Watch out....

I agree with theory and ear, you need both.

This is an argument I have with my wife all the time (she’s a teacher, not music tho).
How the heck can you teach feeling?

Actually, I think feeling can sort of be taught - like the music teacher who said to try to make things sing. After hearing that for a while I suspect many people would get it, and then try to find it inside. :)

Teaching “feeling” is easier than you might think. Examples of well played music helps. I often have my students sing what they are playing on the guitar while they play. This brings a more human aspect into the notes they play with their fingers. It also helps to teach phrasing and breathing with your instrument. These few examples are but the tip of the iceburg since much of what is taught is learned by doing with a good teacher.

Mike

I read music years ago (trumpet,drums,handbells) but now I mainly play by ear. I feel that learning to read music is important but 90 percent of the students I have are ADHD(I don’t think they were breast fed babies) but that’s a whole other topic. Sheet music is the reason SRV&Double Trouble stayed a band. Mr. Bowie slapped the music down and Stevie said “see ya later” right before the world tour. I teach my students to start out playing from the heart,soul & ears and progress to reading tab and sheet music.

Mike, what think your studients about your mechanical arm movement?
I believe you need some techniques improvements…


BTW, it try to was a joke to the teacher (what a good teacher do with this kind of students) :D

Ahhhhhhh…John Lennon. My favorite.

You see, Ali, this is my point exactly. Lennon was well read, literate. and educated. He studied the basics of grammar and writing. He studied more grammar and literature in elementary school than most guitarists will study theory in a lifetime.

This did not stifle the creative abilities that produced the marvelously twisted books In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works. Nor did it hinder him in writing the beautiful poetic lyrics of Julia or twisting it all around for I Am the Walrus.

Music is a language. Most guitarists cannot read a sheet of music as easily as they can the morning newspaper.

Knowledge of theory does not guarantee hit songs or creative improvisation.

However, learning chord spellings rather than just memorizing chord positions on a guitar, scale types rather than just getting locked into the same old lick patterns from the instructional DVD and how those strings and frets relate to the staff can only expand a guitarists horizon not limit it.

dave

NergleAli, I most respectfully have to disagree. Language does more than communicate ideas and feelings - it commands, questions, persuades, and manipulates as well, and I suspect does some other things I’m not thinking of. (I had typed a joke about marriage here, but I think I will delete it… :) ).

Also, I don’t think poets ever ignore the rules of language, at least good ones don’t. Think about e.e. cummings, he never ignored conventions, he used them - his writing would be unintelligilbe without a background knowledge of the conventions he violated. Maybe this is a semantic difference between the two of us, but I think it a very important one for artists in general - much creativity comes from identifying and violating conventions. So in that sense we don’t igonore them, we use them in novel ways. :)

Quote (nergle @ Jan. 19 2005,20:47)
I think writing serves 2 basic puposes; to communicate ideas, and to communicate feelings (and in the second category, I include; to entertain).

Speaking of gramatical rules, your semicolons should have been colons.


Proper semicolon use


Overview of puncuation.

Semicolons are used to join two clauses that could each stand alone as a sentence; colons are used when making lists.

Gotcha.
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

-John
:cool:

Actually, since he was only mentioning and not using “to entertain” shouldn’t it have been "I include ‘to entertain’ "? So it would have looked like this:

<!–QuoteBegin>

Quote
…I include “to entertain”).


:)

Can it be a list if there is only one item?

Quote (nergle @ Jan. 20 2005,18:06)
(although, I remain to be convinced re John Lennon's literary credentials :D).

I've read most of "In His Own Write" and then I realized that the entire book was nothing more than him goofing around, or practicing. It reminded me of how a great artist might have a sketchpad upon which he would "doodle" without really having much of a point. My take on the book is that it is simply John enjoying himself while playing with words at his leisure, and very cleverly at that. It was still fun to read, though.

-John
:cool:

Quote (nergle @ Jan. 20 2005,18:06)
Well John, the pointer you gave me refers to American English, not Scots Laland English, (which incidentally is older than English English). So, I do hope you're not suggesting that I should be bound by the grammatical conventions of a renegade colony! :p


Dave, I understand your point, and I don't disagree with it, (although, I remain to be convinced re John Lennon's literary credentials :D).

But, I still think that rules can be a hindrance to some individuals.

Tom, yes you're correct of course in your list. However, if you look back at my post, you'll notice I used the word "basically".

That is so that I could avoid things like displacement activity, which is when you drop your axe on your big toe, and the only decent reaction is a resounding "BOLLOX!" :D

Ali

:D :D :D :D
Quote (nergle @ Jan. 20 2005,21:46)
John Lennon, Spike Milligan, Shelley, and at times, Sam Clemens and James Joyce. (Should that have been a hemi-demi colon instead of a comma? :().

They play with words, they revel in the sounds of those words. There's no condescending bow towards grammar, it's just the pure unfettered freedom of sound.

Since you asked... What you wrote is not a complete sentence. Here's a better way:

"Artisits such as John Lennon, Spike Milligan, Shelley, and at times, Sam Clemens and James Joyce play with words, and revel in the sounds of those words."

I didn't say "perfect", just "better." Feel free to correct me as required.
:laugh:

-John
:cool:

I think someone here is going to need a colonoscopy…

Ali-nergle, I think you are bastardizing “Glaswegian.” I’d like to see the etymology for that one. :)

This has become the “Spell-checker and Grammer-checker” thread.

:D

It’s all in good fun, my friends.

-John
:cool: