Text 300, 92 rader
Skriven 2006-03-27 11:26:09 av Ardith Hinton (1:153/716.0)
    Kommentar till text 283 av James Bradley (1:134/77.0)
Ärende: Music...  2.
====================
Hi again, James!  This is a continuation of my previous message to you:

JB>  Like I told the B-I-L, playing poorly is one of the
JB>  hardest thing for a practiced musician to do.


          Yes.  I'm reminded of scores like MUSIC MAN, where the musicians are
instructed to "play badly" (imitating a bunch of beginners).  I start by using
the skeleton key... i.e. I ignore all the sharps & flats because that's what a
lot of beginners do.  Apart from that... as you say... it's not so easy!  It's
fun, though, when you spend most of your time playing as well as you can.  :-)



JB>  Think of the time we spent perfecting our meter,
JB>  learning the difference between a march versus cut
JB>  time, or a waltz versus six/eight. Now, throw all
JB>  that out, and we play it like trench-town. "Like WA?"


          Hmm... maybe it requires a different skill set.  I'm reminded of the
time when Dallas & I had been asked to play for a demonstration of Carl Orff's
work.  To me it was rather like playing in the kindergarten rhythm band.  This
stuff is written with conventional notation... but I soon found it impractical
to count rests & whatnot.  Like the Suzuki method for violin, it's designed to
be used by kids who aren't cognitively mature enough to understand the theory.
The only way I could make sense of it was to go with the flow & use my ears to
tell me when it was time to do my bit.  That's essentially how I handle jazz &
Latin American music as well.  In many cases the people who created this stuff
were unencumbered by such concerns as the difference between 2/2 and 4/4, with
the result that the hen scratchings we see on paper are only an approximation.
Actors have to interpret the script to some extent, and so do we....  :-)

          I had to laugh when we were playing a baroque piece in the community
band recently... and a certain drummer whom I mentioned earlier didn't get it.
To me it's refreshingly simple.  You play whatever is written on the paper, in
strict time.  It's amazing how many people have difficulty with the concept if
they're unfamiliar with this type of music, though, and the drummer was one of
them.  So finally the conductor said to him "It's like 1960's rock... not like
1990's rock!"  Later on he said to the trumpet section "Don't rush.  Remember,
they didn't have valves in those days!"  And yes, he's a teacher too....  :-))



JB>  When I was dressed like a trucker, the staff and I had
JB>  plenty of laughs.


          Uh-huh.  I found it rather amusing when I first met the principal at
Nora's elementary school.  I was wearing the Gloria Vanderbilt look... jeans &
a tweed blazer.  He apparently considered me a force to be reckoned with.  :-)



JB>  To my point, it's almost like the conundrum (NO pun
JB>  intended.) of being a drummer, AND a serious musician.
JB>  I almost relish underestimation, then I own the drivers
JB>  seat when they hear something closer to brilliance than
JB>  they would expect come from my mouth.


          I can relate.  For many years I drove a Hillman Minx, and Dallas & I
often joked about how you would need a picnic lunch to tide you over while you
were doing zero to sixty mph.  I loved that car.  It could tow another vehicle
uphill at quite a reasonable speed without complaint or haul a thousand pounds
of kibble with only a minor drop in acceleration.  It did have a habit... like
some computer programs... of saying "Do you really want to do this?" before it
responded, but I didn't mind.  And I had to laugh when it beat other cars away
from a stoplight.  Dallas & both enjoy vehicles which don't look like much, to
other people, until after we've left them behind in a cloud of dust... [grin].



JB>  I'm still humble enough, that when a coworker asked me
JB>  to solve a "skill testing question" and I forgot about
JB>  the order of operations, I can still have a great chortle
JB>  over it, and I guess that is the other side of my toast.
JB>  Once they realize I'm not a sluff-off, it surprises many
JB>  to learn I laugh loudest about myself.


          Sequential memory isn't my forte either... sometimes Nora has a much
better handle on the order in which certain tasks must be done than I do.  She
tells me I need a palm pilot.  I say I don't need one as long as I have her to
keep me on the straight & narrow!  I guess, like you, I have enough confidence
in what I'm good at that I don't feel I need to be good at everything....  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)