Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup makemicromusic re quality time

Hey all!

Thanks to all for humoring my admittedly non-tuning-related musings about
music creation and time management! Seems like most people can relate to
at least some aspects of the issue. Some comments:

** From: Kraig Grady <kraiggrady@...>
"Inspiration goes a lot further, so finds out what
keeps you going , even if it is a LIE, Even a Brian McLaren LIE. "

Not totally sure what you mean by this, Kraig, but that capitalized "LIE"
looks like some great tuning acronym just waiting to be coined and entered
in to Monzo's dictionary! What could those letters stand for? Some new
scale? Any takers?

"If one has only pieces, then in pieces give -Goethe"
"thats all any of us can do
and is more than enough"

Thanks, Kraig! That's beautiful.

** From: Rick McGowan <rick@...>
"At one point I decided that our modern commercial
culture is mostly a wasteland. I cut all TV, newspapers, magazines, and
other stupid stuff that's full of trashy advertising anyway (and is only
really designed to get people to consume more dreck). If you watch any
television regularly, but you also want time for music, that's my first
suggestion. Turn off the evening news, the late show, and the re-runs of
Star Trek. My motto is: "if it's really important news, I'll hear about it
eventually by word of mouth, just like my Great-Great-Grandparents did".
They had time for the good stuff. Now I've backslid and I do watch a few
movies & read a lot when I should be composing or writing novels..."

I enthusiastically agree with almost all of this.
(OK, well we do occasionally watch X-Files....)

** From: "Jonathan M. Szanto" <JSZANTO@...>
"Lurking is incredibly undervalued in society - if only more people would
take the time to just listen!"

Yes! I think most people would rather talk than listen and learn. Some
internet groups actually discourage lurking! One yahoo group (discussing
the works of author Charles Williams) I subscribe to actually states in its
description "This e-list is open to all, but lurking and trolling are
frowned upon", as if lurking and trolling were somehow similar damaging
behaviors!

"...Have everything ready for you. Show up on time. Do it."

Thanks for all your practical suggestions, Jon.

** From: "Jim Cole" <jimcole@...>
Subject: Re: quality time

"I would know - if I only had memories intact of that period! "

Kind of an incoherent blur, isn't it? But there is light at the end of the
tunnel. (Hopefully it isn't the oncoming train...)

"Somewhere around the time after Amanda was born I started to
ritualize the times I lulled them to sleep with spontaneous singing.
It wasn't always pretty nor even remotely "lullaby" stuff in the
usual sense..."

Wonderful. I'm sure everyone on this list is deeply envious of your girls!

> Obviously personal organization and self-discipline are major
factors, and
> I don't claim that I always manage my time optimally.
"Who does under extreme sleep deprivation? I have never thought of
myself as very organized or disciplined to begin with, but having
little ones really did in what little I had!!!"

I can tell which people are parents just by the tone of the responses!
Actually the sleep deprivation isn't so bad these days. But the past year
I've gotten sick several times and I know it's just because of not enough
rest, since normally I never get sick! Not to mention the worst-ever
allergies this spring/summer...

** From: jpehrson@...
"I think it really is important to discuss when people find time to
compose. This is an important topic, and I would say that there are
fewer people who have unlimited amounts of time to do this than one
might suspect. I think there are *very* few people like that. "

I may have overstated the impression that everyone on this list has nothing
to do all day but play and compose. I know that's extremely rare, even
among those "full-time" musicians... I remember reading Robert Fripp
stating that as a professional musician he spends around 5% of his total
working time actually playing or creating music in between all the
business-related stuff.

"And... the Tunings Lists... "

I usually at least skim through the TL's to see if there is anything
specific of interest but I don't invest time into lots of interaction. The
computer is probably not too huge a time-waster for me, but I should cut
down a bit. For myself anyway I can spend a lot less time reading 20 pages
than writing just one page. (Unfortunately I have a tendency to read my
email but forget to reply to it...)

** From: nanom3@...
"Here's my advice. Whenever you can sleep, do. Cumulative lack of
sleep has a dehibilitating effect. "

As I said earlier in this post I have unfortunately experienced the effects
of this in the past year.

"And hire a sitter , even if its just for a few hours, once a week and
spend some quality time with another adult, like your spouse:-)"

Yes. Actually my wife and I spend lots of time just recovering when
possible. My own stress level is minor compared to my wife who is with the
kids all day! By the end of the day she is in dire need of conversation
with an intelligent adult. Failing that, at least she's got me! :)

"Use a little portable tape recorder for ideas and hum in it whenever
a tune comes to you. You'll be amazed how quickly you can recreate
the ideas from that, even years later."

I will keep this in mind!
But from the wonderful mp3's I've heard I would much rather carry around a
tape player with your voice singing on it!

** From: "David J. Finnamore" <daeron@...>
"you can use the built-in sound recorder and the
cheap little mic that comes with it"

(By the way, my employer makes that cheap little mic. But I hesitate to
comment on it one way or another from my work email...)

"Hey, Kris, come to think
of it, you could record you and kids and all for a Cage-esque
aleatoric thing! Little kids are incurably microtonal :-)"

No, you mean "little kids are incurably aleatoric"!!!

Actually I was going to try to upload (to my own ISP space) an example of
my microtonal daughter's abilities. Maybe this weekend...
---

Due in part to this list exchange last night I actually felt inspired to
stay up late and play around with some very nice 11et melodies I started
exploring on guitar almost 2 years ago. Rest assured I'll post something
up something when/if it's presentable. (Along with a lengthy diatribe
about how it proves that all music theorists are Nazi-Stalinist
totalitarian cultists!)

Again, thanks all! Hopefully others have gotten a lot out of this
discussion as well!
kp

re quality time

🔗kris.peck@...

🔗Kraig Grady <kraiggrady@...>

🔗Paul Erlich <paul@...>