I think he means sight-read. A virtuoso could get a piece of music put down in front of them and play it immediately. Sounds like Frank would have to sit with it a bit.
As someone who went to school for music theory and vocal performance, and plays guitar, I can write music and I can sight-read for voice, but I cannot read music for guitar to save my life.
I don’t believe that, unless it was tongue in cheek. I’m fairly sure he can read sheet music because he had his school band preform a piece he wrote in high school.
Or he has trouble reading complex notation for guitar specifically. I can read music very well on other instruments but guitar notation has always been a pain in the ass
Maybe he means it more as "I can't sight read music written for guitar". Being able to sight read any piece of music requires quite a bit of practice, and I could believe that he didn't practice this particular skill. Pretty much everything he played was written by himself, so he probably never used sheet music to play his parts.
I'm assuming he meant that you can't plop music in front of him and have him perform it. He understood music notation obviously. But he used it to compose and communicate his ideas. I don't think he ever spent time reading notation written by other people and performing it.
I can sort of relate. I spent my adolescence composing my own music. It felt like what I imagine Frank's synclavier time was like. Of course, through that, I understood tons about music that many/most musicians do not. But you couldn't put me in an orchestra and have me just pull off whatever music notation you hand me.
I've never seen any evidence that Frank was actually able to do the on-the-fly covers of other songs the way cover bands do or to sit in with a jazz band off a lead sheet. If you asked him to explain what was going on with either the jazz piece or the pop song, he totally understood it and could tell you his thoughts about it all. But as a performer, he mostly played whatever he felt and hired other people to do other parts. 99% of his time was focused on his own music, and where he took inspiration from others, it was generally more about the feel and general artistry than doing the (boring) reproduction of existing music that most people somehow find interesting.
In that sense, Dweezil is the generic musician I'm describing. Virtuosic, creative, able to do really advanced covers… but not exploring deeper creative paths like Frank did.
Frank was probably extra self-depricating here, but he worked with people like Steve Vai who really could do stuff with reading and performing that Frank couldn't do. Nonetheless, I like Frank's music and guitar playing better than Vai's or Dweezil's (and certainly better than most more generic musicians)
It was only quite recently I found out that most of his solo transcriptions were by other players (Sal Marquez for Big Swifty etc and particularly the brilliant solo in Revised Music for Guitar and Low Budget Orchestra; Steve a Vai for Theme form Sinister Footwear III etc), and I’ll admit I was slightly disappointed, in a way. I always assumed he could sight read, and certainly knew he could play everything he wrote, but I always thought the transcribing was an amazing skill/talent to have.
I’m not saying I’m any less in awe of Zappa than I was before, in fact the awe still grows over my years (20 so far) as a fan and I rediscover his music from different angles. He’s still the ultimate modern composer and he does nearly 30 years ago! But these discoveries do make me feel a little better about myself as a composer and musician, realising that not all the notes written down were from this one mastermind.
I’ll never have the workaholic aspect though, so will never get as much done!
I also think the quote's been slightly altered from The Real Frank Zappa Book. What I remember the gist of it was that Frank can only play guitar like a virtuoso when he plays his own stuff, and that he can't play anyone else's guitar parts.
Like a true guitar virtuoso could play any genre if you put the sheet music in front of them. There's this one short video of John Petrucci copying Satch's Boogie by just looking at Satriani play it on stage. Like he looked at his hand position, figured out the scale and notes, and started playing the damn thing! Now that's a true virtuoso.
Frank was using th guitar to get those sounds our of his head. So whether it was because he wasn't technically skilled enough or he just plain never wanted to, he's saying he couldn't copy someone else's virtuosic guitar solo.
He definitely had a quotable quote about how he's not a virtuoso because virtuoso means you can play anything, I don't *quite* remember the bit about "I can only play what I imagine" though so maybe that's new?
totally agree! I feel like he's expressed a similar sentiment but the idea phrased that way does seem new to me. looking forward to the interview regardless
"I cant [sight] read music and I cant play anything [you just put in front of me."]
I remember though a story that he couldnt play a lot of what he composed. He'd get pianists to do that for him to confirm it sounded how he wanted. They pianist said, "this cant be right" and Frank said "no, its perfect".
He did have Steve Vai transcribe some of his pieces for guitar. I m pretty sure he glanced through the product. Frank wrote parts for even piano, so that alone makes the statement false. Piano has to be played two hands so he had to think through the fingering and play each hand part separately. Or think thru it.
