative on any gig
other than solo recitals and even then the interpretation is a combination
of skill and art. 

I have found that this is really hard for people to understand because we
have used the word "art" so generically. Just because we are engaged in an
activity classified as "The Arts" doesn't mean we are engaged in true
creation. Most of the time we are simply using our skill to display someone
else's art. This is like a quilter following a pattern, a chef following a
recipe a mason following a blueprint a fly tyer following a pattern recipe,
an accountant reconciling the books, a farmer planting a field. Skills.

Mastery is about developing skill. "telling your story" and "expressing
yourself" through what you are playing is where the art comes in and it
doesn't happen that often.

My 2 cents. ;-)

MA