HEllo Ardith,

On Sat 2039-May-14 23:32, Ardith Hinton (1:153/716) wrote to Richard Webb:




AH>           Uh-huh.  And if a student asks you to help him tune his
AH> drones you do *not* want to do it in a small practice room.  I made
AH> that mistake once, when I was young & foolish.  I won't do it
AH> again....  :-)))

  INdeed.  Still remember working in the studio, guy
brought in his own drum kit.  AS I'm wrapping some hardware
to silence its rattles he hits a rack tom right next to my
right ear.  


RW>  GOod plan.  Makes the parents feel better too when they
RW>  hear something they recognize .


AH>           Agreed.  I imagine you've used the same principle in your
AH> own work... and I've noticed the conductor of our community band
AH> doing it as well.  We play at a lot of nursing homes where the age
AH> of the audience is fairly predictable & we use a book of folk songs,
AH> hymns, light classics etc. in our warmup.  Chances are the "older"
AH> crowd will recognize at least one of any three numbers....  :-) 

I do that often, try to give any audience a little something for everybody. 
Whether it's a prog rock band adapting a
familiar folk tune, or playing a prog number at the jazz
lounge piano gig, much to the chagrin of a restaurant
manager in NEw ORleans where I played their nice STeinway 6
days a week for awhile.  ABout the time he and I went round
about that one I was talking to one of his waitstaff one day about some
customers who sat for quite a long time without
waiter trying to sell them desserts or drinks.  Mr. Manager
and I had a couple of discussions, and he found out that my
study in college was hotel restaurant management.  HE asked
me why I didn't work in the industry, and I told him that
when I did I found out I didn't like 7 day weeks, sometimes
12 hour days.  tHen I pointed it out to him as I'm selling
his cashier  $100 worth of small bills one night during
Mardi Gras, which came from my tip jug .

RW>  ONe thing that helped me was the older kids at the
RW>  school for the blind, where ad hoc combos of musicians
RW>  were as ubiquitous as sandlot baseball among
RW>  neighborhood sighted kids.


AH>           Ah... thanks for the clarification!  I wasn't sure in
AH> which order you attended which school because I've known various
AH> people who for various reasons transferred to a more specialized
AH> environment later.  At residential school you would indeed encounter
AH> a variety of kids, and you'd also have an opportunity to get to know
AH> them in a way you wouldn't if everyone was returning home at night.
AH> One of the things I appreciate about the schools I went to is the
AH> socioeconomic mix I found there.  Although I didn't have the same
AH> opportunity you did to join ad hoc combos, I learned to get along
AH> with people from various walks of life... and I learned that they
AH> tend to have different tastes in music.  My only regret is that
AH> figuring out what works for me took so many years because the
AH> classical snobs & those of decidedly more plebian tastes occupied so
AH> much bandwidth.  :-/ 

Indeed.  I found there was something from all of it I liked. YEs, being born
blind my parents wanted me to get literacy
and other skills that I'd truly need my entire life, and did it, in spite of
the system I hate to say.  This is because
at the period of time I began my education there was a lot
of experimentation going on, not all of it for the better
for the children.  That's another story, and another thread
if anybody's interested >    A lot of opportunities to learn about
various styles of music, and good ear training.


RW>  now in middle age I find myself reluctant often to explore
RW>  the unfamiliar, being just what I criticized my parents for
RW>  being in fact.

AH>           The upside of middle age is that we already know what
AH> suits us & have the gumption to be who we are regardless of whether
AH> or not others approve.  The downside is that we can easily become
AH> set in our ways to such an extent that we resist trying something
AH> new.  As I grow older, I find myself becoming more like my mother. 
AH> But FWIW I also understand more about what made her tick... [grin]. 

INdeed this is true.  A little over a decade ago I remember
being invited by a dj friend over to audition some not
mainstream rock music he'd acquired from somewhere.  A
friend of mine and I sat there and listened with him to one
or two cuts from each album, and after about an hour of
listening to our commentary he left the stereo silent,
looked at us and chided us about being hypercritical.


But then, a couple of weeks later, I came back to him and
told him about which groups he'd played that stuck in my
memory, one or two with the good old fashioned brain worm of the song he'd
played that evening.  YEs, I made notes of
which groups he'd played, and which songs.
And now, before the rain guess I'd better go outside and see if I can get my
new (to me) van organized so that we can
load and unload Kathy's wheelchair easier.  SHe's still got
to wait to carry her more comfortable one until the bench
seat/bed in the rear comes out and goes into storage, which
can't happen for a few days yet until a friend of mine meets me there to get
the section of radio tower I'm giving him
out of there, so that the seat will fit .

Regards,
           Richard
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 * Origin:  (1:116/901)