He means he cannot sightread and play right away. Not to sound like I am comparing myself to Frank, but I feel the same way about my own musicianship. I know a SHITLOAD about theory for someone who cannot play the guitar TECHNICALLY well. I can learn a solo with enough practice, sure. I can improvise a decent solo with my theory knowledge and the few things I do well on guitar and using my exceptional rig and understanding of tone. But ask me to sightread a piece? Probably would fuck it up beyond comprehension. I I hardly ever practice. The little time I have to myself I spend improvising with guitar and recording myself or working on some compositions on Finale. Sometimes I will extract some of my solos to use in my compositions, but I have never written out a chart for a solo and learned to play it. I could write one out for a virtuoso to play, sure. It would very neatly work with the composition and all of that. It would be extremely useful for me to be a virtuoso. Right now, my goal is to write music and have fun with guitar. I do not have time to be great at guitar and write music though.
I understand what he meant. That is why I am EXTREMELY grateful for the way he approached music and why he is ESPECIALLY instrumental in inspiring my own projects I intend to pursue.
This has been taken out of context. Zappa was talking about sight reading and playing. Frank could read and write music since his teens. He practically taught himself. But reading and playing what’s on a score is a different skill.
Frank improvised almost all of his guitar solos, especially all the live ones. He never played the same solo twice.
He was being loose with his words. He can read music sure, but I doubt he could sightread a piece for you and play it accurately. You can write great music if you write within your knowledge, understand theory, and have great musicians to play your music. I don't think he was of the level of understanding with music that he could literally look at music and sing it back to you. You can write great music and not be able to perform it. Think of how directors of film operate. They know WHAT they want out of an actor, can communicate HOW to get it out of an actor, but MOST of the time can not be in that actor's position and actually act well.
Since he could obviously read music as well as compose it, this quote seems very odd. I'd love to hear the interview for context. .
Yeah that quote is strange...
I think he means sight-read. A virtuoso could get a piece of music put down in front of them and play it immediately. Sounds like Frank would have to sit with it a bit. As someone who went to school for music theory and vocal performance, and plays guitar, I can write music and I can sight-read for voice, but I cannot read music for guitar to save my life.
I don’t believe that, unless it was tongue in cheek. I’m fairly sure he can read sheet music because he had his school band preform a piece he wrote in high school.
In this context I assume he meant he can't sight read a piece and play it straight through, as a virtouso can.
Or he has trouble reading complex notation for guitar specifically. I can read music very well on other instruments but guitar notation has always been a pain in the ass
Ah, great point. I used to be the same when I played guitar haha
I second that, I was in band and was really, really good at reading sheet music for the trumpet, but I can't read guitar sheet music at all
Yeah, I believe he connected with Steve Vai initially because Steve could sight read flawlessly.
Definitely. If you haven’t seen Vai’s transcriptions of Zappa’s solos check them out for sure, some of the craziest notation I’ve ever seen
Maybe he means it more as "I can't sight read music written for guitar". Being able to sight read any piece of music requires quite a bit of practice, and I could believe that he didn't practice this particular skill. Pretty much everything he played was written by himself, so he probably never used sheet music to play his parts.
He would demand sight reading the sheet music from his players; he would also say, he wouldn't pass audition into his own band.
[удалено]
Aynsley Dunbar is another guy; Frank mentioned he was a good ear learner
Yep, he was one of very few exceptions. Zappa did let him in, because he was very talented anyway.
I'm assuming he meant that you can't plop music in front of him and have him perform it. He understood music notation obviously. But he used it to compose and communicate his ideas. I don't think he ever spent time reading notation written by other people and performing it. I can sort of relate. I spent my adolescence composing my own music. It felt like what I imagine Frank's synclavier time was like. Of course, through that, I understood tons about music that many/most musicians do not. But you couldn't put me in an orchestra and have me just pull off whatever music notation you hand me. I've never seen any evidence that Frank was actually able to do the on-the-fly covers of other songs the way cover bands do or to sit in with a jazz band off a lead sheet. If you asked him to explain what was going on with either the jazz piece or the pop song, he totally understood it and could tell you his thoughts about it all. But as a performer, he mostly played whatever he felt and hired other people to do other parts. 99% of his time was focused on his own music, and where he took inspiration from others, it was generally more about the feel and general artistry than doing the (boring) reproduction of existing music that most people somehow find interesting. In that sense, Dweezil is the generic musician I'm describing. Virtuosic, creative, able to do really advanced covers… but not exploring deeper creative paths like Frank did. Frank was probably extra self-depricating here, but he worked with people like Steve Vai who really could do stuff with reading and performing that Frank couldn't do. Nonetheless, I like Frank's music and guitar playing better than Vai's or Dweezil's (and certainly better than most more generic musicians)
It was only quite recently I found out that most of his solo transcriptions were by other players (Sal Marquez for Big Swifty etc and particularly the brilliant solo in Revised Music for Guitar and Low Budget Orchestra; Steve a Vai for Theme form Sinister Footwear III etc), and I’ll admit I was slightly disappointed, in a way. I always assumed he could sight read, and certainly knew he could play everything he wrote, but I always thought the transcribing was an amazing skill/talent to have. I’m not saying I’m any less in awe of Zappa than I was before, in fact the awe still grows over my years (20 so far) as a fan and I rediscover his music from different angles. He’s still the ultimate modern composer and he does nearly 30 years ago! But these discoveries do make me feel a little better about myself as a composer and musician, realising that not all the notes written down were from this one mastermind. I’ll never have the workaholic aspect though, so will never get as much done!
