I think that "rhythm is the engine of melody" should be on a huge sign plastered on the walls of every practice and performance space where people play music. I don't think that a primacy of rhythm is at all elementary (too easy) , but it should be fundamental to everything we utter on our instrument. Even free-jazz is not free from rhythm. Even atonal music is not bound by a pulse. That famous John Cage "4'33" composition--the whole premise is silence to hear the pulse around you--because rhythm creates the environment that music lives within. I often wonder--at least from a jazz perspective--how music education would look like if we let the drummers lead the discussion, if we placed rhythm as primary and harmony as secondary. If we wrote books on rhythm to the extent that we write books on harmony and theory. If we listened to the adage that rhythm does, in fact, rule the world. I like to ponder these things ;)
I think that "rhythm is the engine of melody" should be on a huge sign plastered on the walls of every practice and performance space where people play music. I don't think that a primacy of rhythm is at all elementary (too easy) , but it should be fundamental to everything we utter on our instrument. Even free-jazz is not free from rhythm. Even atonal music is not bound by a pulse. That famous John Cage "4'33" composition--the whole premise is silence to hear the pulse around you--because rhythm creates the environment that music lives within. I often wonder--at least from a jazz perspective--how music education would look like if we let the drummers lead the discussion, if we placed rhythm as primary and harmony as secondary. If we wrote books on rhythm to the extent that we write books on harmony and theory. If we listened to the adage that rhythm does, in fact, rule the world. I like to ponder these things ;)