{"id":5179,"date":"2022-10-26T21:56:24","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T02:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=5179"},"modified":"2023-09-09T23:35:20","modified_gmt":"2023-09-10T04:35:20","slug":"singing-together-parker-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/singing-together-parker-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"All Singing Together: A Conversation with William Parker (Part Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

part one here.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PostGenre: You have also indicated that music is played for the earth and not for people. Does that relate to your earlier statement that humans did not invent music and merely discovered it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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William Parker: Every sound you make goes into the air and ultimately back into the ground. Everything vibrates regardless of whether a person is listening. Even without making a drum vibrate, the membrane in the drummer\u2019s heart is vibrating. Their nervous system is vibrating. Your first audience as a musician is yourself as the music goes through you. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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PG: This connects back to the importance of expressing your own voice in the music. If the musician is the first audience, he or she will respond better to music that is authentic to them<\/strong>. But there is also a critical distinction between staying true to your voice and having an ego. As you have mentioned elsewhere, the concept of universal tonality requires that artists remove their ego from the music. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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WP: The idea is that sometimes other musicians will be indifferent to me if their ego is too inflated. If you play softer, you can be completely overpowered by a louder instrument. When I was studying with Richard Davis, he noted that different projects may call for you to play with a folk thing, a symphony orchestra, a jazz singer, or a rock band. You must be a professional to sound good in every situation. Putting your ego aside allows you to fit into the music, regardless of the circumstances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But you still have to be yourself. If you have a mission in life to be yourself, once you are on the path of doing so, you can\u2019t be decoupled from that path. It\u2019s what you have to do every time you play. That\u2019s your mission. That\u2019s your goal. You\u2019ve got to play your song. In a way, you\u2019re no longer a professional musician. You become a shaman \u2013 a person with a message \u2013 and you convey that message every time you play. But everyone\u2019s different. Everyone\u2019s got a different way of doing things in a different color, and you first have to find yours. Then people have to respect it. Hopefully, you\u2019re around like-minded people who can go with you, and you can make great music come through you.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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