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The thing about perfect

Paul's Posts — 27 July 2012

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The thing about perfect

Perfection is an interesting concept and sometimes it serves us and sometimes it doesn’t.

For example when a musician spends their life perfecting their craft to be able to play the music perfectly with note-to-note accuracy it is mostly boring and without soul.

But then there are those musicians who treat the perfection of their instrument as merely a stepping stone to the next level where they then have the skill to play from their soul with the notes nothing more than a guideline – and then it gets magical – mistakes and all.

Perfecting your craft so you can duplicate perfectly what’s been done before isn’t all that interesting.

Perfecting your craft so you’re good enough to transcend the work and create something brilliant is something beyond perfection.

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About Author

Paul McGowan

Paul McGowan is the CEO and co-founder of PS Audio Inc. a Boulder Colorado design and manufacturing company of high-end audio products and services. McGowan has been designing and building high-end products for nearly 40 years. Hobbies include skiing, music, hiking, artisan bread baking, kick boxing and cooking. He lives in Boulder Colorado with his wife Terri and his 4 sons.

(7) Readers Comments

  1. Bassman23

    July 27, 2012 at 6:21 am

    Paul, I agree that some of my favorite music includes “clams”, but you surely don’t mean to imply that flawless performances are boring?
    Those who believe that technique equals art do exist – and their music is unlistenable. But truly magical performances are those where the artist’s soul flows unhindered through the great technique the performer spent years developing.
    Great soul with good to great technique is wonderful
    Outstanding soul plus outstanding technique = transcendence.

    • July 27, 2012 at 6:26 am

      That the performance is flawless AND played with heart and soul that transcends the notes on the page is, indeed, perfection. So no, I am not saying that. But a “flawless” note-for-note performance without soul or heart interjected into the music is boring to me. It’s something a player piano can do.

  2. LarryE

    July 27, 2012 at 8:21 am

    Ah perfection. The unattainable goal. One can strive for the perfection of execution, but as with all other pursuits of that goal, you find that once you believe that you have attained that level you learn otherwise. Is perfection an absolute? Many years ago I was posed a question, “what is truth?” the answer was “truth is.” Regardless of our perception of it truth stands on its own, I think perfection is the same. What is perfection? Perfection is perfect. A performance that embodies both technique and soul is truly a thing of beauty. It generates an emotional response that transcends the normal enjoyment we experience from music. It establishes a connection between the musician and the audience on multiple levels. The fact that this connection can be made even from a recording is the true magic of our hobby. Even more amazing is that the musician also feels it. You know when you got it “right.” I think this is true for many of life’s endeavors. When you build a piece of equipment and you know you got it right, not “perfect,” but right. There is just that feeling, both the creator and the observer/user share a response that for some reason is greater or deeper. In many ways it is that connection that drives the creative soul, not the goal of perfection though it is often couched in those terms, but the connection that we share with the artist be it music, art, or audio equipment. It is what drives us forward to create more. It is a blessing that I am very thankful for.

  3. Soundminded

    July 27, 2012 at 11:20 am

    Perfection is a human concept that by its very nature seems unatainable by humans. In the performance of live music IMO there are at least four critical elements that go into enjoyment which is what the purpose of music is. The first is the ingenuity of the composer of music. Some composers have proven much more ingenious at composing music that is pleasing and interesting than others. Another is the skill of the musicians. The best musicians have mastered the technical difficulties of controlling their insturments to perform the way they want them to. However that’s not sufficient. They must also understand the composer’s wishes, intents, and often add their own interpretation to it. Music is more than what can be written down on a printed page or displayed on a computer screen. Were it merely a technical matter, a machine could be engineered to make music. Then there are the instruments themselves. The best of them are the result of centuries of development and are created by the most skilled craftsmen. Their success in producing instruments that create interesting and beautiful sounds are often the result of secrets handed down and to a degree luck. Finally there is the critical role the acoustics of where the performance occurs that can affect the sound of music adversely or enhance it enormously. Each performance, each listener, each occurrance is a unique experience never to be exactly duplicated again.

    I think of listening to recorded music as at best a filter, at worst merely a facsimile. How good a facsimilie or how transparent a filter depends on prior experience and expectations. My experience and expectations sees the best available as a very strong filter eliminating or distorting many of the elements I find enjoyable to a severe degree. Perfection is not a word I’d use to describe any of it.

  4. Rob

    July 27, 2012 at 5:56 pm

    Great post Paul.I am not sure how many live acts I have seen in the past.Not perfect but just plain ol awesome.Real back of the neck stuff.Musicians pumping away doing their take on an already accepted piece of music. Some tight, some lose and dangerous. To me it is here where I hear the music and why I keep collecting, coming and going and turning up for more.Some of these have been big name bands and many other small room pub playing acts all blowing out steam for a couple of hours to the delight of us all.For me this is just perfect.-Rob

  5. Phil Gan

    July 27, 2012 at 9:09 pm

    How about a rug as a metaphor? Years ago, I was looking for a Persian Rug at a specialist store. I wasn’t excited by much of what the salesman was showing me on the floor, and asked him if there were any ‘special rugs’. His face lit up, and he took me to another room with smaller rugs that had a life (and price) of their own. The wool was of beautiful quality. There were some irregularities in the designs, and the rugs were clearly hand made. I was told that the craftsmen (women?) intentionally introduced these “irregularities”, as “only God is perfect”. The patterns were, in a way, their creators’ signatures, and there was an individuality that was absent from the other rugs (that could well have been machine made). We bought two beautiful rugs.

    Music that evokes an emotional response is what I look for. Horowitz playing Rachmaninov in mono, over a modern, yet soul-less virtuoso who hammers out every perfectly timed note in high def stereo. Mind you, if I could have Horowitz playing Rachmaninov in high def stereo… that would be….sublime.

  6. oliver T. Finch

    July 28, 2012 at 12:35 am

    Since perfection is an utopian concept which does not exist in reality as far as any human endeavour is concerned it would not apply to making music.Regards.

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