Kagetori wrote:Actually, this-MYCUTIEMARKISAGUN wrote:"Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."
Bruce Lee, bitches.
Yes, but adapting and building upon a new martial art style requires learning it in the first place, doesn't it? Otherwise you're sort of floundering around, uninformed and starting from scratch, where you could have been building upon what others have already learned.
I certainly agree that we never want form, theory, or intentional organization to get in the way of music. But that doesn't mean it isn't worth learning what others have done or established in the first place. The key is in attitude: knowledge expands your mind and opens it to new possibilities; it only ever becomes a limitation if you decide "I'm going to do everything exactly this way, even if the end result is horrible".
(Actually, though, that oversimplifies the matter too. A lot of creators find that working within self-chosen limitations can inspire more creativity than having a limitless "canvas" before them. And there's always a surprising amount of variation and personality that results even when one follows rules and formulas rigidly, just due to the nature of human creativity.)
