“It’s easy to get sidetracked with technology, and that is the danger, but ultimately you have to see what works with the music and what doesn’t. In a lot of cases, less is more. In most cases, less is more.” – Herbie Hancock
I think it’s so interesting that such an innovative musician who has been able to maintain his notoriety for so long because of how he is able to stay relevant, mentions the danger of technology in terms of music. Herbie is known for experimenting with different musical genres, mixing sounds and influences from other types of musics and cultures, utilizing different types of technology. With this type of approach in creating, there is a great potential to throw too much sonically at the listener or audience.
Some musicians might be tempted to play or insert as much as they can, Herbie cautions to go with “less.” For many musicians, this isn’t a new concept; I, myself, always appreciated a more simplistic approach in lyrics, melody, and arranging. However, it’s not something you would expect from a musician like Herbie Hancock, just based on his music alone. The listener tends to automatically fill in the spaces that a vocalist or instrumentalist leaves when playing less, so over-playing can become chaotic very quickly.
This isn’t to say that sometimes the music doesn’t call for more. Depending on the mood you are trying to create or message you’re trying to convey, the arrangement might need more instruments, more voices, or more sound just in general. Technology can definitely aide in this, having the potential to add synthetic sounds either during the compositional stage or even after the final recordings have finished in the studio. However, the thing that comes to mind when reading this quote by Herbie, is to try to avoid adding the extra note, instrument, or voice if you don’t need it. Many times music doesn’t need much in order to move an audience or listener, and we, as musicians, should try to remember simplicity first when creating, before trying to add more to a song just for the sake of complexity.