Is Prog For Musicians Only?

andu wrote: something more: most prog-fans are not musicians, but prog DOES encourage fans to take on learning to play musical instruments. i praise it for this.

Prog is not for musicians only, but surely appreciation for the instrumental aspects to any music is enriched by the understanding of music gained when learning to play an instrument or studying musical theory.  I suspect that 'Liquid Tension Experiment' is appreciated to a greater degree by musicians being in its entirety a celebration of instrumental prowess, wheras an album such as 'Permanent Waves' by Rush is pretty open to anyone.

GHOSTNOTE wrote: So ultimitly is prog rock for musicians only?

Isn't that a bit like saying "Are the only people on buses other bus drivers?"

I don't have a musical bone in my body, but life without Prog Metal just wouldn't be worth living!
    

Edited by CaptainQuark - November 03 2006 at 20:14

I don't know any proghead who doesn't play any instruments, but i guess its prog which makes you try an instrument and not the other way round.

No offence taken, m8. I think it takes someone of a more complex and philosophical nature to appreciate prog. Your average "must have it now and it must be quick" person on the street has neither the time nor, in most cases, the intelligence to sit down and listen to music.

In the UK, at least, most people go out to a club on a Friday night with the express purpose of getting so drunk that they fall over/puke their guts up/can't remember what they did. They hear cr@p music all the time they're there. I guess they listen to the same cr@p all through the week in anticipation of the coming weekend of drunken loutishness.

Jeez, am I showing my age?

ofcourse prog is for musicians! we musicians are a step above regular folk, our brains are more developed i guess.

thecool wrote: ofcourse prog is for musicians! we musicians are a step above regular folk, our brains are more developed i guess.

I can prove you wrong 100 times, starting with very bad art cover choices. Musicians, as such, are many times much to devoted to plain music theory, and don't take the time to go to the eye of the issue: Phenomenology.
    
    

Edited by cuncuna - November 04 2006 at 07:49

cuncuna wrote: GHOSTNOTE wrote:         I am sorry if I offended anyone who does not play a musical instrument that they could not appreciiate progressive rock. That was not my intention at all.         I just meant that if you take the AVERAGE music listener, and expose them to prog, most of the time they do not understand it. They are just used to tapping their feet to 4/4 time and are not aware of the complexities of a more complicated musical format.         P.S. I LOVE ROCK AND ROLL TOO. Expose a prog fan to 50 hours of yodeling non stop. Then throw 20 more hours of traditional African music. Progger will explode like a snail in a microwave. You talk too much about format, and yet you say nothing about content. The notes and the instrument are just formal elements, you are missing the content, the interrelated meanings, etc.

But you can't always get the content without the "formal elements".
    

All music is for whoever wants to listen to it. I suppose the majority of 'non-musicians' can't relate or understand complex music, since they have had 4/4 rhythmic pop songs shoved down their throats since birth. Similarly to jazz, most people can't understand complex harmony and is the reason they say jazz sounds rubbish.

I believe that you are more likely to relate to the complex music styles if you understand what is happening. Either way - if you like it, listen to it.

The T wrote: Man...Why the controversy?!! As I and others said, what we mean is, THERE ARE SOME ELEMENTS IN MUSIC THAT YOU'LL APPRECIATE MORE if you are a musician OR IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT MUSIC THEORY at least.... But I insist: anyone with an OPEN MIND and ART SENSIBILITY may like, may love prog..... and I repeat: there ARE MUSICIANS WHO DON'T HAVE THAT, too....so please, don;t take offense where no offense was meant to be done....Gee..

¿Are there elements in sex that you'll appreciate more if you are a porno star?. Sorry, but cognitive theory says otherwhise. You just need a conceptual map to get the whole picture, even if the terms to describe certain sensations or perceptions are not the oficial ones. ¿A musician invented music?. The most innovative musicians usually don't know a thing about music, they just explore and develope language on their own. John Cage and others looked for an exit to plain music score and notes and formal elemnts, since it is in human nature to produce sounds and rythm.