Saturday 16 April 2011

The local music shop

We found at total random today the local music shop. I say at total random as it is situated out of the center of town, in a neighbourhood which you usually access by car. We went to the local brewery and stopped there on the way back. It is a very small shop, filled with guitars, a bit of music sheets and not much else. There was a clarinet, some violins, a cello, I think I saw a trumpet too, but I think they were on display just for the look.Objects can be aesthetic, even more so instrument used to practice an art.

Anyway, those guitars on display got me thinking. I think it might be the only instrument people bother to learn nowadays. That is the feeling I had walking in. It is true that it was a small shop, a local one. But I remember being a teenager and what else teenagers my age were playing, why would they go to a music shop except to buy some guitar picks? My friends used to say that sales of guitar picks got the music shops survive. I looked for some opera lyrics sheets, there was nothing. A bit of musical comedy stuff, but that was it. It speaks volume about the state of music today.

I might look like I'm thinking poorly of guitar players. I'm not. It is after all the instrument of modern music. I am also glad that any musical instrument is being sold in the days where pop stars, chick groups, boys bands and the like have plagued the music industry, maybe to the point of creative sclerosis. I had the discipline to learn music, but never enough to turn it into a profession and the only instrument I have left is my voice, which I never developed as I could have. That people develop musical talents, however modest, even as a simple hobby, and learn music, genuine music, is enough to be happy. I might stop by again, chit chat with shopkeeper. I might even buy something.

4 comments:

PJ said...

Ah, les souvenirs d'Ivonick Desbiens musique. Il y avait des instruments, des partitions et des bustes. Ça prend un buste de Beethoven sur un piano, ou de Bach pour les plus péteux de broue. Ça fait partie du décorum.

T'es sûr que ça te tente pas de retourner au hautbois?

Guillaume said...

Pas vraiment en fait. Le hautbois m'a donné trop de maux de tête.

Anonymous said...

Modern music is more about style than substance, and melody seems to have been abandoned along with genuine talent. Of course classical music was the pop of its day. But pop music today is mostly devoid of individuals who have mastered an instrument, or have written their own songs. Most of the music worth hearing is not given the airplay it deserves, and I can't remember the last time I listened to the radio in fact, in case I gag on Gaga :-)

L'Étrange cas said...

"I am also glad that any musical instrument is being sold in the days where pop stars, chick groups, boys bands and the like have plagued the music industry (...)"

Ajoute à ça les jeux comme "Guitar Hero" et "Rock Band". Étrangement, ta citation ressemble beaucoup au discours de bien des guitaristes, qui se plaignent qu'il n'y a plus assez de guitare et trop d'artifices électroniques dans la musique d'aujourd'hui!

Ceci dit, j'aime bien jouer de la guitare, mais je rêve parfois de jouer du marimba ou du sax tenor, parce que j'adore ces instruments. Au fil du temps, on s'est ramassé avec un piano, et je me suis acheté une basse (très différent de la guitare, malgré la similitude).

Aussi, maintenant que j'ai des enfants, je peux leur acheter des instruments, héhé. Ma fille a reçu un accordéon à sa fête, et mon fils, une batterie. Des heures de plaisir en perspective!