New interview on CDJapan

[evespikey]

Thanks for the heads up, Orchid. Wow, it's a really long article. o-o;

Complete? Man, I don't remember. (Laughs)

XD I can't imagine him saying 'man' like that.

But it's not just a harmony; it's a harmony like someone is screaming from behind. Instead of a pretty melody, I wrote it so people would feel like their hearts were screaming. I think it's something fresh

I really like the sound of that, I like to get that affect out of music.

They wrote down notes for all the chords and yet, I couldn't read a single thing they wrote. (Laughs)

O: wow.

They always get really technical in the interview, asking about specific songs, it's interesting.

Reading questionnaires is my number one purpose in life!

XD He's so funny.

 

[ken]

Wait... I thought Mana went to a music university... Was this false? Because at a music university, he would have learned things like reading music and music theory and the like... o_O

He might've forgotten? Or maybe the classes he took didn't require it? Though, that's kind of strange.

My guess is that it's closer to him being fluent in French
Oh well, that doesn't make him any more or less talented, I've been writing music for yyeeaarrss and this is my first semester of serious, formal instruction. I just wonder how he arranged Bara no Seidou without knowing basic theory o_O
But experience has shown me that self-taught musicians generally create their own theory, so whatever.

 

[navate]

I just wonder how he arranged Bara no Seidou without knowing basic theory o_O
But experience has shown me that self-taught musicians generally create their own theory, so whatever.

He probably just winged it and did it by ear.

I respect him for that, actually. Awesome to see an artist who doesn't bother with the technical jargon.

 

[Formless]

Wait... I thought Mana went to a music university... Was this false? Because at a music university, he would have learned things like reading music and music theory and the like... o_O

He might've forgotten? Or maybe the classes he took didn't require it? Though, that's kind of strange.

My guess is that it's closer to him being fluent in French
Oh well, that doesn't make him any more or less talented, I've been writing music for yyeeaarrss and this is my first semester of serious, formal instruction. I just wonder how he arranged Bara no Seidou without knowing basic theory o_O
But experience has shown me that self-taught musicians generally create their own theory, so whatever.

He could've just had an orchestra hired and said "I want it to sound like this!" and the conductor did the work? That always kind of made me wonder really, because writing orchestral music with no prior music theory understanding can't just be winged. He had to have some sort of help.

 

[DementedThingie]

I don't have much practice with it but in the past few years I usually did some songs on the piano just be ear. Though my teacher said I had a really good ear for that kind of stuff. Maybe Mana is just really.......really good at it XD Though yeah, I'm not saying its not possible that he didn't have some sort of help. I mean songs on the piano is one thing, a whole orchestral piece is another.

 

[Blackberry Sage]

I don't understand musical theory or chord progressions or even how to read music, but I love making music, so I guess I understand what he's talking about.

Also the part about making music at night. I can only make art at night, too, weather it be music, drawings, paintings, poetry, etc. lol.

This interview made me smile and giggle. I love all the "(laughs)". Imagining him laughing is just the most adorable thing to me. He seems like such a geek...

Hmm... if he reads all the questionairs, does he read all his fanmail? I remember reading an interview once where he said he did... but I'm sure it was that 99 questions thing with all the crazy answers.

In nine years I've never had the courage to send him anything. lol

 

[DementedThingie]

Also the part about making music at night. I can only make art at night

I agree 100%

 

[Geisha]

I really like Mana's explanation why he refuses to learn musical theory. As someone who has studied graphic design, I totally agree with his point of view that technical knowledge can be limiting and lead to your work being predictable and boring. And I don't think he hires people to help him compose. In the last CD Japan interview he talked about "mentally building the ensemble" for Eternally Beyond and how demanding it was because there are so many different instruments in that song. Perhaps it is hard to imagine that someone may be able to compose orchestral music without knowledge of musical theory but that doesn't mean it's impossible.

