Uni of Yorke
MACHINEDRUM: It’s cool you don’t know how to read music traditionally. I can’t read music either so I found this exciting and encouraging. Do you think it’s important to teach ear training when developing music skills?
Thom Yorke: Apparently you can get into Julliard’s music school in New York not being able to read music now. You will have to pick it up but it’s not a prerequisite. So much great music would never have happened without it, but nowadays it’s not as necessary as it ever used to be. When we work with orchestras they can be quite inflexible in understanding rhythms. The rhythm side of it is very strange for classically trained musicians to understand – ideas like swing emphasis – but when you work with jazz musicians or someone like Flea they get it. They can all read music but that’s not where they started, they all started by ear. For me, writing down music is unnecessary. Your work is intricate, dense and very complicated, so to me you’re treating the laptop like a score anyway. x
