Rudi

$450,000,000 burning a hole in my pocket and no Da Vinci pictures left !

Mantovani (ref: 'Rock is Dead' thread). *%@# its awful Dont believe me? Check this out if you dare.

yes I know what you mean & have those self doubts also. But... We cant honestly decide to feel differently than we feel. My dad liked Mantovani. He was highly critical (and suspicious) of music I listened to. As an self confessed old man I can truthfully say that pop music has always been crap. It was crap before, during and since my youth. Sometimes there is a gem that slips the net. That has always happened too. I know that pop music is not aimed at me, but we all suffer the collateral damage from noisy neighbours, passing car audio and store music (and hospitals as recently reported). Where I disagree is here. I do understand 'new' music. The words not so much, but the music is easy to understand. When I hear stuff I dont understand I try to hear more of it. Always have done. Modern music is simple. I believe that everybody discovers much the same stuff within whatever period they live. It doesnt matter much what period their generation of music occurs in. We make the same musical discoveries as earlier generations, but as individuals. Except for my dad. He couldn't recognise fine music if it was p1ssing on his shoes.

It was a thoughtless reactive suggestion. I appologise. My only mitigation is that JH/WSP are not well known in the uk.

In my (now utterly ruined) iTunes library, my personal genre is called 'Rhubarb'. I didnt care to nail my music to any mast, telegraph pole or hitching post. You can identify music with genre components but no-one can define genre limits because its a wholly artificial construct. Its only a poor attempt to order our thoughts & nothing more. When I perish so will rhubarb. It wont matter because I wont be around to care. When mankind perishes so will music, and it wont matter either for the same reason. I have a suggestion. Open a window. Get some fresh air.

The Southern Rain link reports 'not available' Jenn.

Ive seen McLaughlin before but not Jimmy Herring. Does the new band mean he has split with Widespread Panic?

Are the younger rock bands over? Maybe so. My radar woundn't notice. Its certainly been in a rut since the 70s. It has developed, but it hasn't risen. Jerry Garcia once asked "Are we just going to rehash the whole f*#ing thing again?" He wasn't right but he wasn't too far off either. Loops? To me loops are just rhythm supplements of a couple of bars long. I did enjoy sequencing music in the 90s. It was fun and certainly creative.

its filthy

I have to plead ignorance here. I know what a loop is, and thats all. I'd be curious to hear what happens though.

With 7 of us nothing is very well paid. But at least we play the sort of fun gigs we enjoy

Well without it I would be entirely mute. What is surprising is that my lead playing seems to be eclipsed by my fingerstyle playing (which I've invested less time in). Listeners certainly seem more drawn to my acoustic stuff anyway. I suppose many players use technique as badge. Guitar store staff will still pick up a guitar and insist on playing a lightening arpeggio before handing it to you. You see it on YT also. Its used like a statement of authority. It works on people that buy into this and it reinforces that whole attitude. This attitude is what I am challenging. Can you weigh up a persons musical credentials as simply as this? I dont think so. I watched the (2nd) vid. I do wish some bloggers would script before they record, as few people can just wing it naturally. Very interesting what he said about movie soundtracks. I would love to do something like that despite all the negative warnings.

Yes so have I. In doing so I have become a jack-of-all-trades / master-of-none. I've just tried this. I see what you mean. Seems to sound slightly smoother going downwards. No. It may have been early on (teens) but even then it was a half formed notion. I never learned any technique. I never had lessons. I had to discover stuff on my own, so what I did was never exactly what everyone else did. I commited to learning alternating up & down strokes for legato etc. If anything, the dedication to this blunted my inventiveness. It gets in the way now because I do this too often. Its been the only period (some years!) where technique has been practiced (mostly) for its own sake. I sounded better when improvising before this period. Before and since this period, the music has determined what I learn. When at 17 listening to Dark Star, I realised that Jerry Garcia was playing a major scale with a dropped 7th. It was another 30 years before I heard this described as 'mixolydian'. I practiced this scale because it was used extensively in Garcia songs at that time. Thats why I practiced it. When learning All My Friends Are Gone (again at about 17) The technique came along with it. Such technique is now part of my toolkit. Thats the only way I learn technique really. The whole point I am making is that (apart from the alternating thing) everthing I learn is incidental to trying to play the music. I learn the tunes and the technique establishes itself only through that process. I dont have the patience to do exercises. Well I dont set goals, but if there is a period when no music is exiting me, my playing becomes more neglected and suffers. It is at the moment. I was in a waiting room in hospital waiting room yesterday and there was a radio playing current pop music. It was all female soul diva stuff. I really wanted to turn that radio off. Its part of why I have to actively hunt down music to listen to. Everthing via the regular media is just annoying noise. I think the guys that I was in dicussion with were kind off classic rock / blues players (probably my age) who were of the opinion that modern metal players were the best players because of the (undeniably) incredible techniques they have aquired. That is what I took issue with. Thats why I started this thread.

