Slash Art

 

Slow Train Coming--Bob Dylan (Music/Sculpture)

In harmony there are what we call "slash" chords--for example D/F#, a D major triad with F# in the bass, the first inversion. Or C/D, which is a C major triad with D in the bass or a D11 chord. D/C is a D major triad with C in the bass, or a third inversion dominant. D/C can also be a polychord with two major triads superimposed.

Use of metaphors allow us to overlap domains on the Venn diagram. Musicians are very flexible: cognitively they're able to do many different things, which arise from curiosity. The same things that drive a young musician to want to keep up with the instrument and to be enthusiastic about it comes from curiosity.

I recall an interview with Pat Metheny where he said that when he first started playing music he became curious about everything. Without a college degree, it was his "University". 

 

My first access point to music--as it is for most musicians--was the first sight of a guitar. I had a friend that had a guitar in his house and I just was immediately drawn to it. I had another friend that had an organ and I just loved playing it as well. Somehow language overlapped, especially with rhymes and wordplay and the rhythms which emerge from it, which created a superimposition (slashing) of writing and composing. 

 

When Geddy Lee was writing his bass book he had interviewed Bill Wyman, who didn't even want to talk about basses because he's been into other stuff like archaeology and writing his own books. It's natural to want to explore the world "intersectionally". One thing is going to lead to another. It works the other way around as well:  Rock 'n' roll in the 60s was largely written by kids that were in art school. 

 

"Slashing" domains allows one to identify common elements which a singular focus may obscure or push away as being irrelevant. In fact, it may be a more efficient way to work because it may allow the hemispheres of the brain to rest, and be more effective in problem solving or putting them into an incubation mode.