Look at it this way playing an instrument is A LOT harder than Singing or Song Writeing, playing a Instrument takes years to pre-fect not saying being a Vocalist doesn't but there is a lot more work involved in playing an Instrument and being a Professional Pianist for the last 11 years I think I should know, ...
That's an insult to all those vocalists/MUSICIANS who have spent years in training just as you have as pianist. If you ever had seriously studied the human voice you would simply know that the human body is just as much a resonating instrument, as any mechanical instrument.
I know that it's very popular to look down on singers ('they wouldn't know how to sing a whole line without a pianist beating it into their brain') but trust me, especially the string sections will have plenty of jokes about pianists...everybody seems to think without them nothing would work- and that's very true. Any kind of ensemble activity relies upon each other.
I get really pissed of when Singers get all the credit of the Band or whatever yes they may have wrote Songs but In terms of acutally coming up with Sounds they didn't do that much it has to be said,
There is but one simple remedy: Become the great singer/songwriter on this planet. Write amazing tunes, play them AND sing them since you professed that singing is so very easy.
Ok in Michaels case he would beatbox melody's he herd in his head and get the Musicians to copy what he herd, the Songs were Michaels creation but the Musicianship came from the people who played the Music based on Michael's Interpretations as to what it sounded like in his head he may have came up with the Music piece but playing the Music someone else had to do it,I hope I made sense lol!.
I think it's worth to remember that MJ did not just come up with a melody but with whole arrangements, in his head.
Of course there we songs written by others or even arranged by other- but you'll find a ton of music in his entire recorded work that he wrote and arranged- in his head. The only difference is that someone like Mozart has been drilled and trained his entire life to be able to write down these things in a fashion that reflected the times.
Chopin wasn't the most famous pianist of his time but a composer whom the world loves until the end of time and beyond.
The trademark of a true musical genius is to know how to achieve the sound they hear in their head- and to be creative about how to get there. And if it means getting the experts of THEIR field to play for him- more power to him.
It simply means that he was humble enough to step aside on those occasions, where he felt it was necessary, in order to get the sound that he wanted. He had a vision for each sound, how each sound was supposed to feel and sound- and he simply went down whatever route necessary in order to create that sound.
It even showed in his language, to a degree. At 50 years old he has spent the majority of his life around professional musicians just as himself. He could easily have said "hold it longer" because I'm sure that someone of his level would at least heard of "bars", yes I'm talking about "The way you make me feel".
But it was is his preference to talk in imagery, "bathe in the moonlight", "you gotta let it simmer". In my mind he was the even the bigger musician there- because a true musical genius would have picked up his intention just from those images. They were a bit on auto pilot and he snatched 'em right out of that cozy comfy auto pilot.
I almost rolled on the floor when Bearden "translated" it into musician speak, "ok everybody, let's add two bars, or at least a bar". Add Travis Payne's facial expression to it and you can just slice the tension.
And he certainly dealt with plenty of musicians on the way...watching This Is It was quite humoring in that aspect. Between Bearden trying to impress him ("it should sound simpler") and the big dude there swinging his instrument around his back...there was no shortage of big opinions.
Yet he told Orianthi that it's her "time to shine and we will be right there with you" egging her own, coaxing it out of her. That was brilliant, humble and makes me love him even more. :wub::yes:
He was subtle in his communication, giving hand signals, watching who of the musicians would pick up on it.
Sometimes it was so subtle that people needed a reminder to actually watch him because he indeed was acting like a conductor (sometimes ignoring Ortega- as in Smooth Criminal, he knew what he wanted)- like in Beat It, he was giving exact directions, "I was showing you", or in "I just can't stop loving you" he had to sing "Breakdown" twice in order for everyone to get it, in "The way you make me feel"- "so you gotta watch me for that growl", or even telling the band what he wanted more of. "I'm not feeling that part enough".
He was acting like a conductor who needed to tell his orchestra "folks, look at me on occasion, alright?"
The thing is that he didn't feel like he needed public recognition by playing any instruments in public, he was focusing on other things. Very Wagner, very Gesamtkunstwerk...:yes:
By no means do I feel that any instrumentalists are of lesser value in music, I will kiss the ground and graves of pianists like Evgeny Kissin, Alfred Brendel and Art Tatum. Absolutely.
But I also adore those who write and those who sing. Everyone has their spot in music.
The more people understand that ensemble music works as a whole, the easier you get a result everyone can live with. I say that someone who has spent years as a cellist in orchestras, soprano who sang both solo and in an ensemble and as plain music lover.
MJ knew how to to achieve the sound he wanted and how to get there. Anybody who knows how to get there as he did- hats off to the genius.