You can tick more than one box in the poll

On a guitar forum, it became apparent that some musicians believe technique to be the primary (or even the ONLY) component for a player to excel. I offered the opinion that knowledge was more important. This was not understood by one contributor. He asked if I meant knowledge of technique? When I clarified it as 'knowledge of music'. He gave up trying to understand me. It was as if he thought they were the same thing. As I understand it it makes no difference if we are thinking of guitarists, singers, drummers etc. To me techniques are a set of tools we all acquire. Even composers (non performing musicians) use techniques for composition. I think some wonderful musicians get by using a minimum of technique. So is technique there to enable us to access our understanding of music? Or is it something else? Does more technique make for a better musician or is it merely a bigger bag of tools? Sitting on top of all of this is creative expression. If what we do doesn't serve that, then we just rehash everything we have heard before.

Yeah, cheers Rob. Still off my feet for a month or two though.

Arthur Grumiaux (violinist) For songs? Kate & Anna McGarrigle maybe ?

The first since the bands hiatus (close on a year). I barely made it due to calf strain (badminton injury) and remained seated the entire evening because of that. But it was great to get out and play. Everyone played well. Our Alresford hosts danced the night away and were very appreciative. pic 1 : warming up prior to 1st set pic 2 : the band at break before 2nd set

I think that people who actively listen to music, and especially those who study it, become numbed to it after many years. I suspect we hear and assimilate the many subtle things that initially charm us, but ultimately continued listening to the same forms make them jaded. Most music I hear now leaves me cold. Its me that is missing out of course. When I look closer I find that its old forms dressed up in a modified style. In other words 'I've heard it all before'. But younger people are making the same discoveries listening to this music. Its a cyclic thing. I mention this because I now tend to respond better to unusual or experimental forms.

I cant hear anything amiss?!

I use it now as more of a tool (& less for recreation). I just used it today to check what NHS treatment centres were available this afternoon, and yesterday to order some groceries. Though I had to replace my TV a few days ago & now have a 'smart' TV, which is internet connected. I can plug a mouse in and use it for basic browsing, and have taken to checking Rob Chapman/Andertons reviews on the TV now. I suppose we have all come to rely on the internet for research etc. but I happily do without it on holiday for weeks at a time.

Have you done it yet Mahesh?

Thats great news. Blues will obviously get you up & running quickly. Keep us posted on progress

The Variax. Funny thing is that it sounded exactly what I was looking for using just the magnetic pickup. The circuit sounds are pretty good but I haven't used them much. I did begin to create a custom sound shortly after buying. I love being able to place the neck pickup onto the actual fingerboard I see it as principally a studio guitar. The variax circuit should be clean & well behaved, The tuning circuit will be useful for sure. I plan to use a riser on the nut and use it for some slide work. It will also save me having to buy a 5 string banjo. All good stuff.

I was 1st to arrive. The hall is very large with a hard floor, bare walls and inward sloping ceiling, so yes, I knew it was all going to sound horrible. Meeting up with everyone after so long was good, but like always. The camaraderie is there, but socialising with them outside of the band is rare (except for Pete: we went out for a drink last week). I hadn't seen the others since October last year. We are all a year older. Even the youngest of us is grey now. So the sound bounced around and it was hard to hear ourselves properly. Most of the tunes are still solid. A couple of gaps showed, so we know what to work on. We will practice next week also. I cant make week 3 so they will manage without me. After that, the gig will be looming. We may be able to use a smaller room next week. That will help. The equipment seems to age faster than us. I know the PA is lent out a lot to another band, but it looked like it had been sandblasted, with sand embedded in the hard plastic casing of the mixer. What the hell goes on when we aren't there?? The nice thing is that, I now seem able to bar more chords without using my thumb. I always could to an extent, but it made the thumb hurt anyway because the same muscles are being used. The hands are adapting to playing very nicely without thumbs. Amazing what the body can do to adapt. Pain is never welcome but it makes a superb driver for change. Solos from everyone were fresher, more natural. The bass & drums had most problems with everything sounding doubled due to all that reverberation.