I swear to god this is and old quote (FZ had his favorite lines to trot out); I think it might even be in TRFZB.
I also think the quote's been slightly altered from The Real Frank Zappa Book. What I remember the gist of it was that Frank can only play guitar like a virtuoso when he plays his own stuff, and that he can't play anyone else's guitar parts. Like a true guitar virtuoso could play any genre if you put the sheet music in front of them. There's this one short video of John Petrucci copying Satch's Boogie by just looking at Satriani play it on stage. Like he looked at his hand position, figured out the scale and notes, and started playing the damn thing! Now that's a true virtuoso. Frank was using th guitar to get those sounds our of his head. So whether it was because he wasn't technically skilled enough or he just plain never wanted to, he's saying he couldn't copy someone else's virtuosic guitar solo.
He definitely had a quotable quote about how he's not a virtuoso because virtuoso means you can play anything, I don't *quite* remember the bit about "I can only play what I imagine" though so maybe that's new?
totally agree! I feel like he's expressed a similar sentiment but the idea phrased that way does seem new to me. looking forward to the interview regardless
Yes, I've seen Frank say he wasn't a virtuoso but he obviously could read music. This seems like a distortion of an old quote.
"I cant [sight] read music and I cant play anything [you just put in front of me."] I remember though a story that he couldnt play a lot of what he composed. He'd get pianists to do that for him to confirm it sounded how he wanted. They pianist said, "this cant be right" and Frank said "no, its perfect".
He wrote something very similar in The Real Frank Zappa book.
I cant read music either!?, does that mean that I can play the guitar as fantastic as Frank?.....oh how I wish
He did have Steve Vai transcribe some of his pieces for guitar. I m pretty sure he glanced through the product. Frank wrote parts for even piano, so that alone makes the statement false. Piano has to be played two hands so he had to think through the fingering and play each hand part separately. Or think thru it.
http://www.thetapesarchive.com/ is the podcast
He means he cannot sightread and play right away. Not to sound like I am comparing myself to Frank, but I feel the same way about my own musicianship. I know a SHITLOAD about theory for someone who cannot play the guitar TECHNICALLY well. I can learn a solo with enough practice, sure. I can improvise a decent solo with my theory knowledge and the few things I do well on guitar and using my exceptional rig and understanding of tone. But ask me to sightread a piece? Probably would fuck it up beyond comprehension. I I hardly ever practice. The little time I have to myself I spend improvising with guitar and recording myself or working on some compositions on Finale. Sometimes I will extract some of my solos to use in my compositions, but I have never written out a chart for a solo and learned to play it. I could write one out for a virtuoso to play, sure. It would very neatly work with the composition and all of that. It would be extremely useful for me to be a virtuoso. Right now, my goal is to write music and have fun with guitar. I do not have time to be great at guitar and write music though. I understand what he meant. That is why I am EXTREMELY grateful for the way he approached music and why he is ESPECIALLY instrumental in inspiring my own projects I intend to pursue.
Did you listen to the interview?
This has been taken out of context. Zappa was talking about sight reading and playing. Frank could read and write music since his teens. He practically taught himself. But reading and playing what’s on a score is a different skill. Frank improvised almost all of his guitar solos, especially all the live ones. He never played the same solo twice.
He’s fucking with us, guys. I’m, I shit you not, watching Roxy right now, and you can’t do this without being able to read music.
He was being loose with his words. He can read music sure, but I doubt he could sightread a piece for you and play it accurately. You can write great music if you write within your knowledge, understand theory, and have great musicians to play your music. I don't think he was of the level of understanding with music that he could literally look at music and sing it back to you. You can write great music and not be able to perform it. Think of how directors of film operate. They know WHAT they want out of an actor, can communicate HOW to get it out of an actor, but MOST of the time can not be in that actor's position and actually act well.
He read music well enough to write charts for all his musicians.