The Accomplishments of Guitarist Trey Anastasio
Uploaded by spootyhead on Feb 19, 2007
The Accomplishments of Guitarist Trey Anastasio
The Muse Award should be given to one who goes about something in different and original ways. This award is for one who expresses them self individually, as creativity is the way an individual solves a problem or creates something. It isn’t an innate ability, but the truly creative are those drawn to their field by a drive that naturally pushes them deeper and beyond. Creativeness plays a very big role in the arts. Creativity must be unique and original, while to society, art has to be relevant to the time and culture. The usual and predictable cannot be considered art in a given culture and the outrageous will not be accepted either. Furthermore, the arts themselves involve the act of creation, which itself takes a creative mind. A truly creative mind can find a fine line between these and create a new way to approach and create.
In music there is a big distinction between the rules of composing and the art of breaking the rules of theory to make something great. In jazz, the great ones succeed by bending and breaking these rules to bring their sound to a different level, whereas rock and roll is judged on sound and simplicity. Phish’s Trey Anastasio deserves the Muse Award for the way he has developed and changed music with creativity unlike few musicians before him. He presents jazz guitar in a very friendly fashion, that isn’t jazz or rock. He has incorporated several other genres of music into his guitar playing as well, and in a manner that exemplifies true creativity. Also, one of the most creative song writers ever, writing deeply mythical lyrics, Anastasio has captured a cult across America since the late 80s.
Anastasio grew up in New Jersey, where he began to teach himself how to play the guitar while listening to his favorite records. His mom was a children’s writer and he occasionally would help her. This had much influence on his music. He went to the University of Vermont where he started Phish and then transferred to Goddard College, also in Vermont. Here, he studied music composition under Vermont composer Ernie Stires, while still playing with Phish (Mocking Bird Foundation, The). For his senior project, Anastasio wrote a musical production called “The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday.” It is more commonly known as Gamehendge. He wrote it as a...