User:Benwhitingmusic

My name is Ben Whiting. I am a baritone sax player who is currently attending, and about to graduate the Berklee College of Music with a degree in performance. I plan to use Wikipedia to enhance the quality and amount of information about various baritone sax players on Wikipedia.

Meditation – What is music?

It is likely that my definition of music is different then most. I truly feel that being a musician, especially a creative musician implies a sense of deliberateness. To clarify, I mean that it takes purpose and training to organize and execute music, not to diminish the importance of a happy accident. It takes development over time, and the willingness to learn and embrace both yours and others strengths and weaknesses, and to be able to understand the necessity that arises when the time comes to create, be it compositionally or as an improviser. I often use the example of birds and waterfalls or other natural sounds to make my point a little clearer. Natural sounds are beautiful and inspiring and musical, but they are not deliberate. To me, birds are not creating music; they are being birds and doing what they do, as are waterfalls or thunderstorms or any other awe inspiring natural occurrences. They inspire us by the sounds they make and give us the urge to mimic them, and create with them but they are not musicians. As human beings we take those sounds and learn to understand them. We cultivate them, and organize them to take those inspirational sounds that we observed in nature with hope of conveying them to others with the same impact that they had on us. To observe the sunset over the mountains and hear a thunderstorm is a miracle of nature but to create the feeling of the same thing through music is a culmination of observation and execution that only a creative human being can have. It takes the creative genius that musicians have to realize what needs to be created and released from the mind, body and soul and the necessary ability, whatever that may be, to manipulate sound and silence to release what is heard in the soul and heart. It can be argued that everyone is a musician in the same way it can be argued that everyone can cook, or paint. It can also be argued that some of the best music has been created by accident. Though both of these things are true, it took creative intuition to realize that these accidental sounds that were created, be it by a finger slip on the piano or a “wrong note” played by the bass player, and duplicate them so they could happen again and again so that music could evolve. To me the observation of natural sounds and the urge to mimic them, as well as the afore mentioned “happy accidents” are one in the same. They are part of the musicians need to organize for the sake of creating. The end result of this is composition, which is a term I use loosely. I don’t just mean for orchestra or big band, but for anyone from Bach to The Beatles. Music is creative organization based on a need that arises from something that must be released and communicated from a place much deeper then the brain, but it takes a powerful mind to make the dream become reality through formalities like musical nomenclature and the ability to play an instrument, whatever that may be.

My musical background…

I didn’t grow up around musicians, but I did grow up around music. From the time I was 5 years old, my family had always immersed me in music. They were not musicians them selves, though there was a brief period of tuba playing in my fathers past, but they both appreciated music more then many people I know to this day. When asked what I wanted for Christmas one year, my response was “I want a saxophone (To the surprise of my parents).” I received this gracious gift and fell in love with the small squeaky alto sax I was given by my father when I was 10. After a half of a year in middle school band I saw a picture of the vulgar, honest baritone sax and knew that was what I wanted in my life without thinking twice. I have been playing baritone ever since. The reason I decided to become a musician by profession was because of the raw power and emotion emitted by the big band. My dad was always listening to Count Basie or Glenn Miller in the car and I fell in love and became a product of my surroundings. We went to a lot of shows and I started playing in big bands about half way through high school. I fell in love with the music and with the musicians and decided that I was my purpose in life to live in the bloodline of big band music. To this day, I never feel more at home then when I’m sitting in the front left chair of the big band, with my bari around my neck. My outlook on this particular medium for music is simple. There is nothing like being in the room when all of those real instruments are all making sound. The only suitable analogy I can come up with… its like being completely submerged in liquid sound.

The character in my music:

The big band is unique because of its instrumentation. No other ensemble is like it. Five saxes with the ability to double on flute, clarinet and bass clarinet, four trombones, four trumpets, bass, piano, guitar, drums. That’s it. The composers are faced with the daunting task of getting a sound, harmony and textures as rich as an orchestra out of only 15 voices compared to 100. Everyone must be able to improvise and play with the other members in a way that lets the ensemble breath and sing. There is no room for selfishness in this music because every instrument is an integral voice in creating the sound of the music. The genus of big band is so vast that just about everything is fair game. There is the Basie approach which is blues or something similar that swings just as hard, or the Maria Schneider approach which is taking the instrumentation of the big band and creating almost orchestral sounds using modern harmony and a vast array of textures and other compositional elements. Everyone must listen and blend so that the flavors are as subtle as a good soup. Nothing can be overwhelming; it has to be just right, mixed to perfection with subtlety and care. The future is not bright for the big band. At one point in its life it was the most popular music in the world. Woody Herman was as popular as Michael Jackson in each musician’s respective time lines. Now the big band is antiquated and expensive. Though there are a few devoted patrons left, there is a much larger focus on today’s popular music, which is regrettably the way it has to be. I have been told in many different ways by many different people that essentially trying to make a living in a big band is a fools endeavor. However, I can say with confidence that we all do foolish things for love.