 

[navate]

I really like Mana's explanation why he refuses to learn musical theory. As someone who has studied graphic design, I totally agree with his point of view that technical knowledge can be limiting and lead to your work being predictable and boring. And I don't think he hires people to help him compose. In the last CD Japan interview he talked about "mentally building the ensemble" for Eternally Beyond and how demanding it was because there are so many different instruments in that song. Perhaps it is hard to imagine that someone may be able to compose orchestral music without knowledge of musical theory but that doesn't mean it's impossible.

That's how I feel. People are always quick to declare "it's impossible" just because they can't do/imagine something. Not everyone's mind works the same way. Self-taught artists do create their own theory, as ken said.

 

[DementedThingie]

This conversation really reminds me of what Picasso had said about how it took a lifetime for him to unlearn his classical training. To go back to forgetting all the preconcieved rules and notions and creating his own beautiful style that was art. Sometimes its just better to break away from all the rules and look at the beauty that the mind itself can produce

 

[Halvorc]

I don't think so. They just play by ear, so they don't need to try and write new theories so any student or teacher from a music school would mock them Or if you prefer, I wouldn't say they invent their own theories, that's not correct for me. Hendrix is self-taught, Tak Matsumoto never took courses, and Anchang can't read music sheets, but they have the gift and that's enough to make good works, unlike 'classical arts' such as painting, sculpture, 'modern art', or anything I would call 'art for museums'.

But Picasso was right, even if I hate his works. One can only allow himself to make art once he masters Art (More in painting than in music, cinema or literature, because it's easier to be an impostor in painting or sculpture than in music - If a music or a film is a piece of shit, then you know it immediately). He had a strong theoric and practical knowledge so he knew what he made. But I have few respect to those who put a cube on the floor and call that "The pedestal of the World" when they can't prove their academic skills or how they ended to do that. Anyone can paint a monochrome, but the real interest lies within the artistic process. True masters like Picasso could explain from A to Z why they made ugly paintings from Mars. And they deserve respect for that, and for their years of classical studies. Mana may content himself with simple-sounding, non-academic works, but he would lose nothing if he took lessons. Theory is always profitable. Music is like american football. If you don't know the rules, you may still enjoy the show, but if you know all its subtelties, then it's a piece of cake and you don't even have to think about how to make real what sounds in your head.

 

[Kyuketsuki]

^ I think the point that the others made, and what Mana himself had made, was that learning theory could be restricting because it sets all these 'rules' and so forth about art, when in essence art shouldn't have any of the bounderies that theory can create in the mind. Thus the reason for not bothering to learn it.

 

[Halvorc]

I think the contrary xD Mastering the theory is the key to artistic liberty. It's a tool, not slavery.

 

[Formless]

I think the contrary xD Mastering the theory is the key to artistic liberty. It's a tool, not slavery.

Very much agreed. I don't mean this to sound.. rude.. but it sounds kind of like an "excuse" to say something like "there's no need to learn it because it restricts".

 

[navate]

You can know theory without being taught it. That's what I mean about creating your own theory.

I listen to my painting professor blather on about color theory to the beginners class every week... I honestly do not think I could EVER have learned how to use color if someone had come up to me when I was just learning and told me all that stuff. I learned color theory from trial and error, "playing by ear" if you will. I didn't know what any of it meant until I heard him put names to it, even though I've been using it. You get so stuck on the theory that you forget what you're doing...you overthink it. If the painting works, it doesn't matter if you painstakingly planned out the composition and palette with theory or not. Knowing theory does not make a good artist--not knowing theory does not make a bad artist.

Theory helps, but it ain't the end-all-be-all. Too much theory can be just as bad a no theory..but either option can get the job done. All that matters is that the art/music/whatever is effective....and that boils down to aesthetics, so the whole point is rather moot.

 

[flowersofnight]

I personally belong to the "Mana school" of composing as well(though I admit I can read sheet music XD) and I'd have to say that it hasn't held me back substantially. There are definitely patterns I run across that I could perhaps grasp more completely and manipulate more readily with theory - after all, that's why there can even be a theory in the first place. So in that respect it would be helpful as far as the purely practical side of setting down music goes. But the real work has always been mostly on the creative side anyway, not the mechanical side.

That said, I don't think learning theory is at all restrictive. Getting "locked in" to a certain idea can happen whether the idea comes directly from theory or not. And conversely you can also get along fine either way.

 

[Geisha]

You get so stuck on the theory that you forget what you're doing.

I agree. In my personal experience technical knowledge can be restricting. Granted, it gave me a lot of useful tools but it also made me analyse and re-analyse my work and having to have reasons for everything I do, which, rather than giving me freedom, has at times limited my creativity and spontaneity. Perhaps Mana's stance is a little extreme, but in the end it doesn't matter if he achieves what he does through consciously applying musical theory or by instinctively doing whatever he does. His aim is to let his compositions "flow naturally from my feelings and imagination", so they probaly wouldn't sound much different if he did know musical theory.

 

[ken]

I think the contrary xD Mastering the theory is the key to artistic liberty. It's a tool, not slavery.

I agree with this 100%, but a few months ago I would have been totally opposed to this.
I agree now though, because I'm studying at one of the best music schools in the country, and new things I've learned and to which I've been exposed has sort of opened the doors of my preception, and I'm really in awe when I can watch someone (such as my professors) display complete mastery of their instruments.
This is a really interesting topic though, and I've been on both sides of the fence. Robert Rodriguez made it in film for inventing his own rules in cinema, and Quentin Tarantino is who he is because he totally understands film inside and out. He never went to film school, but he *studied* film on his own. Tim Burton bases his better films on visual imagery, and he did go to art school. Francis Ford Coppola was a theatre major, but then did graduate stuff at UCLA for film~! And The Matrix/Star Wars are as successful as they are because they follow a strict formula taught in any decent film program (See: Joseph Campbell, especially Hero with 1000 Faces.)
Anyway, I guess the rant thing just means there are many different ways to achieve great art, but theory and formal instruction shouldn't be shunned or frowned upon as restricting. If someone is a master of theory, they could produce the most pure art on the world (See: Johann Strauss / Beethoven / Mozart / etc.) The way I see it, self taught people could probably produce better art than people who know a little theory, but people who know theory inside and out can convey anything in the best way.
I don't know, I just got out of class and I'm in a weird mood

EDIT: Speaking of which, a good example of a freaking amazing songwriter who knows theory inside and out: (&Yoshiki too)

 

[Monophobia]

You can know theory without being taught it. That's what I mean about creating your own theory.

I listen to my painting professor blather on about color theory to the beginners class every week... I honestly do not think I could EVER have learned how to use color if someone had come up to me when I was just learning and told me all that stuff. I learned color theory from trial and error, "playing by ear" if you will. I didn't know what any of it meant until I heard him put names to it, even though I've been using it. You get so stuck on the theory that you forget what you're doing...you overthink it. If the painting works, it doesn't matter if you painstakingly planned out the composition and palette with theory or not. Knowing theory does not make a good artist--not knowing theory does not make a bad artist.

Theory helps, but it ain't the end-all-be-all. Too much theory can be just as bad a no theory..but either option can get the job done. All that matters is that the art/music/whatever is effective....and that boils down to aesthetics, so the whole point is rather moot.

You said pretty much everything I was thinking but didn't know how to express in words. XD

I also agree with Geisha and, like navate, can express this most easily with painting (or 2D designing.) When learning the fundamentals of these arts they push colour theory so much that it can be really daunting when actually creating a piece and the end results tend not to show my true creativity. When I mostly focus on the creative side, minus the theory, I usually end up with a better piece that also works.

EDIT - I guess to conclude, I think learning music theory is good if you don't let it restrict you. It's the same with colour theory, because I like that I know and understand it to some extent, but I don't let it hurt my creativity unless it's forced upon me.

 

[Wandering_Fox]

I just meant that it was odd to me that he went to a music university and didn't learn how to read music ^^; I don't have any formal music training (neither do a lot of famous composers) but I like the way my music sounds. I'm not saying it's right/wrong/bad/good, I just found that part a tad strange ^^;