Hello Maik. Thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions.
Hello. I'm pleased to do.
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Okay I got it. 1st question: Very general, but inevitable: How did you get into music?
That is of course a long story. After all, I've been doing it for over 40 Years of music.
I would say the music came to me or we met halfway. I've always had this feeling that there was a very special Relationship exists; that there is something is very concrete that wants to communicate. But not now like us humans, where this is often perceived as an urge. More like "I'm there and when you move towards me, I'll tell you", so more of a kind of letting go Presence. So nothing imposes itself on you.
And if you open up, or are really ready to put aside the whole head spasm and your ideas of what music is, what is not or should be, and to experience this, I want to say, moment of realness, then it can happen that music actually happens, one more or less of it is surprised. Then the music is born anew every time.
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But that sounds pretty demanding.
Yes, of course, that always happens when you want to describe something that most people think of first assume that it does not appear in their own experience. By that I mean that in reality we all have such experiences all the time - only that we are not aware of them at first. What I'm talking about is actually something very common. So not just now, like mine Example with music, but more generally when it comes to making something happen in life. All people have always experienced these things!
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And with regard to music, you don't have to be a musician either, for example in terms of training or things like that.
But I already know that the 19th and 20th centuries destroyed a lot there. And today (2017) it doesn't look much better.
Sure, a lot more people make music today than in the last 100 years and that's really great. But one should also be clear about the fact that we live in this unspeakably hollow self-staging epoch. Of course, that doesn't stop at anything. And in music we experience, in addition to the eternal line of thinking, also an enormous amount of comparing and mimicking one another. And the result is that it is less and less about music in the true sense of the word. So, I'm not talking about pop music, I'm talking about music in the present; it is exactly the same in so-called jazz and in so-called classical music.
Let's go back to another topic: In your workshops and in class, you keep talking about the codes that you have discovered. What's that all about?
Yes, exactly. This is actually one of my main concerns when it comes to conveying music, it is very important to me.
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I have to take a quick turn: After I decided at a certain moment to live as a musician from now on - well, I've actually always been, I just didn't realize it for a long time - after I had made this decision , of course I dealt much more intensively with music and thus had one for myself Created space to delve into various topics that I find interesting.
In addition to the fact that I played a lot more music myself, I began practically self-study with music theory and music history. Then even have a couple of years on one school Studied music therapy.
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In addition, I made music with people who had very different qualifications.
At that time I was still active in social therapy and looked after a 12-person ensemble in the so-called disabled people People and so-called carers played together. So there was quite a gradient; but also in the sense that those supervised showed, for example, a high degree of talent and were then musically superior to their supervisors, or also with regard to the Spontaneity.
I then had the task of arranging the music in such a way that everyone could contribute something valuable at their own level. Every now and then I wrote the music for internal theater performances and it should fit the piece on the one hand, i.e. the content and dramaturgy, and on the other hand it should also be feasible for the people in the ensemble.
Then it started at some point that I gradually became aware of the complex musical relationships, on the one hand in their basic forms and at the same time in their whole, basically very simple, cross-connections showed - so just what I call the codes.
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To cut it short: Music is actually based on very simple common denominators or principles. I always say: Um understand everything that plays a role in music you can only spell up to G, count to 12 and do some plus math - and then learn to observe very carefully.
Of course, that's the theoretical aspect for now. However, it goes straight into practice with me. And vice versa, I show you how to suddenly move directly from practice to theoretical Connections that make a lot of connections visible in one fell swoop.
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Above all, it is important to me to show that it is all very simple, really simple; that the whole aversion to it is often due to wrong ones Beliefs based.
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If I understand you correctly, the main thing is to understand your instrument.
Yes, exactly: via playing to understand and then back to an extended game - that always goes back and forth.
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Super exciting. Sounds almost like studying music.
Yes, I hear that a lot. Especially from people who have not yet met a regular degree. I've always stayed away from it. However, in many encounters with regularly trained musicians, I was able to hear again and again how brutal and creative the courses are.
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Really?
Yes Unfortunately. So, brutal in the sense of a shark tank and without creativity in the sense of cultural heritage and tradition. Pop / rock and jazz have meanwhile also developed their own tradition. There Sometimes things are a bit like in the 19th century and here.
In addition, many training centers tend to give the impression of a business academy. There is little room for art.
So don't be jealous of people who have studied music, there is way too much fuss about it. These institutions devour an incredible amount of money, so you have to keep people engaged and challenge them by knocking an incredible amount of stuff around their ears and making them know that what they are doing is all scary important would be ...
