Do you prefer visual arts or music?

[MyRedNeptune]

They train their students to follow little symbols on a piece of paper and playing without making a single mistake and by doing that turn them into monkeys. Nobody takes a monkey seriously no matter how well trained. They may impress the "highbrow" crowd but very rarely will they write an interesting piece of music.

That's understandable. Those people are performers, not composers. Sheet music is a tool, it doesn't have anything to do with musical composition.

The way I "analyze" something (which is regrettably rarely) is using my ear to figure out what notes are being played by listening to the colors and how they feel in relation to the harmony. Using only a basic understanding of functional harmony, and not even thinking about "forms" for one minute, you can learn everything there is to know about the piece. You know that you feel the way you do because these notes were used here, the dynamics and articulation were … and it was played over a … chord.

That's a good way to analyze music. The next step would be to find patterns, and patterns of patterns, etc. What do you mean by "forms"?

"Everything there is to know"? As much as I respect your extremism, that is just baloney. How much you need to know is entirely dependent on what you are looking for.

Classical douchebags will shun improvisation as being just random crap and place a higher emphasis on flawless technique and slavish mastery of forms when in fact most of the masters were monsters at improvisation. Bach actually improvised fugues (which is insane).

My favorite is Bach's "Jesu, Meine Freude". I'm pretty sure it was based on Johann Cruger's piece. Have you heard it?

I've written a modest amount of musical pieces

Are you sharing? I'm always excited to hear new pieces from composer hobbyists, and I'm sure other people on here will agree.

Yeah, but that's all stuff you can learn by observing. Then you can apply it intuitively.

The good ol' conservative vs. innovative learning debate. It's true that there isn't really a limit to how much you can learn from experience alone - as long as you're immortal and have time to spare.

You're not supposed to "steal" you're supposed to learn. You have to "steal" it in one way or another, but the way you implement it is totally up to you.

There is a lot of cultural contempt placed on plagiarism, but much of creative learning consists of what can be labeled as "plagiarism".

****** ** people.... Misunderstanding the concept of art as art itself.

What does this post mean and how is it related to this topic and this discussion? ^^