Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup makemicromusic Esoteric terms

A few posts ago, Dan remarked on the tendency for some folks here to create their own terms and concepts, and how that might make it difficult for more people to be involved in the process of discovering/exploring tuning concepts. It's made me think about how I approach tuning ideas, and music in general. Overall, after 40 years of playing, studying and teaching, what I really want to do is reach as many people as possible, and involve them in music to the best of their abilities, whatever those may be. So, what I try to do is explain musical concepts/ideas in the simplest, most basic terms possible, and then encourage the student to run with it, and use it however it may best fit into their own vision of life.
That includes what I've learned about tuning as well, and I've found, overall, that most people are receptive and at least somewhat interested in non 12 tuning ideas, as well as how some tuning concepts can relate very directly to whatever style they are studying. For example, when I explain how chords move to jazz students (cycles of 5ths), and how that concept is linked in with the spiral of 5ths theories developed by folks like Pythagoreas, and I tell them it's at least several thousands of years old, it helps them understand how simple, really, the underlying concepts of jazz chord theory are...cause it really IS simple. In "Fly Me to the Moon," the progression is Amin-Dmin-G7-Cmaj-Fmaj for the 1st 5 chords; this wouldn't have surprised the Pythagorean bunch at all, it's exactly what they were working with. This sort of chord movement comes up over and over in jazz (and of course a lot of Western music), and once a student "gets" the deeper meanings, they find they can understand the seemingly mysterious progressions found in jazz/pop/theatre-show tunes much easier.
And, of course we work with the bass movements primarily, cause the chord on top of the bass note can vary, but it's still the same idea.
Then, when I teach blues, the concept of the "blue notes" is totally "microtonal," and I try to explain how a lot of those concepts came from Africa, where it may be ok to think of a note as having more than one area where it exists, like the so called "neutral 3rd." And when you bend a pitch in blues, it may well be in a different place from time to time, depending on what the player/singer is feeling at the moment. I've found that 12 year old kids can understand this easily, and they get a hoot out of it. And, I feel it will make them better musicians in the long term, cause they have a more realistic understanding of exactly what's going on when they're playing. It's sure helped me in my artistic pursuits.
So, overall I'm not interested in being esoteric, for the most part, because it excludes many people from being part of what's happening. I have a somewhat simple (not simplistic) view of art...I want everybody that can and wants to, to be a part of this great, mysterious, beautiful and profound process of creating something with their instrument/voice, on whatever level they are capable of, the more the merrier. Art should be accessible to everyone, and I think this troubled planet would be a lot better off if art was at the core of life. And that's why I love teaching/sharing what I do with people, to be a part of helping that to happen...Hstick

myspace.com/microstick microstick.net

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

🔗Margo Schulter <mschulter@...>

> A few posts ago, Dan remarked on the tendency for some folks here to
> create their own terms and concepts, and how that might make it
> difficult for more people to be involved in the process of
> discovering/exploring tuning concepts.

Hello, there, Hstick. Before getting into this discussion which Dan
has opened, please let me express my admiration for your guitars and
the technique and dedication that making beautiful and accessible
music with them involves.

Personally, my approach to MMM is about like this:

(1) Posting music, or commenting on the music of others, should be my
first priority.

(2) When I do find it helpful to explain certain concepts in words,
the explanations might use certain terms unfamiliar to lots of
readers (maybe because the musical styles themselves aren't so
familiar), but should offer some kind of coherent "narrative,"
as Dan nicely puts it, putting the terms into a more accessible
context.

> It's made me think about how I approach tuning ideas, and music in
> general. Overall, after 40 years of playing, studying and teaching,
> what I really want to do is reach as many people as possible, and
> involve them in music to the best of their abilities, whatever those
> may be. So, what I try to do is explain musical concepts/ideas in
> the simplest, most basic terms possible, and then encourage the
> student to run with it, and use it however it may best fit into
> their own vision of life.

Here my first reaction is to reflect that I've been at it almost
40 years myself, and if I were as dedicated to my craft as you are,
I might be a much more accomplished keyboard player.

A complication on MMM, where a variety of world musics mingle, is to
seek "in the simplest, most basic terms possible" to explain a style
that might be very familiar to the musicmaker, but not so familiar
to lots of listeners here.

For example, this short piece uses a mode like the Persian Shur
dastgah with a neutral rather than minor sixth or the Arabic Maqam
Husayni, and a vertical or harmonic structure more or less like
that of a classic 13th-century European style.

<http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/huscond6.mid>

This improvisatory piece is in a classic 13th-century European style.

<http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/MixolydianDiversionTE1.mp3>

Here's another improvisatory piece where, apart from some cadences,
I'm not sure how well I could explain in words what was happening:

<http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/ZarlinoTESketch01.mp3>

And here's a kind of gamelan-like improvisation;

<http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/ForErin.mp3>

What these pieces have in common is that they're in rather different
styles than a song like "Fly Me to the Moon" -- a song I've very much
liked since first hearing it, by the way. It's not so surprising that
different terms and concepts might be used in explaining different
styles. For example, many of the standard cadences I use involve
motion of all voices by step, rather than in direct leaps of fifths or
fourths, although these intervals often play a vital role as the main
consonances, rather like thirds in the kind of harmony you discuss.

One more important point occurs to me in our common search to make
music more accessible: offering explanations that invite questions,
that make readers feel that they're not only permitted but encouraged
to say: "Could you please explain this term?" or "Is this the kind of
cadence that I've heard in such and such a composer or used by such
and such a performing group?"

After reading your post, I'll try to make an extra effort to encourage
these kind of questions from anyone who might be puzzled, or simply
curious -- an effort also urged in a post in an MMM digest I just
received.

Peace and love,

Margo

🔗Carl Lumma <ekin@...>

🔗Gene Ward Smith <genewardsmith@...>

🔗Margo Schulter <mschulter@...>

> >Here's another improvisatory piece where, apart from some cadences,
> >I'm not sure how well I could explain in words what was happening:
>
> > <http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/ZarlinoTESketch01.mp3>
>
> I'm getting a 'not found' on this one, Margo.
>
> -C.

Hi, there, Carl and Gene, and may I please ask you to try this again:

<http://www.bestII.com/~mschulter/ZarlinoTESketch01.mp3>

What evidently happened is that indeed, as I recalled, I had uploaded
this file in April of last year (see MMM message 9674), but as it
happens to www.microtonal.org rather than to my personal site. Now
it's uploaded to the above address, and I hope this both solves the
problem and makes the music available to you and others.

If you could confirm that the URL now connects to the file -- or
report any possible further problems -- I'd be much appreciative.

Again, thank you for bearing with my mistake.

Peace and love,

Margo

Esoteric terms

🔗microstick@...

🔗Margo Schulter <mschulter@...>

🔗Carl Lumma <ekin@...>

🔗Gene Ward Smith <genewardsmith@...>

🔗Margo Schulter <mschulter@...>

🔗Aaron Krister Johnson <aaron@...>