There is more to it
Growing up I was a big fan of Jean-Michel Jarre.
As a family we travelled all the way from Devon to London to see his Destination Docklands concert in the pouring rain. I also saw one of his stadium concerts at Wembley many years later (definitely not as good).
I play keyboards badly but learnt to play a number of pieces of his (well the right hand parts anyway).
Recently a link popped up in my YouTube suggestions for a video of a guy called Doctor Mix who breaks down synthesizer tracks. He had done a bit of analysis of the album “Equinoxe” and how it was put together in places.
Watching this I was able to appreciate how ground-breaking the album, and it’s predecessor “Oxygene”, were. He explained the way the different parts were interlinked including different timings and the intricacies of the themes.
I’ve certainly thought in the past “oh it can’t be that difficult to create a piece of music” … and then you listen to this and you realise that “actually there is a lot more to it than you realise”.
I had a similar revelation with football. I used to coach my sons football (soccer) team. I didn’t see myself as a great coach but thought I knew a decent amount about football.
I read the biographies of Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola and the depth they go to in training and preparing for matches and suddenly I realised that “actually there is a lot more to it than you realise”.
Sometimes it is good to not realise how much you don’t know and sometimes it is good to appreciate how good some people are at what they do.
Links
Equinoxe: Decoding Jean-Michel Jarre’s Synthesizer Masterpiece - YouTube
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