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Just an observation...

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(@noteboat)
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Joined: 21 years ago
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I took the day off today. Because of a student recital and a couple of (solved for now) issues with the business, I haven't had one in about 3 weeks, so my wife is minding the school as our receptionist. It's a good day to stay home too - we're located at the end of tornado alley, and approaching the 20th anniversary of the F5 tornado that leveled Plainfield in 1990; when I talked to my wife a couple hours ago, she said she saw a rabbit flying across our parking lot as today's storms moved in!

Anyway, I'm just chilling today. Played a bit of guitar, of course, but also spent some time watching TV, which I rarely do. And there was a French film on IFC (Vagabond - original title Sans toit ni loi). Since my French is minimal, I'm paying attention mostly to the soundtrack. A lot of it is violin duet.

Now, when I was a kid, I remember listening to music and getting this thrill... I'd feel it surrounding me, working its way into me, and welling up inside. It's hard to describe. And I remember a few years ago someone asked me (maybe here) if I still felt the same way about music as I did when I was a kid.

Anyway, that conversation was in the back of my mind as I listened to the soundtrack. At this point in my own learning, I'm able to appreciate the counterpoint, and notice when the voices are independent and when they're not, and all that technical stuff. I'm almost charting it in my head as I listen.

But on another level, I felt the exact same reaction I remember having when I was knee high.

Music is the coolest thing man has ever created.

I am so blessed to be surrounded by it everyday :)

Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL


   
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 KR2
(@kr2)
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That's why I admire a person who can play a music instrument.

And am in awe of anyone who plays well enough to draw out the emotions that music can evoke.

It's the rock that gives the stream its music . . . and the stream that gives the rock its roll.


   
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 Nuno
(@nuno)
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I think I remember that thread. Somebody asked if an experimented musician listen to the music in the same way that somebody that does not play an instrument.

Sometimes I try to imagine how would be my life if I were deaf. I already worked with deaf people, sometimes I gave talks about Robotics and IA for children and teenagers in associations, but three or four years ago one of my students at the uni was deaf. He always came with the interpreter but at the end of the semester we were able to talk without her.

It made me wonder.


   
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(@chalkoutline)
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Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 157
 

You must have been watching IFC Noteboat. I saw that movie this morning. (I get up way to early)

The music really makes that movie. It helps pull you in.

Great post.

Interview guy: What is the source of your feedback?
Neil Young: Volume.


   
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 Bish
(@bish)
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Thanks for sharing, Noteboat.

That is great insight.

Bish

"I play live as playing dead is harder than it sounds!"


   
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(@blueline)
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Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 1704
 

Great post. I often feel the same way. It is a great feeling too!
I think I remember that thread. Somebody asked if an experimented musician listen to the music in the same way that somebody that does not play an instrument.

Sometimes I try to imagine how would be my life if I were deaf. I already worked with deaf people, sometimes I gave talks about Robotics and IA for children and teenagers in associations, but three or four years ago one of my students at the uni was deaf. He always came with the interpreter but at the end of the semester we were able to talk without her.

It made me wonder.

Nuno, I remember that post. Here's a link to it.
Music Theorem

Teamwork- A few harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of destruction.


   
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 Nuno
(@nuno)
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Effectively! I didn't remember you started the thread.

Thanks!


   
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(@notes_norton)
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Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 1497
 

<...>Music is the coolest thing man has ever created.<...>

+1billion

Thanks for sharing. I'm going to Netflix to see if I can rent that film.

During short car rides I like to play short mixed tunes on my iPod (I have 10,000 songs on it and I call it radio Bob). On long trips I like symphonies.

I played Dvorak's 9th symphony (From The New World) when I was in school, and I have listened to it all my life. When I was young, I listened to it often, and as the years went on, I bring it out 3 or 4 times per year as a nice, old friend.

So I've heard this symphony hundreds of times.

One day on a long car ride I get to this part where Dvorak introduced a new theme (one that I have always loved) and I realized that he used variations of 3 other previous main themes as bass and counterpoint parts. Mixing 4 main themes at once and making them work. It was an Eargasm!!! How could I have never noticed this before??? Most of this symphony is so memorized in my mind that if you played 8 bars from anywhere in the symphony, I could correctly identify it as Dvorak's 9. I had to rewind it a bit and hear it again (something I rarely do in a symphony). It's wonderful to discover new things in music that you are already very familiar with.

And that is the greatest thing about complex music, if the music is good enough, there is always something you never noticed before to tickle your ears. Sometimes it takes a lot of listening before you can notice many of the nuances. So you never get tired of a great one.

Music is the coolest thing ever invented!!!

Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton

Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com Add-on Styles for Band-in-a-Box and Microsoft SongSmith

The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<


   
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(@anonymous)
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Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 8184
 

my first memories of music were always about seeing the shapes of the lines in the air and the interconnections between the instruments and the colors of the sound and the way themes developed, but my dad was into jazz and classical, so that makes sense. i think most of the emotional aspect came later.


   
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(@notes_norton)
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Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 1497
 

I love music. Being a musician is not what I do, it's what I am. My collection has music from all over the world and while I prefer "classical", jazz, blues, and rock, I like some songs in almost every genre. I feel there are only 2 kinds of music, good music (the kind I like) and music made for somebody else's ears.

Notes ♫

Bob "Notes" Norton

Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com Add-on Styles for Band-in-a-Box and Microsoft SongSmith

The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<


   
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 Ande
(@ande)
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Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 652
 

Didn't Duke Ellington say something about "two kinds of music, good and bad?"

I go with that. There's a lot of music that isn't one of my favorite "kinds," but if I stop and listen...sometimes it still has something to say to me.

THanks, Noteboat, for putting up your observation.

I don't make my living making music, or desire to, but my life would be immeasurably poorer if music wasn't part of it.

"Music was the only proof he needed for the existence of God."
- Kurt Vonnegut

Pleasure sharing the music with you all.

Ande


   
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