Having played and taught guitar for most of my life, I've run into this attitude toward the study of theory quite often. I think some guitarists have the feeling that a knowledge of theory is going to interfere with their ability to play. Their concept of playing guitar is to just close one's eyes and "wail". It is possible that something of value can come out of this approach, but, if it does, it is totally accidental. Charlie Parker, when asked how one learns to play jazz, commented, "Master your instrument, master the music, and, then, forget all that s**t and just play." Many guitarists seem to want to do the third without doing the first two. A poet who knows nothing about poetry or language may write a good poem and a room full of monkeys and typewriters may produce Shakespeare, but what's the point?
gary ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Howard Posner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 2:26 PM Subject: [LUTE] Re: Lute Chord Confusion > Whoa, let's all cool it for a moment... > > > I don't know that anyone was trying to be snobby > here, but I suppose I can see where the disconnect > was. A lot of the Europeans on the list assume a > certain level of basic general music theory knowledge. > They are in the right to do so. Sadly, however, for > a lot of guitarists in the US, mastery of even basic > music theory (i.e. terms like "transpose," > "half-step," and "minor third") is considered an > advanced skill and therefore the province of academics > and people who hate "real" music. (Let's leave the > musicologists out of this for now :). Therein the > perceived snobbery in the advice offered from over the > ocean. > > As an example, I had a private guitar student come > to me a while back enthusiastically claiming that he > wanted to know "all there is to know" about music > theory. The guy could already play quite well, knew > his basic chord shapes and could - slowly - figure out > the name of any note on the neck. However, after a > couple of lessons in which he obviously was making no > effort to absorb the theory information, the source of > his frustration came out: "This is a waste of time. I > don't want to memorize notes, scales, and chord > formulas - I want to learn _GUITAR_ music theory!" He > wasn't able to articulate it any more clearly than > that and I never did figure out exactly what it was > that he wanted. I suspect that he was after more > shapes and finger patterns - which I did not show him. > > Ironically, I had him do most of the theory work > on the fingerboard so that he'd be able to make the > head/hands connection. Never made it to that point, > obviously. > > Chris > > > > > --- Howard Posner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On Friday, Jun 15, 2007, at 09:13 > > America/Los_Angeles, Narada wrote: > > > > > I'm forming the opinion that there > > > are certain 'members' on this list who have > > adopted a rather arrogant > > > and elitist attitude towards guitarists for whom > > the lute is a second > > > instrument. > > > > Obviously, you formed such an opinion some time ago, > > and you're > > entitled to it. But please don't tell us you're > > "utterly confused" and > > ask very basic questions, then tell us how offended > > you are when you > > get basic answers that don't acknowledge your > > advanced state of > > knowledge. Unless you're more interested in > > impressing everyone as a > > sage than in actually learning something, you're > > better off with > > answers that tell you too much than answers that > > tell you not enough to > > avoid the danger of making you feel slighted. > > > > HP > > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > > > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > > > > ____________________________________________________________________________ ________ > Park yourself in front of a world of choices in alternative vehicles. Visit the Yahoo! Auto Green Center. > http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center/ > > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.463 / Virus Database: 269.8.16/849 - Release Date: 6/14/2007 12:44 PM > >
