Quote:
Originally Posted by Burning Down
I don't think a musician showing off skills is mindless.
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You're still missing my point.
It is one thing to show off your skills, it is one thing to show off your skills and express something in a way that is not trite and kitschy, it's another whether you're showing off your skills or not if you are doing it in a trite and kitschy way.
To me... technical skill/prowess should NOT be a factor of whether or not a piece is good. The focus also should not be on how ornamental or odd or uncommon a type or mode or scale is use for a piece or any technical details of the actual writing.
It should be focused on whether or not the piece effectively conveys the idea behind it (regardless of style or skill level) in a way that is genuine rather than in a way that is trite and kitschy.
That's also why I gave the examples of Jason Becker and Malmsteen where they both have considerable skill and play highly technical music and use uncommon scales and modes, however with Becker, the music is written in a way that it actually conveys they idea, puts the imagery in your head without words while, on the other hand, Malmsteen's typically doesn't.
It has nothing at all to do with showing off virtuosity, but when it is purely just showing off skill in an composition (that's not say an étude or something that's specifically meant for showing off skill and not conveying an idea), that is when it is simply masturbation (abstractly, via the definitions of kitschy and trite that I gave in my previous post).