Bass Line 5

Çağlayan Y ı l d ı z b

Bass Layn- Bass Line No5

About Gear

Let me tell you that you can find my column from last issue and all my lessons at www.caglayanyildiz.com, and once again get straight to the point.

In this issue, instead of the Music theory-and-practice lessons I have been writing for years, I would like to share my very boring thoughts on “gear”. By “gear” I mean (the customary sense, not “custom”… ugh, I really forced that) both the instruments themselves and all their accessories, from effects units to Music software.

Musicians are mad. Musicians are obsessive. One of their foremost obsessions is the “gear” involved in their Music. That is why all Music magazines, including this one, a ton of books, heaps of internet forums and so on overflow with pages of “gear” reviews, modifications, advertisements, best-of-the-year contests, polls, product comparisons and artists’ individual “setups”. “Gear” is a substantial industry, and like every industry it throws its full weight at its target audience.

The ads are practically pornographic. “Gear” is presented as an object of pleasure. As though the sole meaning of our lives were sitting right there in the middle of the page. Photographed by professionals from magnificent angles in magnificent lighting, these devices make our mouths water (our fingers sweat), and we imagine we will be happy when we own them. We imagine that this “device” is a portal, that our Music, technique, means of expression and sounds will leap into an entirely different dimension. (“How beeeautiful you are, deviiice, you’re the ooonly one, deviiice”- Azerbaijani Folk Song)… We invest great hopes in Version 59. of the device whose Version 58. we already own and are not particularly happy with. Since this or that musician we admire and take as a model also uses this “gear”, we are certain we will get good results from the brand. And when the mass-produced “gear” on the market is not enough, after endless research and throwing money around we even have our own “signature gear” made.

Whenever we meet musicians using the same or similar “gear”, we immediately enter a secret, rare, coded ancient language, like Elvish or Entish, causing everyone unable to join the conversation either to leave immediately or to writhe with the urge to escape.

Yet as we all know, but fail to act as though we know, “gear” is just a vehicle. Speaking of vehicles, perhaps comparing “gear” to an actual vehicle, a car, would help me explain what I mean.

Although a car is basically a “vehicle” that takes us from point A to point B, for some people it is a power toy, a fetish object, something to show off. It is true that some cars can take us from point A to point B more comfortably, faster, more safely and more enjoyably. What really matters, though, is where points A and B are: the “journey we embark on”… where we go, how we go, what we experience along the way, what we make our fellow travelers experience, what we make people looking at our travel photos experience…

Let me try to explain with a few examples: there are journeys in very expensive 4x4 off-road vehicles from very expensive living spaces to very expensive entertainment venues; these journeys are even made every day because no better journeys are known. In car magazines, these vehicles are advertised in photographs climbing steep rocks like mountain goats, bursting triumphantly out of seas of mud, one wheel spinning freely over a drop of hundreds of meters. Yes, these vehicles really can make these arduous journeys comfortably, effortlessly and with flying colors. But if their owners’ outlooks/lifestyles are so limited that they would not dare, or would not deign, to embark on these adventures, the “vehicles” will see neither steep rocks, nor seas of mud, nor precipices. The story they tell is limited to journeys from the city’s “exclusive” living spaces

to its “exclusive” workplaces and “exclusive” entertainment venues. These stories are fairly boring, barren and suffocating to everyone (apart from those who live a similar life, or cannot but aspire to). No mountain wind blows between their lines; no mud flies, no scent of flowers drifts from high valleys. The “vehicle” goes on living (goes on dragging out its life), far from the “purpose” for which it was made. (If absolutely necessary, one could burst out with a revolting slogan here, something like “Don’t drive it to despair; drive it somewhere.” But it isn’t necessary…) I find this very sad; the 4x4 owner does not…

At the other end of this example might be enjoyable, adventurous, uncomfortable journeys in utterly battered, scruffy “vehicles”, so relaxed that the discomfort goes unnoticed. What matters here is the “spirit of travel”. There is saying “Let’s go” and going. There is “So what if we get into trouble, man? We’ll get out somehow.” There is Music coming from a poor sound system that reflects the day’s mood, meaning, importance and fun. There is a camping stove, a grill, a kettle. There may be a thermos and sandwiches, and sandwich ingredients too. Depending on the “vehicle’s” capacity, there may be blankets, sleeping bags, a tent, even an inflatable mattress and so on. In the “vehicle” there is “family”, or “dear friends”, or peaceful solitude. The journey taken and the story lived are simple, sincere, enjoyable (or enjoyably unenjoyable) and direct. No one cares about the “vehicle”; after all, it is just a “vehicle”. It is what we have, and we go wherever it can take us. If it cannot climb the rock the mountain goat climbs, we get as close to that rock as we can. Better than staying in the vicious circle our poor 4x4 inhabits in the city. Problems arising from the “vehicle”, their solutions (one way or another) and their lack of solutions are all part of the “journey”.

There can be many variations between these two examples. Without the “spirit of travel”, our scruffy vehicle may live in an even worse vicious circle than the 4x4 in its own boring/suffocating life. With the “spirit of travel”, our 4x4 becomes a vehicle for the purpose it was made for, traveling comfortably, enjoyably and safely to places the scruffy vehicle cannot reach. Of course, if you are a serious traveler, for 1/4 of the price of the 4x4 you can have an old truck modified to travel the world, learn a little engine maintenance and so on, and set yourself loose on the roads. You can set foot where very few people have, living and filming your own documentary. There are infinite choices and variations between all these examples, infinite journeys.

But in the end, the “vehicle” is always the “vehicle”; what matters is always the “journey”. Personally, on social networks I am interested in friends who share photographs of their interesting “journeys”, rather than their “vehicles”.

“I dunno, I hope I haven’t ruined this issue’s lesson just because this vehicle idea occurred to me. But adventurers with the spirit of travel can look at the parts of my earlier lessons at www.caglayanyildiz.com they haven’t got through yet.” Mumbling something along those lines, I make a swift exit from the scene (in a “vehicle” of my own)…