I have a student.  In real life he’s a dentist.  In his heart he’s a composer.
He first came to me to study Apple Logic, a computer software program that is essentially a digital recording studio in a box.  With it, you can do just about anything you choose in the world of music – record a song, score a movie, write and record a symphony without hiring an expensive orchestra, take it with you on a gig and expand your band from 3 pieces to an 12 piece horn band, and the list goes on and on.

It’s a truly amazing technological wonder, but the trouble is, you have to learn it to use it.  And it ain’t easy.  In fact, they say that the learning curve with Logic is the steepest of all the software DAW (digital audio workstation) systems.  I’ve been working with it daily now for about 15 years and I still don’t fully understand it, though I’m what you might call ‘an expert’.  I can fly on it and I can teach it, but I’m still learning it.

Anyway my student was a music hobbyist who would go home at night from his drills and macabre instruments and write music.  Rather, he would go home at night and fight Logic – and Logic most often won.  He was deeply disorganized in his approach to the technology, but his love for music and the act of creativity was so great that it drove him to this nightly struggle.

And he was talented.  He had the music in him, but he just could not seem to get it out with any degree of professionalism because in his excitement and consequent hurry to create, (and Logic is a vastly creative tool), he forgot to sit down, read the manual, and learn the essentials of the program.  So his music, though most promising, was just all over the place.  In essence, his creativity mind was way ahead of his technology brain.  So his music, though filled with potential, was in no way reaching that potential because he was being held back by his lack of technical skills.

On the other hand one of the big problems of the music world today is technology.  Essentially, software companies have made it real easy to create really average music.  They give you all the tools and even sometimes the basic elements of the music itself in a kit that you can put together quickly and professionally and create a kind of ‘insta-music’ that actually sounds pretty good.  I compare it to painting by numbers.  Another artist sets it up for you and then you fill in the blanks.  But is it truly creative?  Hardly.  At best, it’s a learning tool, but hardly a path to great works.  So average music has become much easier for the amateur to create today by just learning the technology, but average music is, after all, average music.  Today we got lots of it.  Just turn the radio on and give it a listen.

So on one hand we have my student who has great music in him, but can’t release it because of his technological limitations and on the other hand we have many so-called musicians out there who are somewhat on top of the technology, but are floating along on much more technology than inspiration and consequently coming up with already heard and pretty boring stuff.

What to do?  Unify the two.  In all art a balanced unity of technology and inspiration or creativity is imperative for great work.  The master sculptor has to be an expert at wielding his hammer and chisel.  The painter must be in complete control of his brush strokes.  If there is not a balance of the two, I do not believe that there can be true balance in the artful outcome.  As artists we must work to not let one aspect lag behind the other.  A singer who is an inspired actress, but whose voice is not in shape just isn’t gonna cut it in the long run.  On the other hand, no matter how beautiful the voice, how great the instrument, if there is not drama, real emotion, true connection to the material in the performance, the performance does not truly satisfy.

If we, as artists, are wondering what to do to make out work better, I suggest taking a real hard and honest look at the balance between the creative and the technological in our artful endeavors.  If they do not balance, if one lags behind the other, take some time out from production and work on the lagging part and make sure it catches up with the other.  Keep the two in balance.  It’s the surest way I know to reach potential.

BTW, my student has brought his technology quotient much closer to balance now.  He is learning the program and seeing that the technology pays great dividends in the expression of his music.  He’s not in balance yet, he still has far too much urge to rush ahead and leave the technology behind.  You might say that he gets ahead of himself.  He still gets stuck out on his musically weak limb and falls ingloriously out of his tree, but he’s learning and beginning to see the fruits of his technological concentration.  The end result?  His music is getting better.

It makes sense, the balance of the two.  You might even say it’s logical.

Perhaps that’s why it’s called Logic.