The curse

[topaz]

it's all relevant or irrelevant, depending on ones requirements.

[donkey tugger]

You know, I am really in the minority on this board because I actually like reading music theory. Hell I have even written some.

I think that it is possible to think too much, but I do not think that is what most peoples problem is. I think that people are simply too impatient sometimes, expecting music to happen more quickly than it wants to happen.

Someone (was it Fripp?) once said that the point was to use technique to try to recapture innocence.

I have no idea what that means, but I do think that learning about theory, (whether it be the theory of counterpoint or the theory of granular synthesis) is always a good thing. But it's like losing weight or gaining muscle: if you expect overnight results, you will probably be disappointed.

I wouldn't necessarily say it was a bad thing per se. In reality it tends to produce a whole army of widdly graham music school clones playing zx spectrum loading noise steve vai solos as infinitum (at least on the geetar, point taken..).

Stuff is generally much more fun without rules though. Make up yer own, we wanna be free, and we wanna ride our bikes.

Yes, but when your bike stops working, what then???


(And did you realize that you paraphrased the band Queen with that metaphor??

Admit it!!!

When no one else is around, you dress up in 70's style spandex outfits and play air guitar to "Bohemian Rhapsody"!!!


You have been caught!)

Ahh, I thought it was Primal Scream, never mind eh?


usual grumble about daft colonials

[herodotus]

usual grumble about daft colonials

You weren't bitching when we daft colonials saved your limey asses in 44-45 though were you??








Oh, that's right, you weren't alive yet.

[Genja]

Whoops I made typo back there, I meant to say if you think Jazz sucks, not if you think Jazz is great.

I like theory as well too, and I'm a pretty technical Jazz pianist. It's just that if you're thinking theory all the time, especially while playing, it gets in the way of creativity. It's important for the fingers to know the theory, but the mind should be clear while playing, to allow the creativity to flow.

[donkey tugger]

usual grumble about daft colonials

You weren't bitching when we daft colonials saved your limey asses in 44-45 though were you??

Still, you seem intent on making up for being late for the last 2 world wars, by starting this one really early.

[heavyj]

I love to read all that theory goop.

I never think about it!

I wrote this dirge on guitar one time. I loved it. My mom hated it! There was this one chord that kinda made you wanna puke but just for a minute!

Don't even know why I liked it! Later I read that I had been "creating tension" with "direct dissonance"

I told my mom but she was not impressed.

Oh Yeah..... and all those crummy notes I used to play, became "accidentals".

Theory is good......Don't use it!

HeavyJ

[herodotus]

usual grumble about daft colonials

You weren't bitching when we daft colonials saved your limey asses in 44-45 though were you??

Still, you seem intent on making up for being late for the last 2 world wars, by starting this one really early.

Do you know how the word 'jingoism' had it's beginning?

The following little ditty was apparantly quite popular in the London pubs before the Crimean war:

"We don't want to go to war, but by jingo if we do,

We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money, too."

Lovely peaceful bunch you brits are!

[pHz]

being superior to knowledge, did it guide you into your chosen career?

ENTIRELY ... those who can .. doodoo ...

... those who c**t teach ...

slainte rob

[Landphil]

I've been cursed for a long time. I remember how magical music was as a kid and how it would trigger my imagination. Throughout the 60s and early 70s, you would here a new sound about once a month...something you had never heard before in your life, mostly due to the increased use of synthesizers, solid state effects and advances in mixing. The huge flange sweep in "Itchycoo Park", Emerson's lead in "Lucky Man", Wakeman's huge choir sounds, etc...all so amazing since they had never been done before. I couldn't help but just listen and let it take me away since I had no Idea of what they were doing.

Now,after nearly 30 years playing with noise toys, it's rare to here something so powerful that I completely ignore how it was made and just listen without analyzing. I envy my non-musician friends, and it's taken me awhile to learn to keep my mouth shut when they hear a cool tune and not spoil it by getting all technical and explaining how that "cool sound" was made. I wish I could just listen and enjoy like they do. Maybe it's because it's been years since I've heard a sound that I've never heard before in one form or another. Sometimes I wonder if I ever I ever will again.

I think the last time I was emotionally moved by a piece of music was in '91. I was watching a program about AIDS and they had made this HUGE quilted blanket. Each square represented a victim. As they panned across the blanket, the backing music was Bobby McFerrin's "Common Threads". It was haunting. I bought the CD the next day, and even without the visuals, that cut nearly brought me to tears. To me, it perfectly represented the soundscape of time that can't be recalled. . .a sorrowful but peaceful reconciliation of the past.

Now I realize that the reason it had an impact was because there was nothing to analyze. Nothing but voice. No synth patches, no drum compression, no tunings to toss about...just a man's voice. I do hope to feel that again with a piece of music.

Sorry, I went off on a tangent! Yup, I'm cursed.

I'm probably screwed as well!

[xoxos]

it's only silly people really that hear the word "jazz" and think "chords and theory" anyway

[donkey tugger]

usual grumble about daft colonials

You weren't bitching when we daft colonials saved your limey asses in 44-45 though were you??

Still, you seem intent on making up for being late for the last 2 world wars, by starting this one really early.

Do you know how the word 'jingoism' had it's beginning?

The following little ditty was apparantly quite popular in the London pubs before the Crimean war:

"We don't want to go to war, but by jingo if we do,

We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money, too."

Lovely peaceful bunch you brits are!

[o'malley]

it's only silly people really that hear the word "jazz" and think "chords and theory" anyway

Yeah, It's not about chords and theory at all. Some of you talk about jazz as if its an exercise. It is not at all. A book of scale drills is an excercise, jazz is music.

[xoxos]

yeah, but music is life, and for some people, life is a book of drills and exercises :p

then they wanna come here an tell us all about it when they get diplomas and shit.

i'll never forget when some damn bitch out of washington state said "you'd be musically dangerous if you'd had your exucation" and went on to say "until educated, you don't know what you're doing" and not one damn bitch here stood up to tell this f**ker he was full of shit.

oh, i'm sorry, i'll jsut go tell the apaches to shove life up their ass because they haven't got nice white diplomas.

do you understand, man, i'd f**king snap all your damn necks i'm gonig to kill every last one of you, very extremely dead.

[xoxos]

thumbs up, humans!

[donkey tugger]

do you understand, man, i'd f**king snap all your damn necks i'm gonig to kill every last one of you, very extremely dead.

Hmm, I reckon I'd even back greels against you in a fight beardy weirdy boy.

Still, takes all sorts eh Brendan?