That sounds like you have something against training.
Of course, I am generally in favor of meaningful training in the sense of development, but only with uncompromising individuality Training.
Only when we radically put an end to some kind of funnel thinking, according to the motto: I'll tell you how it's done and you will do it that way; in above, below out again: educational diarrhea.
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Ouch - not very nice.
Yes, an uncomfortable subject. But once you have realized what kind of evil forces are at work, you want to take a clear position. If you, let's say, see my house smoking, you don't wait until it burns really hard, but make a little noise beforehand.
In order not to put that down completely, I have to say that in the last 20 years a lot of young musicians come from the schools who are really good at handicrafts - who play at an extremely high level. That is nice amazing - that didn't exist in the 70s and 80s.
However, I see this as more of an evolutionary phenomenon.
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But back to you and the music.
Exactly, Making music is actually one of the easiest in the world. Everyone is born musically; most of them normally gifted - a few above average. You can usually see this very quickly in lessons or coaching.
And are there such codes as you described earlier, also for creativity and performance?
No, the whole area of artistic performance then it's a completely different story, there are no codes. It's about credibility and truthfulness in the broadest sense.
There is no such thing in the creative process either. But understanding one's instrument can help implement ideas be pretty helpful. Because time also plays a role; it's not so funny if I have to spend hours looking for harmonies or scales in order to play what I feel or hear inside.
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Creative is about developing certain attitudes.
Provides eg an idea: immediately leave everything behind! When you’re just doing the dishes over do the last one quickly Mail or SMS
want to answer and then mean to be ready is the train pretty sure yes gone. The creative side of art is fleeting and does not wait for us; when she comes, we'll go with her or she'll be gone again.
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In performance, for example, the attitude of sharing and giving is very important. You should always be clear about why you are actually standing there. Something like that: I've found or experienced something that moves me so much or seems so important to me that I'm up here now and want to tell you about it.
If that is missing, so in the end you have nothing to say, you shouldn't be there either up and kill people's time. It doesn't always have to be meaningful music, but the "need" has to be right.
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Do you see yourself more as a teacher or a musician now?
Neither nor, or both, and.
In what I do, I mostly need both.
I see myself more as a facilitator, less as a teacher in the traditional sense.
After all, I don't just pass on a teaching, but keep going along the path with the students and we will find the answers together.
In the live sector, too, when I get a platform as a musician, I also see myself as a mediator - then as a mediator of art.
And in the way we appear as artists, we always convey - whether we are aware of this or not - a certain attitude, a position in relation to values - so now in an ethical sense. We can't get around it and it is better to make that clear to yourself in good time, otherwise you may look back at some point be ashamed.
But many don't seem to care.
Clear. Musicians are normal people when it comes to being human. It's like everywhere in life: there are those who are jealous and jealous, the idlers and posers, and those who are only interested in reputation and money, but there are also those super nice, totally committed and great people looking for truth - just like everywhere.
The difference to normal life is that we enter a magical place with the stage. Historically, this goes back a long way, when there were still real cultic places of action. Then there was a so-called Medium, so a spiritually particularly gifted and prepared one Person, the then received and communicated certain spiritual contents.
We don't talk about the media for nothing. The same applies, of course, to all other forms of medial communication: writing, images, film / TV, radio, recorded music, theater and of course the stage that we enter as musicians.
Everything through this - let's say - Channels flowing, is subconsciously accepted as right and true. There are special human and social effects Regularities.
That's why it was possible to achieve so much with lies in the 20th century - you just need the right platforms.
Wow, I haven't seen it like that before - it goes a long way.
Yes it's correct.
Doom and gloom?
No, not at all.
Especially here in Central Europe; we live yes in societies in which a relatively large amount of freedom of movement is possible - which are basically based on understanding and brotherhood. The sense of that Social within complex, heterogeneous forms of society is decisive in Europe and / or influenced by European ones Societies emerged. we have endless possibilities here. You just have to recognize them and, above all, know what you are doing.
We can achieve so many wonderful things with our music and move people deeply. There is already huge potential in there.
And we always will indicated by art itself how and where we will continue. You don't need to check out a manager or charts, sales figures and likes of certain songs or artists to know what's going on; that results entirely from the movement itself.
So: no doom and gloom - but a lot of trust and love for art and people. Follow your talent and do what you enjoy. Pay less attention to your gut feeling focus more on what your heart tells you and develop a healthy and strong intuition. These are the buoyant forces and that has to be enough.
Thank you for the detailed interview.
With pleasure. Thanks for your questions.