Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup makemicromusic MMM Fifth Anniversary -- proposal

Dear MMM Community Sisters and Brothers,

As one of the people involved in the founding of the MakeMicroMusic
endeavor, I am writing as the fifth anniversary of our forum rapidly
approaches to invite the consideration of certain operating procedures
that might make this forum more hospitable both to participants old
and new, and to our creative musicmaking endeavors.

The MMMDay project and its offshoots suggest what we can accomplish
together. The following ideas are submitted as one possible step
toward a new consideration of our mission and a building of consensus
as we seek to lend our creative energies to each other and to
newcomers.

(1) Focusing specifically on musical pieces posted
by members, or on precompositional sketches and
the like, would emphasize our mission to _make_
microtonal music.

(2) Having theoretical comments or discussions tied
to specific pieces would at once reinforce this
focus on making music, and place the accent on
what people are actually doing and can explain
with the benefit of first-person experience.

(3) More generally, directing comments to what we are
actually ourselves doing -- with tuning systems,
computer operating systems, etc. -- can make our
posts more informative while avoiding the kind of
conflicts which can arise from general comparison,
stereotypes, and open-ended debates.

(4) If MMM were distinctive as a tuning forum in its
emphasis on first-person sharing and assistance --
not that these are bad elsewhere! -- this would
allow other groups to continue to serve as forums
for open-ended theoretical discussions or debates
not necessarily tied to a specific musicmaking
project or endeavor.

(5) If we had a norm of responding to questions about
a given tuning system or family of systems by posting
examples of pieces we like in the queried system(s),
possibly with theoretical commentaries closely tethered
to the pieces, and tending toward private e-mail or
other forums for more general discussions, we might
underscore the uniqueness of this group.

Often the sport of "microtonal debate" seems akin to assessing the
"goodness to fit" of a given outfit of apparel without knowing who is
wearing it or why. An alternative ethos, which I hope people in MMM
will consider, is: "If the shoe fits in a composition I've written, or
that someone else has written and made available, post it."

Similarly, if I write an account of what musicmaking is like with a
command-line Linux system, this wouldn't necessarily serve as a direct
example for someone using or seeking a GUI system (Windows, Mac,
Linux, etc.) -- but might at least be amusing, and give an idea of the
diversity of solutions out there. Of course, that account would be
made possible by incredibly generous people such as Jon Szanto, Aaron
Johnson, and Jacky Ligon, who have helped get me to where I am.

A final point: while the original idea of MMM was to keep posts rather
short, longer essays of an expository kind that tie in with musical
pieces or sketches might actually promote the special purposes of this
forum as defined almost five years ago. Telling how one came to write
a composition in a certain way can encourage others to share their
perspectives on their own pieces -- or possibly to comment on
something said by a performer or composer of a piece that strikes a
chord as to their reaction as a listener.

Maybe some discussion could reveal what directions a consensus might
run in; and again, thanks to all who made MMMDay possible!

In peace and love,

Margo Schulter
mschulter@...

MMM Fifth Anniversary -- proposal

🔗Margo Schulter <mschulter@...>

🔗akjmicro <aaron@...>