mavericks/shruti

I have often thought that, if only folks, especially younger kids,
were presented with deeper, heavier, more unusual music, they would have
a chance of liking it in a very natural way...in fact, I totally believe
this would happen. It's finding a way to get them exposed, and
consistently...as we see, the media is totally dedicated to the weakest,
most bland sounding forms of music for the airwaves, and this is not
going to change soon, especially as the media is consolidating more and
more into a few huge conglomerates, controlled by a very few people. As
with microtonal tunings, I have found that once folks even know some
alternatives even exist, half the battle is over. That's why I
constantly keep the subject of alt tunings very much out in the open
with everyone I chat with. I feel that if the folks on this list, and
others like minded, keep up our forward motion on this front, things
will change for the better.
For example, I have tried to play Dan's music for as many folks as
possible over the years, and the response has always been
favorable...what would happen if we were "allowed" to hear Stearns on
the commercial stations, next to, say, Metallica? I personaly think a
lot of folks would be intrigued, and want to check it out..but, it's
that initial exposure that is so difficult.
As far as trying to put Indian intervals into some sort of
theoretical framework, I don't believe it can be done in a nice, neat
way...I bet there's a lot of intuitive tweaking of intervals that
happens in an Indian music performance, just like blues music, and it
will not be possible to nail it down. In fact, one of the most
liberating concepts for me, as I have studied tunings, is realizing that
indeed, Indian, Arabic, and most likely many other musical cultures, are
constantly adjusting the size of intervals, depending on their mood at
the time, etc...so, I don't worry about exact interval sizes, or a
consistent framework, because it most likely is a very fluid situation,
just like when I bend a string playing blues...it doesn't always wind up
in the same spot...Hstick